For some collegiate golfers, it might take a couple of years to qualify for the NCAA Regional tournament as an individual.
For UTPB’s Arnie Taguines, it only took her one season.
The freshman from Paranaque City, Philippines will continue her strong rookie season at the collegiate level by competing inthe NCAA Division II Women’s Regional Golf tournament next week.
The tournament will take place from May 8-10 at the Golf Club of Dallas.
Taguines was selected as an individual when the announcement was made earlier this week.
“I feel very excited but at the same time, I also feel a little bit of pressure knowing that I’m the first person from the women’sgolf team to qualify for regionals so I really want to do well,” Taguines said. “I know there’s going to be a lot of great playersout there so I’m going to be pressured to do great but I’m excited because I couldn’t believe I qualified for regionals.”
For Taguines, it’s been a season of awards as she was named the Lone Star Conference’s Freshman of the Year and First TeamAll-LSC after her standout year on the course.
Taguines knows it’s not easy to have a strong freshman season. What makes this season even more special for her is knowingthat her hard work has paid off.
“The preparation that I did in the Philippines in the summer really paid off,” Taguines said. “I didn’t expect to play that wellhere. I wasn’t as confident in my golf game when I came to the United States but I’m happy to play well. I wasn’t happy withhow I played in the spring but I’m still happy to be the freshman of the year and I hope I make it to nationals.”
Tagunies has one win and six top 10 finishes including seventh in the West Texas A&M Fall Invitational, first in the RJGAShootout, fifth in the Trevecca Music City Invite, sixth in the SW Air HPU Shark Shootout, second in the Dennis Rose Invitationaland sixth in the CAV Classic.
She was also named conference Player of the Week back in September.
However, Taguines is well-aware that there’s room for improvement and she had a tough start to the spring portion of theseason where she finished 15thwith a score of 168 at the Cactus Thaw Tournament in El Paso in February.
It was also difficult not getting to go home for the holidays.
“My first tournament during the spring season wasn’t a good start for me,” Taguines said. “Also, I wasn’t feeling confidentafter the Christmas break. I didn’t get as much practice as I wanted because I stayed here and didn’t have a car.
Taguines would get rides from friends and Uber as much as she could. But she wasn’t able to prepare as much for the springas she did for the fall.
Weather conditions weren’t as favorable either for her and her teammates during the spring as they were in the fall.
“That tournament (in El Paso) ruined my confidence a little bit and the conditions of the tournaments during the spring weren’tthe greatest. During the fall, we had great weather. During the spring, all our tournaments were raining badly and we weredealing with a lot of wind.”
Still, Taguines would improve back to where she was in the fall as the spring season progressed.
She eventually got back to finishing first on the team and winning the Freshman of the Year Award, an honor she didn’t evenknow existed.
“I didn’t even know at first that we have these kinds of awards,” Taguines said. “For almost a whole year, I was just playing formyself. I wanted to play well and I was informed that during the conference tournament, there would be these awards and Iwas happy to achieve that award because I’ve been practicing a lot in the Philippines. But now, I feel like my hard work haspaid off. It shows that my dedication has paid off. I didn’t expect to play that well this year.”
She chose UTPB because she liked what head coach Kyle Wittenbach was selling.
“When I spoke with the coach, he was the one that really stood out to me because he has high goals for the team,” Taguinessaid. “He wants his players to turn professional which is what I want to do. Compare that to other coaches who may not haveas much passion as our coach has. I feel like it was more because of how much our coach wants his players to do great.”
Among the things Taguines says she needs to work on as she prepares for not only regionals but also her sophomore seasonis her mental game.
“Sometimes I feel like I still pressure myself too much and I don’t do well with that pressure,” Taguines said. “Also, decision-making and how to play the course and my putting because those are the stuff that prevented me from playing the way Iwanted to. I want to improve the way that I think when I play the game and my putting.”
