(MANHATTAN, Kan.) After a three-week break for preparation, the 38th-ranked Kansas State women’s golf team is ready to compete in the 2026 Big 12 Women’s Golf Championship presented by Allstate, running Thursday through Saturday at the par-72, 6,270-yard Dallas Athletic Club in Dallas, Texas.
The Wildcats aim to build momentum as they head toward what would be their second consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. Competing in one of the nation’s toughest women’s golf conferences, K-State has finished within the top five at the Big 12 Championship in each of the past two seasons—marking the first time in program history they’ve achieved that—including a program-best third-place finish in 2024.
“The team is excited to return to action at the Big 12 Championship,” said third-year head coach Stew Burke, whose squad has recorded four top-three and seven top-five finishes this season, tying for fourth in school history in both categories. “We’ve had plenty of rest and excellent preparation leading up to this event. Good ball-striking and fast greens will be rewarded this week, and fortunately, we have a group that excels in both areas and has put in the work recently. The Dallas Athletic Club will be a tough test, and we’re fortunate to have replicated course conditions at Colbert Hills, plus we practiced at Mission Hills last weekend. We’re ready to compete, and I’m excited to work with the players on our game plan during the practice round.”
Despite sitting inside the top 40 of the National Collegiate Golf Rankings, Kansas State enters as the No. 9 seed in this year’s Big 12 Championship due to the conference’s depth. The top eight seeds are No. 15 UCF, No. 21 Arizona State, No. 22 Oklahoma State, No. 25 Iowa State, No. 26 Baylor, No. 29 Arizona, No. 36 Houston, and No. 37 Kansas. No. 42 TCU and No. 47 Colorado are also in the top 50, while Texas Tech, BYU, and Cincinnati complete the field.
The Wildcats, who currently own a team scoring average of 287.93—the best in school history—will bring six players to Dallas: senior Noa van Beek, sophomores Kelsey Chen and Nanami Nakashima, and freshmen Stalee Fields, Casey Kang, and Keen Visavapattamawan. Five will make up the initial scoring lineup, with the sixth available as a substitute.
Chen, van Beek, and Nakashima each carry a sub-73.00 scoring average this season. Chen, from Dalian, China, leads with a 71.86 average—third-best in program history. She has finished in the top 20 in eight of her 10 starts, including five top-10 showings (four this spring).
Nakashima and van Beek both average 72.41, tying for fourth in school history. Nakashima’s career average of 73.28 over 67 rounds ranks second all-time at K-State, while van Beek’s 73.93 over 110 rounds ranks fourth. This marks van Beek’s fourth Big 12 Championship, where she’ll seek her first career top-20 finish.
Visavapattamawan, from Bangkok, Thailand, ranks fourth on the team with a 73.76 average, having played in all 10 events and been in the scoring lineup for the last nine. She recently earned her fifth top-20 finish of the season with a 15th-place result at the Silicon Valley Showcase.
Kang, from Lanzhou, China, has a 75.71 average over 17 rounds. Her best finish this season was a tie for 16th at the Powercat Invitational in the fall, and her top 54-hole score was 222 last month at the Yale Invitational West.
Fields, a Fort Worth, Texas native, averages 74.80 over 15 rounds. Like Chen, her best finish came at the Powercat Invitational, where she tied for 18th. She aims to rejoin the scoring lineup for the first time since the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in late September.
One round of the 2026 Big 12 Championship presented by Allstate will be played each day, with tee times starting all three rounds. The Wildcats will begin Thursday at 8:50 a.m. from the first tee, paired with Houston and Kansas.
Live results are available on the SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd, and Saturday’s final round will air on ESPN+ with John Liddle (play-by-play) and Lauren Withrow (analyst) calling the action.
