On July 29, former varsity golf player Katherine Sung ’24 was named an NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. The award, which was created in 1991, recognizes excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership of graduating student athletes, according to Dartmouth Sports. Originally from Palo Alto, Calif., Sung majored in economics modified with mathematics and minored in English during her time on campus. During her final season, Sung — a two-time All-Ivy League First Team honoree — captained the Big Green to its first ever Ivy League Championship. The Dartmouth sat down with Sung to discuss the award, her golf career and her post-Dartmouth golf plans.
Tell me about what it means to be nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
KS: I’m super honored to be recognized for the award. Overall, I’m really honored to be able to represent Dartmouth and women’s golf through it, and the fact that the athletics department chose me out of all the awesome female athletes is definitely really cool. I’m still in shock.
Where are you in the nomination process?
KS: I’ve just been nominated. The finalists come out in six to nine months. I think the final winner will be announced in the spring of next year. I’m definitely in the early process of it.
How do you feel, looking back on your golf career at Dartmouth?
KS: It was definitely kind of a bumpy ride, but I’m very happy with the way it ended. Coming into it and not having a team, I definitely didn’t have super high expectations, especially for myself and where I could go. It definitely surpassed any expectations I had. I’ve learned a lot about golf and have grown a lot of love for the sport over the four years. Because golf is a super individual sport, having teammates who know what you’re going through — and who have been there for the highs and the lows — is super awesome.
Also, my coach, Alex Kirk, was super awesome. He and I are the same person mentally, so being able to just talk through problems I was having, or where I was struggling on the course, and get his professional perspective was super helpful to honing my game.
How has your perspective on golf changed over your time at Dartmouth? How is it different from your perspective in high school?
KS: A lot of the time when you’re playing in high school, you’re competing to try to get recruited for a school. It was definitely nice not having that pressure when I was in college, and then really finding where the sport sits in your life. It’s up to you how much you want to commit to it. Dartmouth was really awesome in the sense that we got a good balance of academics, social life and athletics. You could really enjoy other things. It wasn’t like your whole life was taken up by the sport, which I enjoyed.
Now that you have graduated, what role will golf play in your life going forward?
KS: It’s definitely something that I’m still trying to figure out. I think learning how to play golf truly for fun and not competitively is going to be interesting. I’m going to have to make time for it. It was a lot more accessible when I was in school because we had so many resources, could really play whenever we wanted and had a lot of free time. I could see myself later down the line competing at an amateur level.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
