Amy Ihm ready to tee off at NCAA regional for Hawkeyes

Before the women's golf season, Amy Ihm hoped an autumn's worth of extra work might pay big dividends during her final collegiate season.

The Iowa senior continues to reap the benefits.

Ihm will be the first Hawkeye women's golfer since 1990 to compete in an NCAA postseason meet — and just the second to qualify as an individual — when she tees off Thursday at an NCAA regional in Bryan, Texas.

'We sit down at the beginning of the year and we always have goals that we want to reach,' Ihm said. 'This has always been one of my goals for the past four years. Getting to this point, it's really been an incredible experience and I'm just really looking forward to this week.'

The experience is indeed incredible for the former Dubuque Wahlert prep, who walked on at Iowa to follow in the footsteps of older brother Steven, the former Iowa golfer who was on campus for Amy's first two seasons and now competes with PGA Tour Latinoamerica.

'I knew that I'd have to put in a lot of work and I knew that I'd be pretty far behind,' Amy Ihm said. 'But I've been in athletics my whole life and I know what it takes to compete at that level, so I thought if I really put my mind to it, I could do anything.'

Ihm helped herself with a strong start to her final campaign, twice earning Big Ten golfer of the week honors and finished as a second team All-Big Ten selection — Iowa's first since 1998.

At the Big Ten Championships April 24, Ihm set a 54-hole school record by firing a 211 in a fourth-place finish and earned a spot on the All-Big Ten championship team. The performance vaulted her 30 spots in the national rankings, which proved just enough to warrant selection for Thursday's regional.

'It's a great opportunity this week and I think her season just caught a lot of momentum,' Iowa Coach Megan Menzel said. 'She got off to a great start last fall, came in and looked pretty determined to make this happen. I think for her team and for herself, it's really been exciting to watch her get better and better.'

One of 24 players selected from schools that did not qualify for the regional as a team, Ihm will be vying for a shot at the NCAA tournament, which is May 20-25 in Eugene, Ore. One of just two seniors on the Iowa team, Ihm's ascension has put a charge into the program as an example of what can be achieved.

'It just reminds us that there is life after the Big Tens,' Menzel said. 'You can talk about it as coaches and be motivated, but when a player goes out and gets it done, then I think everyone gets very, very excited about it.'

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