Portland State's Krissy Peterson had quite a first year as a Viking.     

The transfer from Oregon State, who is the 2016-17 recipient of the Emery Zimmerman Endowed Golf Scholarship, earned a place on the All-Big Sky Conference's first team, was named to the All-Big Sky Tournament team after going one over par for a fifth-place Big Sky tournament tie and had All-Big Sky academic honors.     

Still, all that was just preliminary to the highlight of her year, and the highlight so far of Peterson's young golfing career.     

In June, Peterson knocked off defending champion Gigi Stoll in the championship match of the Oregon Women's Amateur Championship at Black Butte Ranch. The Viking senior drilled a five-foot putt on the 36th hole of match to win 1-up and become the first Viking ever to win the prestigious title.     

At the beginning of last season, Peterson's goal was to get better overall…"my short game and the mental game…and to be a good teammate…to help Coach Downs progress the program," she said.     

To improve the short game, she said, "you just putt a lot and hit different short shots a lot…and you do that all the time. Then, you train for each specific course you're going to play."       

Viking Golf Coach Kailin Downs said Peterson "was definitely our leader last year in scoring and statistics."

Last season, Peterson was the Vikings' leading scorer with a 75.3 stroke average over the season.  That was the fourth-best for a season in Viking history.  She was the team's leading scorer in six of the eleven tournaments.     

"I had a good fall, but spring began a little rough." Peterson said. "I don't think I started as strong mentally, but I got more confident with each tournament and by the end of the spring, I was playing pretty well."    

Peterson lists as season highlights the Grand Canyon University Tournament, where she placed third, and the Big Sky Tournament in Las Vegas, where she placed fifth. Both were in the second half of the season, and that upward trajectory served her well as she headed into the summer.      

The Oregon Women's Amateur was at the Black Butte Ranch Course outside of Sisters, OR. It was her first tournament since the collegiate season ended. She hadn't played the course before, but was able to get it down with some rounds ahead of match play.     

Peterson had a bye the first round (and she's not sure whether that helps or hurts). In the second round, "I was a little slow out of the gate, but I was able to play my way back into competition."  Sticking to her hole-by-hole game plan, she stayed within striking distance throughout the final round.     

In the final round," I knew I was down after 15, but I was feeling really confident. At the end of the 15th hole, I was saying to myself 'you can do it; you can do it'." And she did, shooting two-under par for the match and winning on the final hole.      

Over the summer, Peterson will continue working on ball striking and accuracy "while keeping up with my short game. I want to make my stroke really consistent." Her goal next year is to win a couple of tournaments during the collegiate fall and spring seasons and to "get a little better being a senior. This coming year, I want to really help the team. I'll be a senior and the team will be pretty young. We have a lot of new, exciting players and we'll see what we can do," she said.          

Downs has been pleased with Peterson's progress.      

"She's working on her putting. She expects a lot of herself and particularly when she isn't putting well, she gets impatient with herself. She gets down on herself. She needs to be more patient. Having said that, I watched her in the Oregon Amateur this summer and she was very patient."      

Academically, Peterson is majoring in Community Health Education, is on track to graduate at the end of next season and is interested in epidemiology and working on the policy side of health care management.     

As to next year, Downs said she expects "more of the same. She'll be one of my best players. I think she'll be a first team all-conference player again. Outside of golf, I expect her to be a leader as a senior."

PETERSON FEATURED IN THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE - July 15, 2016