Charlotte 49er Pinky Chaisilprungruang Reaches The Gold Standard As One Of The Top Players In The World
Pinky Chaisilprungruang of Charlotte Women’s Golf has been named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, announced by the league office on Tuesday (Apr. 22). Chaisilprungruang and Jette Schulze were also tabbed to the AAC All-Conference Team. UCF’s Ashley Holder is the only other player in AAC history to win both awards.
Chaisilprungruang, ranks as the best individual golfer in the conference at 46th in the national D1 Player Rankings. She has collected three AAC Golfer of the Week awards and was named AAC Golfer of the Month for September. She has finished in the top 10 in every event this season including six top five finishes. Her 203 (-13) at the Daniel Island Invitational set a program record for 54 holes and tied the school’s single-round low score with a 66. She currently boasts the best single-season stroke average in program history at 71.07. She shot under or even par in 20 of the 29 rounds.
“At Charlotte, we talk about the Gold Standard and what that looks like, and this is it,” said Head Coach Ryan Ashburn. “For Pinky to win Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year is truly remarkable and we all are so proud of her. During the recruiting process, she spoke about her goals and what she wanted the next four years to look like. She has already surpassed them by not only winning these two awards, but she currently holds the lowest season stroke average for Charlotte Women’s Golf and is now one of the top 100 players in the world. Pinky has truly inspired this team. She shows up every day with a smile on her face and she is our team’s biggest fan. We always say we never know what she is about to say but whatever it is we know she will make us all laugh and that is probably the best thing about Pinky!”
Joining Chaisilprungruang on the all-conference team was Jette Schulze who finished runner-up at the AAC Championship to Tulsa’s Romaine Masserey. Schulze shot a 210 (-6) for her best three-round performance of the season. She finished the season with a 73.52 stroke average, the best in a single season in her career to go along with three top 10 finishes.
“I think Jette and Pinky have done a great job pushing each other this year,” said Ashburn. “They both are competitive, work hard and bring the best out in each other. They each had a great performance at the AAC Championship with Jette finishing runner up and Pinky tied for third. Overall, they both had very solid years with a great impact on our team’s performance!”