WKU heads to region looking to build off recent success
Published 9:45 am Thursday, April 30, 2026
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Western Kentucky Women’s Golf Head Coach Adam Gary talks to his team during a NCAA Selection Show watch party at Diddle Arena on Wednesday afternoon, April 29, 2026, for the announcement that WKU will compete in the Simpsonville Regional tournament at the University of Louisville Golf Club May 11-13. (GRACE McDOWELL/The Daily News
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Western Kentucky Women’s Golf senior Sydney Hackett (left) and freshman Reagan Ramage (right) speak after a NCAA Selection Show watch party at Diddle Arena on Wednesday afternoon, April 29, 2026, when it was announced WKU will compete in the Simpsonville Regional tournament at the University of Louisville Golf Club May 11-13. (GRACE McDOWELL/The Daily News)
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The Western Kentucky Women’s Golf team cheer as its announced at a NCAA Selection Show watch party at Diddle Arena on Wednesday afternoon, April 29, 2026, that WKU Women’s Golf will compete in the Simpsonville Regional tournament at the University of Louisville Golf Club May 11-13. (GRACE McDOWELL/The Daily News
The Western Kentucky women’s golf team is heading back to the NCAA Regional and once again WKU won’t have to leave the state to compete.
WKU was one of 12 teams selected for the Simpsonville Region on Wednesday, heading to the University of Louisville Golf Club. The region runs from May 11-13.
The three-day, 54-hole regional features 12 teams (in order of seed): Arkansas, Auburn, Iowa State, Ole Miss, Houston, Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Indiana, College of Charleston, Xavier, WKU and Murray State. Six individuals will also compete. The top five teams – and top individual on a non-advancing team – from each of the six regionals will advance to the NCAA Golf Championships in Carlsbad, California, May 22-27.
“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” senior Sydney Hackett said. “We played Louisville’s event last year in the fall. Some of us are pretty familiar with the track. Our (graduate assistant) Emily (McLatchey) played it when she was at Marshall too. All of us were pretty comfortable with it. It should be good. We practiced there quite a bit for Purdue. We’ve all seen it a little bit at least.”
WKU punched its ticket by winning a second straight Conference USA title. WKU became the first team to repeat as CUSA champions since North Texas in 2022-23, going wire to wire and winning by seven strokes.
“That’s a tough thing to do and I think that is a testament to the girls,” WKU coach Adam Gary said. “They kind of expected more from themselves this year. They see themselves worthy of being there since they’ve done it before. That experience of winning last year really helped and paid off because throughout my coaching career we’ve been to a lot of conference championships where the leading teams maybe fall off the last day, but this team just dug in.”
Gary added a tougher schedule played a part in the repeat conference win.
“We played a lot tougher schedule this year, playing a lot of (Power 4) schools,” Gary said. “The scheduling was really tough and even before conference I was almost doubting it a little bit because I thought maybe I made it too tough and it kind of hurt the confidence a little bit. My goal was that it was going to be easier than it was in the spring. We played a really hard schedule to where conference would feel maybe easier. I do think scheduling helped out and I think going into region they are not going to be intimidated by the top teams because we’ve seen a lot of them throughout the course of the season already.”
Freshman Reagan Ramage was the CUSA individual champion, WKU’s third individual champion in the last four years. She joined Hackett, who won in 2025 and Catie Craig, who won in 2023. Paired with New Mexico State’s Emma Bunch, an individual qualifier heading to the Stanford Region, Ramage carded a final day 7-under 65 to claim the title.
Ramage, who will play in USGA four ball this weekend, called it the coolest day of her life.
“I haven’t made a lot of birdies this season, so when they kind of started falling I was thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’m playing pretty good today,’ ” Ramage said. “I had to repeat to myself that day over and over that the next shot was all that mattered and I’ve got to be present in the moment. To hit the next shot and then go from there.”
WKU is riding momentum that it hopes can carry over to the region. Hackett said the experience of competing last year is something that should benefit the team this year.
“I think last year since it was the first we were all like, ‘Wow, this is really cool,’ ” Hackett said. “It is just another tournament. Those big teams, they are also just golfers. Golf is an insane sport. Anything can happen. They can play great. They can play bad. Same with us. Just remember that it is a normal tournament. We don’t have to do anything special. We just have to play like we know we can.”
One thing that will change this year is the preparation leading up to the event. Last year WKU held more team practices, but Gary said this year they will lean more on individual practices.
“I’m going to leave it up to them,” Gary said. “I think they know what to work on and they are going to stay the course on what we have done throughout the semester so far. They know what to do and we are just here to supplement that.”
And Hackett said the goal is simple, advance to the NCAA Golf Championships.
“I know if we just put together some good days that we are good enough to get top five at regionals,” Hackett said. “We all know that deep down. I think our mindset this year is a lot better going into regionals than it was in Lexington. Obviously we wanted to play well last year, but I think all of us are just super determined this year.”
