The Iowa State Cyclones women’s golf team takes on its first event of the 2026 calendar year at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, for the Purdue Puerto Rico Classic.
The Grand Reserve Golf Club lies just under 20 miles from downtown San Juan and sits just off the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
The course is approximately 7,468 yards long and has a par of 72. The shortest hole is the par-3 sixth hole at 203 yards and the longest hole is the par-5 second hole that goes 547 yards out.
This is just the second season that Iowa State has been a part of the Puerto Rico Classic. Before 2024, the Cyclones would typically start their Spring season in Orlando at the UCF Challenge.
Alongside Iowa State will be the host Purdue, Ole Miss, Northwestern, Louisiana State, Minnesota, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgia Southern, Arkansas, Furman, Iowa, North Texas, Michigan State, NC Wilmington, Michigan, North Florida and Kansas State.
In 2025, the Cyclones finished 11th in Puerto Rico, going 296-291-295 on total strokes, which correlated to +8, +7 and +3 over par.
Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn, from Chanbur, Thailand, led the Cyclones on individual stats at the Grand Reserve last season, going 73-71-71 and the only Cyclone under par, with a score of -1. Chul-Ak-Sorn is a senior this season and will try to improve on her score from 2025.
The tournament on the islands in the Pacific comes after their winter offseason break. The Cyclones’ last event was the Stanford Intercollegiate in Palo Alto, California to close October.
The Cyclones finished the event with their worst result of the autumn season, going ninth out of 19 teams, tying with the University of Texas. Across the event, they went +3, even and +8 on 863 strokes.
Senior Pammy Chookaew from Pathum Thani, Thailand, led the Cyclones in the bay, going even after starting her first two rounds -3 and -2, but unfortunately, closing round three +5.
The rest of the Cyclones’ autumn season was highly successful, finishing third in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and an individual tournament win for Chookaew, as well as fourth in both the Schooner Classic in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Windy City Classic in Chicago, Illinois.
Iowa State’s spring season was its best for the 2024-25 season, with two team wins across the five events. Those wins came at the Bama Beach Bash in Gulf Shore, Alabama, going +13 over par as a team, as well as in the Cowgirl Classic in Maricopa, Arizona, where the Cyclones closed out a victory over UNLV and others at +3 over par.
The weather in Rio Grande will be relatively nice with temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s for the event. Still, there is a forecast of possible rain across all three days, meaning delays could happen during the tournament.
The event will go from Sunday to Tuesday, and 54 total holes will be played in Rio Grande.
