Chookaew Outduels Teammate Marx in Playoff to Win Iowa Women’s Amateur

Pimkwan Chookaew (above) said she just wanted to have fun on Wednesday. Easier said than done. 

The Iowa State senior-to-be took a three-shot lead into the final round of the 101st Women’s State Amateur at the Wakonda Club. 

“I was really nervous,” Chookaew said. “I was worrying a lot. I felt a lot of pressure.” 

Her Iowa State teammate, Keeley Marx, was responsible for a lot of that pressure. Marx took the lead on the back nine, Chookaew drew even on the 17th hole and then prevailed on the second hole of their sudden-death playoff after Marx lipped out a four-foot par putt on the 16th green. 

Chookaew was a wire-to-wire winner, showing that she beat those nerves as well as a quality field. The champion broke par all three days, shooting a 1-under-par 71 Wednesday to go with previous rounds of 69 and 70. 

Marx, the runner-up for a second straight year, shot a final-round 68 that matched the lowest score of the championship. 

“She was really fighting,” Chookaew said of Marx. “It was amazing to play with her. I had never played with her in a tournament before. The way she performed made me so proud of her.” 

On Tuesday, Iowa State Coach Christie Martens predicted a victory by Chookaew would give her a lot of momentum heading into the fall season. Pimkwan also reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s Western Amateur this summer, and looks poised for a strong final season at Iowa State. 

Her victory included a nice little bonus – an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She just missed qualifying for this year’s championship and settled for alternate status. Just one more reason why Chookaew was still excited after the trophy presentation. 

“My heart is still beating right now,” said the new champion. 

Chookaew becomes the fourth Iowa State player in the last six years to win Iowa’s prestigious title. Joy Chou won in 2020 and 2021, and her sister, Rudy, took top honors in 2022. 

Shannyn Vogler, who was trying to become the third straight University of Iowa golfer to win the title, shot a final-round 71 and was third, three shots back. Vogler was a runner-up to Drake’s Erika Holmberg in this year’s IGA Women’s Match Play Championship. 

Nichakorn Pinprayoon made it three Cyclones in the top four after a final-round 69 put her at 215. Maura Peters of Iowa was fifth, shooting a closing 72 for a 220 total. Peters had 10 birdies over the final two rounds.

Chloe Bolte of Sumner also had an impressive showing, closing with an even-par 72 to place sixth at 221.Bolte became the third golfer in Iowa history to win four straight state high school individual championships this June, joining Sharon Fladoos of Dubuque and Jessie Sindlinger of Charles City. She will be a freshman at Missouri State this fall, playing for Iowa native Kevin Kane. 

Tish Boothe (right) of Des Moines was the wire-to-wire in the Open Division of the championship. Boothe, who shot 75-77-75, finished six shots in front of runner-up Julie Buerman of Cedar Rapids (75-79-79). 

Wakonda, traditionally regarded as one of Iowa’s most challenging layouts, hosted the State Women’s Amateur for the first time in 36 years, and the fifth time overall. The first two championships, won by Elizabeth Curtis of Clinton in 1926 and Phyllis Otto in 1940, were contested in match play. 

The three medal-play events over Wakonda’s rolling hills show how much the women’s game has improved. 

Corkey Nydle, a women’s golf pioneer in Iowa and a member of the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame, won the 1965 title.Then a 72-hole event, Nydle averaged 83.2 strokes a round and broke 80 just once, a third-round 78 that erased a seven-shot deficit. 

The championship returned in 1989 and Ann Vandermillen of Dubuque won with a 54-hole score of 235 (79-77-79). The tournament’s low round was a 75. 

This year’s tournament, dominated by college players, shows the game has improved leaps and bounds. There were 12 subpar rounds posted in the three days of competition – two on Monday, six on Tuesday and four on Wednesday. This year, the top 13 players finished with scores better than Vandermillen posted in her 1989 win at Wakonda. This year’s top four finishers completed the championship under par. 

Chookaew, who didn’t have her first bogey of the championship until the 27th hole, had just four of them over the 54-hole competition. But one of them came on the first hole Wednesday. A birdie followed, then came another bogey. But another birdie at No. 4 got her back to even par for the day, and she was a picture of consistency the rest of the way. She had 13 pars and a birdie the rest of the way. 

After playing Wakonda’s four par-5 holes in 6 under par over the first two rounds, she played them even par Wednesday. 

“I didn’t make a lot of birdies,” she said. “I didn’t go deep under par. But I was still under par. As my coach (Martens) told me, “You played great today.”

Marx made a serious charge with five birdies in a nine-hole stretch starting at No. 7. That last birdie in that string, at the par-5 15th, gave her a one-shot lead over Chookaew. 

But that lead evaporated when Marx didn’t get up-and-down to save par at the par-3 17th. Both players parred the final hole of regulation, and the playoff returned to 18. Both parred again. The day ended on the 16th green when Marx lipped out a four-foot par putt. 

Chookaew had survived nerves, and a tremendous charge by her teammate, to get her name on the Fladoos Trophy. 

“It was a great learning experience,” Pimkwan said. “Hopefully I’ll be better at handling it next time.”

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