Kan Bunnabodee was ready to pull out a week before the Women’s Porter Cup Golf Championship because of a wrist injury, but just two hours after calling Tournament Director Bryan Oakley she called back to say she’s back in. The final result was Bunnabodee put together a solid three rounds of golf on the Niagara Falls Country Club course to claim the eighth installment of the Women’s Porter Cup.

Bunnabodee is a Chonburi, Thailand native and her final round of a 3-under par 69 on the Lewiston, NY course had her complete the 54 holes with a 4-under par 212, three strokes clear of four golfers tied for second.

Thirty-six-hole leader Monet Chun (Richmond Hill, Ontario), Ashley Chow (Toronto), Chelsea Dantonio (East Aurora, NY), and Sifat Sagoo (West Lafayette, Ind.) shared second place at 1-under par 215. Chun, whose opening 68 on Wednesday was the low round of the week, closed with a 73. Chow carded a 72 while Dantonio, who started the day four shots off the pace, matched Bunnabodee with a 69.

Nicole Abelar (Manilla) and Brigitte Thibault (Rosemere, Quebec) were at 216. Katie Li (Basking Ridge, NJ) finished at 217. Caroline Smith (Inverness, Ill.) was at 218 while Megan Chou (Los Altos, Calif.) was at 220. Defending champion Jackie Rogowicz (Yardley, Pa.) tied for 17th at 224.

Bunnabodee started her day tied with Chow, one shot behind Chun. She stumbled at the start, making bogey at the par-4 first, but that turned out to be the only blemish on her scorecard. She birdied the par-4 second and par-5 third, despite windy conditions, conditions that dried out the course from Thursday’s rains and made a crucial par save at the par-4 sixth after she found a greenside bunker with her approach before holing a 25-foot putt for par.

She went on to birdie the par-4 eighth to make the turn in 2-under par 34 and added a birdie at the short par-5 13th on the way in. By that point, she had a three-shot lead and her place at the top of the leaderboard was never in jeopardy.

Chun had an up-and-down opening nine and turned in 1-over par 37 before bogeying the 12th to fall three shots behind. She bogeyed two of her first three holes and turned at even par for the tournament and birdied the 10th but couldn’t get any closer.

Dantonio bogeyed two of her first three holes but made a charge from there, playing her next 14 holes in six under par before bogeying the finisher.

Bunnabodee came into the Porter Cup just weeks after her collegiate season ended prematurely. She was part of Purdue team that was part of the NCAA Regional at Baton Rouge which was cancelled with a stroke being played.

The golf course played to roughly 6,200 yards with a par of 72. There were 19 sub-par rounds over the course of the week. Bunnabodee, Danotnio, and Sagoo each recorded two.

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