Better and Better, and Possibly the Best
Torres makinig run at Rams' top scoring season
Mike Brohard
As a coach, you wonder.
On the recruiting trail, they can spot talent. Figuring out where it sits on the timeline of the potential student-athlete is the tricky part. Has the ceiling been hit? Will they still be passionate about the sport two years, four years from now, or ready to move on with life?
Laura Cilek never flinched, not when it came to Sofia Torres.
“You could tell she really still enjoyed it and was playing for the right reasons. She loved the game, and when she’d get done, she’d go work on the range or on the putting green,” the CSU women’s golf coach said. “It was all self-motivated. It wasn’t pressure from her family; you could tell she really loved the game and wanted to be good. It’s her personality, too. She’s a nice person, her family is supportive. You could tell she was going to have the ability to keep getting better and be happy for four years in college, because there is a rate of burnout for kids.”
It was her grandmother, Nubia, who began the path. Had her son, Juan Carlos, on the course. He, in turn, had his daughter’s with clubs in their hands. You can still find them all there at times, even grandma, who is in her 80s. She may not be able to make it a full 18 these days, but she still gets out to hit.
“It’s really impressive. She’s the reason why I play golf and my dad plays golf. My whole family plays golf because of her,” Sofia said. “At my course, they had a junior golf academy going on, so my dad signed me up with my sister. We had that in the morning, then we’d go play with my dad, my mom and my grandmother.”
Sofia doesn’t really know burnout. She hit a plateau at one point, heading into her senior year when the idea of drawing interest from a college and making a choice had her in a momentary swoon. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the sport, it was just the stress at the time. When she made the choice to come to Fort Collins, her game started to improve again.
Three years later, it still is on an upswing. And Torres is still smiling, the Columbian’s dimples on full display daily. Across campus. Heading to the course. During a round. She’s in a good place, and Cilek is smiling along with her for good reason.
She entered school during a pandemic and thus was sent home early. She was in a new country, trying to master a new language and make friends, and her golf classmate, Panchalika Arphamongkol was in the same situation, so they did it all together. They even tried to teach each other their native language. And when they returned, along with Arphamongkol’s little sister, Pemika, they all felt like freshmen again.
Each and every year, Torres has raised the level of her play. At first, it was bit-by-bit. She averaged 76.71 strokes per round as a freshman. She nearly shaved a stroke off that as a sophomore. In this, her junior year, she’s on a record-setting pace.
As the Rams begin play in the Mountain West Championships on Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Torres is on pace to set the single-season record for stroke average, sitting at 73.0; the record currently standing at 73.68 by Katrina Prendergast in 2017-18.
A record she had no clue about. Or the fact her five top-10 finishes are the second most in a single season by a player. Or that she was just the 10th Ram to win a tournament when she accomplished the feat at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational.
Her season has been phenomenal in the record book, but the only place which registered to her personally was internally. She’s in a good spot. A place she’s been striving to reach
“It’s kind of like a dream. Everything has happened so fast, and I’m happy how I’m playing,” Sofia said. “Just seeing the progress is awesome. My parents were with me at the last tournament in Tennessee, and I was telling my mom, this in insane. My freshman year, we played the same tournament, and we flew from Nashville to Denver, and I remember I played so badly. I remember I called my mom, and I was crying and so upset and frustrated. I told my mom I was homesick, I feel alone, I miss you and I’m playing bad. I was in a really bad place.
“Then I had this great tournament, and I told my mom, same tournament, same course, completely different situation. I told my mom I’d love to talk to that Sofia from my freshman year and tell her it’s going to be fine. You’re going to play great golf. You’re going to have fun.”
This is what Cilek banked on all those years ago in recruiting.
Now I just want to go out and make a lot of birdies and score lower and lower. It’s a huge difference.Sofia Torres
Passion will wane at times, but as a coach you hope the period is short for the athlete. Cilek isn’t sure it ever really has for Sofia. There will be ups and downs, and the key is how they react to them. Sofia’s normal response has been more work. What the coach witnessed all those years ago was a player on the course still holds true. It was an activity which brought the family together, so it’s always tied to fond memories. It was Sofia’s drive, not somebody else’s.
“She’s been competing to win tournaments all year. She’s really doing special things here,” Cilek said. “She’s one of those people who quietly goes about her work and is always willing to listen. She has fun and she loves it. It brings her joy which is something you don’t see all the time.
“It’s never like we need you to practice harder. She’s always out there on her own. She has a great swing coach who she’s been with for a long time, and she and him have a good relationship and they work hard together. Her parents are supportive and pump her up with confidence, which is so important. She knows they love her regardless of her golf score.”
This season has been a constant build for Sofia, not just in her results but mentally. Playing well wasn’t new to her, but she has developed a new reaction. It used to be when she’d get a few strokes under par, her goal was to hang on to that score for dear life. No longer. Now when she’s going well, she wants to take it further.
It has made her a more aggressive player on the course, and from the perspective of teammate Andrea Bergstdottir, the view from the front row has been amazing.
“A lot of it is she’s more comfortable both in her golf game and herself. She knows she’s good and she’s developing a more relaxed feeling outside and on the golf course, so she’s handling situations a lot better, like pressure,” Bergsdottir said. “When she plays badly, she can come back again. She has a lot of responsibility on the course and growing in that aspect has improved a lot in her three years here.
“I’ve enjoyed watching it. You can also tell off the course she’s more confident in herself, speaking up to the team and giving us her opinion. I think that’s helped her golf game as well.”
For Sofia, it may be her biggest breakthrough of the season.
If the putter isn’t working, a player goes to the green. A fix for the short game can be found through work. Same with length and accuracy off a tee box. Grind, then grind some more. But getting into one’s own head isn’t as easy to navigate.
Earlier this year at the tournament the Rams’ hosted, she was playing some strong rounds and her internal voice was telling her not to mess it up. She had worked with a mental coach earlier in her life, and recalling those messages led to a shift. Then she started thinking if she was 2-under, 4-under was possible.
“Probably mentally I’m more tough. I just want to go out and compete with everyone and I want to beat anyone,” she said. “I have more fun out there. My first years, I was really scared trying to protect my score a lot. I was scared of making big numbers and big mistakes. Now I just want to go out and make a lot of birdies and score lower and lower. It’s a huge difference.”
Sofia recorded a round of 67 at the Bama Beach Bash this season, the best by a Ram this campaign, which ranks third in program history. She also has posted a 69 four times, among her 11 rounds of par or better on the season – she had just nine her first two combined. It led her to sign two of the top 10 tournament cards in program history. To top it off, she’s entered into the national rankings for the first time in her career, sitting 204 by Golf Week, 226 by Golfstat.
Again, to all of it she’s oblivious. But hearing about the numbers, the dimples come out. As they should. It’s a product of her bottom line -- the team. Because this season feels different to her on so many levels.
As she attacks the record book, so too is Bergsdottir. Her stroke average of 73.52 ranks second all time, and the two of them are both in the top four in program history in career stroke average, Bergsdottir at 74.91, Sofia at 75.09. Factor in Panchalika is at 74.00 for the season, the Rams head to the conference showdown with a greater since of hope.
“We just want to have a good tournament. I don’t play with expectations for a tournament, but I think we all want to win conference and make it to regionals,” Sofia said. “We have played the course before, which helps. And we’re all so close, like a family, so we want to win together again. We’ve had that feeling since Hawaii. That was a great feeling.”
Part of that confidence is based on what Sofia has been able to do this year more consistently. The game is designed to humble players from time to time, which has been the case for her this season. What she hasn’t done is stay down for long. Her worst placing in a tournament this season was immediately followed by her first collegiate victory.
Just as her game has grown, so has her stature on the team. That smile lightens the mood, but she’s also more willing to speak out, to provide some encouragement to others. Nothing is more uplifting than knowing your teammate is going to be there for the team in the clutch.
“I think she’s a leader in that she’s consistent. They know Sofia is going to show up,” Cilek said. “She’s probably counted in 90 percent of the rounds she’s played in, and they know she’s going to be there and she’s consistent. She brings the same attitude in her personality. Consistency in those areas are really big as a teammate. If you’re up and down every day, no one knows what you’re going to be bringing. She’s consistent and she cares. In golf if you go out and do your thing and handle your business, that’s the best way to support your teammates and she does that every week.”
Burn out? Not a chance. There’s no fading away, either, not with the way she’s been playing.
No golfer is ever sure of what the next round will hold, how it will play out. But the balance she feels is comforting. School is going well. Her family is good, and each day out on the course she is surrounded by the people she wants to be with on the road and at home. No sense in guessing what’s next because it will just happen.
“I just want to keep it going,” she said. “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Of that, Cilek is as sure as anything.