Kansas golfer Lauren Clark estimates that she’s played well over 500 rounds in her life at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando.
During one year, back in high school, she played the course more than 200 times in 12 months.
“There’s no other course that has as many memories for me,” Clark recently told R1S1 Sports of the 18-hole, par-73 course in the heart of central Florida.
Now, after her most recent trip to her home course in early February, there’s also no other venue that can provide the exact memory that Clark collected that day — her first college win.
With coach Lindsay Kuhle’s Jayhawks looking for their fifth consecutive team win at the PDI Intercollegiate the first week of February, Clark knew she had to do her part to keep the train rolling.
“El fuego,” was how she described the way her team has been playing throughout the fall and spring seasons.
And while the Jayhawks finished a respectable sixth place at the event, it was Clark’s accomplishment that stole the headlines. Not only did she pick up her first college tournament victory, she also set KU’s 54-hole record in the process at 15-under. A few weeks after that, she broke her own record by shooting 17-under to win the individual title at the Wisconsin Westbrook Invitational, where the Jayhawks also defended their team title from 2024.
The back-to-back wins earned Clark the Big 12 Golfer of the Month Award for February, making her just the third KU women's golfer to earn that honor.
So, when Kansas tees it up at the 54-hole Yale Invitational West on Monday and Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California, Clark will be going for third consecutive tourney title.
If she gets it, she’ll become just the third Jayhawk to achieve the feat in program history, joining Holly Reynolds, who won 4 straight during the 1992-93 season and Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, who won 3 in a row back in 2015-16.
We’ll certainly keep an eye on Clark in California, but, before we move too far beyond the initial leg of her recent feat, let’s go back to her home course in Orlando.
While most would think that there’s a significant advantage to playing at home, Clark said it’s just the opposite.
“There’s a curse of playing at home,” she said. “It’s way harder. Because you should know what to do and there’s all those expectations.”
The Chesterfield, Virginia native, who moved to Florida when she was 12, said there’s more to it than intimate knowledge of the course’s layout and playing conditions, too.
“I had crowds,” she added. “Cart guys were driving up hand-signing, ‘How many are you under?’ Every mistake is magnified and every birdie is minimized because you should do it.”
And she did, recording 16 birdies and just one bogey — all the rest were pars — during her magnificent three rounds at the PDI Intercollegiate.
That included a 6-under-par 66 in Round 1, a 5-under 67 in Round 2 and a 4-under 68 in Round 3, when she recorded her lone bogey of the event on the par-4 14th.
Images of Kansas senior Lauren Clark during a couple of recent rounds with the Jayhawks. [Kansas Athletics photos]
Clark’s total score of 201 — a record that stood for all of three weeks before she broke it again at Westbrook with a 199 — delivered the trophy by five strokes. And she credits her experience on the course and the current shape of her game for allowing her to cruise around with such ease.
Specifically, she pointed to a game she used to play with her hometown coach, informally called “Worst Case Scenario,” as the biggest reason things went so well last month.
“I’ve been in every situation on that golf course,” Clark said. “I’ve been in the best of spots and I’ve been in the worst of spots, and I know how to make par or birdie from anywhere.”
By nature, the Worst Case Scenario game was designed to force her to play from all of the terrible positions the course had to offer. Behind trees. Needing to hit huge slices to land on the green. In thick rough. And more.
While she didn’t find too many of those situations during her recent tournament appearance, the mere fact
“I knew that I couldn’t be in a worse spot than what I’ve practiced,” she said. “So, I just kept telling myself, ‘If I’m in the middle of the fairway, I should be fine.’”
Fine she was.
Of course, tucked in the back of her mind, after her opening-round 66, was the fact that she had been in that position before as a sophomore.
That year, she shot a 67 in the opening round and then faded the next two days. A year later, at the same event on the same course, she turned in three rounds that she’d rather forget.
So, the 66, while solid, was not exactly an indicator that she’d be holding the trophy two days later. In fact, her first-round 66 wasn’t even leading after Day 1.
“I honestly thought the 66 would be leading,” she said. “And then I saw a 65 come in and I thought, ‘OK. It’s gonna be a fight. I’ve gotta string a couple of these together.’”
She did exactly that and said she never really felt the nerves creep in throughout the next two rounds, which featured a fog delay between the end of Round 2 and the start of Round 3.
Even that didn’t faze her, and she opened Round 3 with a birdie-birdie start.
“After that, it was kind of like, ‘Come catch me,’” Clark recalled with a laugh. “That’s the most cocky I’ve ever been on the golf course. I’m not that way ever.”
Playing at home surely had something to do with that, right?
“It was just… I was hitting it well,” she said matter-of-factly. “I was on my game and I knew the course.”
By the end of the third round, Clark didn’t know exactly where she stood but felt pretty good about her chances of winning it. Even still, she asked her coach to walk in with her on 17 and 18 to keep her grounded.
“I saw her on 17, hit a good shot there and I said, ‘Hey coach, just walk with me,’” Clark recalled. “Like, I didn’t feel nervous, but I thought I should’ve been. So, I just asked her to walk with me to make sure I slow down. I kind of knew coming down the back nine that as long as I kept doing my thing, somebody was gonna have to play amazing golf to tie me.”
It didn’t happen, Clark won by five strokes and her teammates doused her with water to kick off yet another KU golf celebration.
That was the only time all week that Clark was in a foul mood. Not because of the celebratory bath, though.
“I was very upset with my teammates for that,” Clark joked. After (Lily Hirst’s win one tournament earlier), we picked warm water. For mine, they got the coldest water straight out of the cooler and I was not very happy with them for that. Ice cold.”
Even her own parents didn’t cheer quite that hard. There’s a reason for that, though, too.
See, back in high school at one event, on the mile-gap between holes No. 7 and 8, Clark’s mom was trying to catch up to her and saw her daughter chip in for birdie as she reached the top of a hill.
She instinctively screamed to celebrate, but stood in just the right spot on the course to create a bit of an echo chamber and the cheer was heard across the course.
“My parents are so scared to cheer because of that,” Clark said, laughing. “Since then, I don’t think she’s ever really cheered.”
Not even after the recent win at home?
“Nope. Just a little golf clap,” Clark said.
While proper etiquette won out in the moment, Clark’s dad found a different way to celebrate the next day.
Because she knew she would just wind up bringing the trophy back home with her when she was done at KU, Clark, a senior, decided to leave it with her dad after the tournament.
“The next time I saw it, he had FaceTimed me the morning after and he had placed like a cup behind it,” Clark explained. “So, I’m on FaceTime looking at the trophy and he’s trying to make it look like he’s pouring milk and cereal into it when he’s really pouring it into the cup behind it. I was just like, ‘That’s fine. Just clean it out when you’re done.’”
It’s that kind of vibe, which is present throughout the team, that has led to such a strong season for the Jayhawks, both as a team and as individuals.
And while confidence and comfort with their game has played a big role in reaching that point, so, too, has the competition among the team.
“We definitely get competitive,” Clark said. “We hate losing to each other. So, we’re competitive, but we’re all doing what we need to do to help the team the most. Beating each other’s just a bonus.
“We all know the best way to take care of the team is to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help our individual games.”
Winning two individual titles in a row certainly takes care of that, and now, with just two tournaments remaining before the start of postseason play — this week and March 28-30 in Phoenix — the Jayhawks are really starting to dial in on making a memorable run in April and May.
For Clark, that means fine-tuning what’s been working and staying sharp with the mental side of the game.
“I’m getting close to the best golf I’ve ever played,” she acknowledged. “But you always hope that the best golf you play will be the next round.”
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