The Portland State golf team wrapped up its season last week at the Big Sky Conference Championship, placing eighth among the league's teams. It was a step forward from last year's 11^th-place finish.
 
The Vikings improved season-over-season scoring by 3.4 strokes per round, or better than 10 strokes per 54-hole tournament. That was a big improvement for 2022-23 over 2021-22, particularly considering the absence of one of the team's top scorers over the spring portion of the season.
 
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

• Second-year Head Coach Bill Winter added four new players to the program, transfers Tya Seth and Tannica Porter and freshmen Payten Shimizu and Bayler Brundage to two returners, junior Mariana Garcia Rosette and sophomore Mari Nakamura.
• The Vikings had a 307.4 scoring average for the year, with a season-low of 294 and a tournament-low of 900. That bettered last season's numbers of 310.8/300/918.
• Portland State had a pair of top-five finishes in the fall, at the Hobble Creek Fall Classic and the Eagle Invitational, shooting sub-300 scores on three occasions.
• Senior Tya Seth placed fourth at the Hobble Creek Fall Classic (219) and second at the Eagle Invitational (216… she had rounds of 69 and 68 in those tournaments, respectively…. Seth had a 75.33 scoring average for the season, and earned third-team All-Big Sky Conference honors.
• Sophomore Tannica Porter posted the best scoring average overall at 75.00, but was unable to compete in any stroke-play tournaments in the spring due to an injury. Her best tournament was a three-over par 219 at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational and she had three top-15s in four fall events.
• Returners Mariana Garcia Rosette and Mari Nakamura each showed big improvement in 2022-23 over the previous year. Garcia Rosette had a 77.83 scoring average, 1.46 strokes per round (4.38 per tournament) better than 2021-22. Nakamura had an 80.00 scoring average, a 1.66 strokes per round (4.98 per tournament) improvement over 2021-22.
• Freshman Payten Shimizu led the Vikings in scoring at the Big Sky Championship with 77-74-70=221 to tie for 13^th overall. Shimizu set a single-round best (by four strokes) and a tournament-best (by 12 strokes!) in her first season at PSU.
• Academically, the Viking golf team led the entire PSU Athletics Department with a 3.96 grade point average over winter term. The team has a cumulative 3.87 GPA and all six members stand to earn Academic All-Big Sky Conference honors when released later this year.
• Winter has signed two student-athletes for the 2023-24 academic year. They are Momo Udom, an All-Metro League golfer from Portland's Westview High School; and Cynthia Ong from Indonesia.