Chen Has Trust in Herself
Feb 10, 2026 | Women's Golf, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
She's wearing a black Nike golf jacket, sitting in a cushy brown chair in the corner of Colbert's Restaurant at Colbert Hills Golf Course just after noon. She has both hands peeking out from the jacket's sleeves, giving two thumbs up, wearing a wide grin. This is the introduction to Kansas State sophomore Kelsey Chen, who grew up on a big island off the coast of China, and now has achieved her first big thing since her arrival in the Little Apple.
"I never thought it'd come this fast, honestly," she says. "I thought it'd come my junior or senior year. I'm just doing the best I can. I just have to keep working."
On a beautiful day in Puerto Rico, the 23-year-old Chen, who came off a third-place showing at the Powercat Invitational, roared back from six shots back in the final round of the Puerto Rico Classic to overtake No. 1-ranked Maria Jose Marin of Arkansas and 14 other players in the top 100 of the National Collegiate Golf Rankings for the first individual victory of her collegiate career.
Chen, a native of Dalian, China, shot a final-round score of 4-under par 68 to tie her best round in college, which enabled her to tie for the Puerto Rico Classic individual title. Overall, she finished with a three-round total of 10-under par 206, which tied for the sixth-best 54-hole performance in the history of K-State women's golf.
Chen tallied five birdies and one bogey during the final round, including a bogey-free and 2-under par back nine.
"I liked the golf course," she says. "The trees were high, coconut trees everywhere, and it felt like home. I played really well there last year, so I knew the golf course. In the final round, I was watching the leaderboard all day. I said, 'I probably have a chance.' I birdied my second-to-last hole, and I was 11-under. That was pretty close. (Marin) of Arkansas bogeyed her last three holes, so we were tied. When I saw the scoreboard, I thought they'd entered the wrong score there.
"I thought I'd finish top three this year. But this was a little surprise to me. After I finished, I went to the clubhouse and began packing everything into the team van. One of my old freshman teammates said, 'Technically, you just got your first college win.' It's nearly perfect, but it's not perfect, because golf isn't a perfect game, but I tried my best to make it perfect."
Word spread fast. Chen's cellphone lit up with congratulatory texts. She was numb as the K-State team ate dinner. It was just a year ago that she ate with coaches and players as a freshman at Georgia Southern. That, of course, was before she transferred to join head coach Stew Burke and assistant coach Rinko Mitsunaga in Manhattan, where "everyone is my sister and Stew and Rinko are mom and dad." This marked the ninth individual championship in three years for a K-State player under Burke.
This turned out to be a tournament of reckoning for Chen.
"I finished top six at the tournament last year," Chen says. "This year, I won this event, and it meant a lot because my old school was there, so the win was a statement to them."
Statement made. Chen is good. Very good. And she belongs at the Power 4 level.
"Everyone is good, and if you're playing at the P4 level you're not a normal golfer," she says. "Everybody's at the same level. It comes down to who executes details better. I'm working on the mental, and I'm focused on details. I practice all the time. I'm 100% focused on that. You do that much hard work and eventually it'll pay off.
"It's working."
Chen has finished four rounds of golf in the 60s this season.
She had just one a year ago.
Hard work and good coaching pay off.
"Honestly, I posted on social media, 'Thanks to Stew and Rinko. If they didn't bring me here, this wouldn't be possible,'" Chen says. "That's the most joy is that Stew and Rinko are with me all the time. They treat me like my family, and I have really, really good relationships on the team. Everyone loves one another."
Chen felt the love for the first time last May. Playing the last few rounds of her freshman season at Georgia Southern, she walked around Keene Trace Golf Course in Nicholasville, Kentucky, with K-State golfers Carla Bernat, Sophie Bert and Noa van Beek at the NCAA Lexington Regional. Chen could feel the love.
"Noa told me, 'We have a whole international team,'" Chen says. "That sounded awesome. And I love Nike and purple is my color. I went into the transfer portal the first day after the regional. I considered K-State and a bunch of schools. Ultimately, I decided this was what I wanted. Stew was so direct and said, 'Hey, we really want you. We'll give you this, we'll provide this, and we'll do this, this and this.' Me and Stew are a perfect match.
"Nobody else could be my coach except for Stew."
Today, she sits in a restaurant inside a clubhouse where wall-sized windows reveal lush greens and hills and a Flint Hills horizon that goes on and on. It's nothing like she pictured long, long ago.
Ballet was her first love. She was 5. Originally residing in the northern part of China, Chen and her family moved south to an island, Hainan, a province of China and the nation's southernmost point. Chen's friends played golf. She danced ballet. At age 11, she decided to join in the fun. Months after beginning golf, she fired a 136 in her first two-round tournament, and she still has the pictures to prove it.
"Good times," she says, smiling. "Good memories."
Chen quickly caught on and heated up. She was the low amateur at the China LPGA Q-School, earned runner-up finishes in both HSBC National Junior Championship and China Amateur Golf Classic before winning both the 2023 Buick National Junior and the 2022 Super Lychee National.
"I played on a woman's tour in 2022-24, and two girls I played with in my group, one played at Minnesota and the other North Carolina. They were like, 'You should try college, you'll definitely like it.' I figured, 'Why not?'"
She put together a 74.92 scoring average with six top-20 finishes over 12 events as a freshman at Georgia Southern. Her best outing? The Puerto Rico Classic when she finished sixth at 3-under par 213.
She yearned for more.
She found it at K-State.
And this is just the beginning.
"I will definitely stay until my senior year," she says. "My plan before college was I'd try to turn pro my sophomore year, but after this, I feel like college is a wonderful time. I'll definitely graduate. If I have a fifth year, I definitely want to do a fifth year."
That could make Chen the most decorated player in the history of K-State women's golf.
"I hope so," she says, grinning.
She thinks about her path for a moment.
"I've learned you need to trust yourself," she says. "I wasn't that confident before I came here. I've learned to trust myself here. I trust what I do, and it's always going to pay off. If you trust yourself, you'll make everything better. 'I can do it.' If you think about it, it'll come true. If I told myself three years ago, 'You're going to play golf in the United States,' I would've said, 'There's no way.' If you make it, you make it. If you don't, you'll never make it.
"I said, 'I'm going to do this.' I grateful to have done this."
As time ticks down on Chen's interview, she is asked to hold a laptop computer. On the laptop, the screen reveals a K-State news release.
It is a surprise.
The headline of the news release reads: "K-State's Chen Named Big 12 Women's Golfer of the Week."
Chen becomes the first K-State women's golfer to earn an in-season honor by the Big 12 since Carla Bernat earned Big 12 Women's Golfer of the Month for March in 2024.
"Really?" Chen says, looking up from the laptop, a big smile on her face. "Is this real?"
Yes, it is real.
"There's no way!" she beams. "Really?"
Really.
"Oh my gosh!"
She stares at the screen, speechless, her hand to her mouth.
Of all the women's golfers in Big 12 programs, the spotlight shines on her, a sophomore, halfway across the world from where her story began.
Now in the infant stages of composing a tale that seemingly has no end in sight.
She's wearing a black Nike golf jacket, sitting in a cushy brown chair in the corner of Colbert's Restaurant at Colbert Hills Golf Course just after noon. She has both hands peeking out from the jacket's sleeves, giving two thumbs up, wearing a wide grin. This is the introduction to Kansas State sophomore Kelsey Chen, who grew up on a big island off the coast of China, and now has achieved her first big thing since her arrival in the Little Apple.
"I never thought it'd come this fast, honestly," she says. "I thought it'd come my junior or senior year. I'm just doing the best I can. I just have to keep working."
On a beautiful day in Puerto Rico, the 23-year-old Chen, who came off a third-place showing at the Powercat Invitational, roared back from six shots back in the final round of the Puerto Rico Classic to overtake No. 1-ranked Maria Jose Marin of Arkansas and 14 other players in the top 100 of the National Collegiate Golf Rankings for the first individual victory of her collegiate career.
Chen, a native of Dalian, China, shot a final-round score of 4-under par 68 to tie her best round in college, which enabled her to tie for the Puerto Rico Classic individual title. Overall, she finished with a three-round total of 10-under par 206, which tied for the sixth-best 54-hole performance in the history of K-State women's golf.
Chen tallied five birdies and one bogey during the final round, including a bogey-free and 2-under par back nine.
"I liked the golf course," she says. "The trees were high, coconut trees everywhere, and it felt like home. I played really well there last year, so I knew the golf course. In the final round, I was watching the leaderboard all day. I said, 'I probably have a chance.' I birdied my second-to-last hole, and I was 11-under. That was pretty close. (Marin) of Arkansas bogeyed her last three holes, so we were tied. When I saw the scoreboard, I thought they'd entered the wrong score there.
"I thought I'd finish top three this year. But this was a little surprise to me. After I finished, I went to the clubhouse and began packing everything into the team van. One of my old freshman teammates said, 'Technically, you just got your first college win.' It's nearly perfect, but it's not perfect, because golf isn't a perfect game, but I tried my best to make it perfect."
Word spread fast. Chen's cellphone lit up with congratulatory texts. She was numb as the K-State team ate dinner. It was just a year ago that she ate with coaches and players as a freshman at Georgia Southern. That, of course, was before she transferred to join head coach Stew Burke and assistant coach Rinko Mitsunaga in Manhattan, where "everyone is my sister and Stew and Rinko are mom and dad." This marked the ninth individual championship in three years for a K-State player under Burke.
This turned out to be a tournament of reckoning for Chen.
"I finished top six at the tournament last year," Chen says. "This year, I won this event, and it meant a lot because my old school was there, so the win was a statement to them."
Statement made. Chen is good. Very good. And she belongs at the Power 4 level.
"Everyone is good, and if you're playing at the P4 level you're not a normal golfer," she says. "Everybody's at the same level. It comes down to who executes details better. I'm working on the mental, and I'm focused on details. I practice all the time. I'm 100% focused on that. You do that much hard work and eventually it'll pay off.
"It's working."
Chen has finished four rounds of golf in the 60s this season.
She had just one a year ago.
Hard work and good coaching pay off.
"Honestly, I posted on social media, 'Thanks to Stew and Rinko. If they didn't bring me here, this wouldn't be possible,'" Chen says. "That's the most joy is that Stew and Rinko are with me all the time. They treat me like my family, and I have really, really good relationships on the team. Everyone loves one another."
Chen felt the love for the first time last May. Playing the last few rounds of her freshman season at Georgia Southern, she walked around Keene Trace Golf Course in Nicholasville, Kentucky, with K-State golfers Carla Bernat, Sophie Bert and Noa van Beek at the NCAA Lexington Regional. Chen could feel the love.
"Noa told me, 'We have a whole international team,'" Chen says. "That sounded awesome. And I love Nike and purple is my color. I went into the transfer portal the first day after the regional. I considered K-State and a bunch of schools. Ultimately, I decided this was what I wanted. Stew was so direct and said, 'Hey, we really want you. We'll give you this, we'll provide this, and we'll do this, this and this.' Me and Stew are a perfect match.
"Nobody else could be my coach except for Stew."
Today, she sits in a restaurant inside a clubhouse where wall-sized windows reveal lush greens and hills and a Flint Hills horizon that goes on and on. It's nothing like she pictured long, long ago.
Ballet was her first love. She was 5. Originally residing in the northern part of China, Chen and her family moved south to an island, Hainan, a province of China and the nation's southernmost point. Chen's friends played golf. She danced ballet. At age 11, she decided to join in the fun. Months after beginning golf, she fired a 136 in her first two-round tournament, and she still has the pictures to prove it.
"Good times," she says, smiling. "Good memories."
Chen quickly caught on and heated up. She was the low amateur at the China LPGA Q-School, earned runner-up finishes in both HSBC National Junior Championship and China Amateur Golf Classic before winning both the 2023 Buick National Junior and the 2022 Super Lychee National.
"I played on a woman's tour in 2022-24, and two girls I played with in my group, one played at Minnesota and the other North Carolina. They were like, 'You should try college, you'll definitely like it.' I figured, 'Why not?'"
She put together a 74.92 scoring average with six top-20 finishes over 12 events as a freshman at Georgia Southern. Her best outing? The Puerto Rico Classic when she finished sixth at 3-under par 213.
She yearned for more.
She found it at K-State.
And this is just the beginning.
"I will definitely stay until my senior year," she says. "My plan before college was I'd try to turn pro my sophomore year, but after this, I feel like college is a wonderful time. I'll definitely graduate. If I have a fifth year, I definitely want to do a fifth year."
That could make Chen the most decorated player in the history of K-State women's golf.
"I hope so," she says, grinning.
She thinks about her path for a moment.
"I've learned you need to trust yourself," she says. "I wasn't that confident before I came here. I've learned to trust myself here. I trust what I do, and it's always going to pay off. If you trust yourself, you'll make everything better. 'I can do it.' If you think about it, it'll come true. If I told myself three years ago, 'You're going to play golf in the United States,' I would've said, 'There's no way.' If you make it, you make it. If you don't, you'll never make it.
"I said, 'I'm going to do this.' I grateful to have done this."
As time ticks down on Chen's interview, she is asked to hold a laptop computer. On the laptop, the screen reveals a K-State news release.
It is a surprise.
The headline of the news release reads: "K-State's Chen Named Big 12 Women's Golfer of the Week."
Chen becomes the first K-State women's golfer to earn an in-season honor by the Big 12 since Carla Bernat earned Big 12 Women's Golfer of the Month for March in 2024.
"Really?" Chen says, looking up from the laptop, a big smile on her face. "Is this real?"
Yes, it is real.
"There's no way!" she beams. "Really?"
Really.
"Oh my gosh!"
She stares at the screen, speechless, her hand to her mouth.
Of all the women's golfers in Big 12 programs, the spotlight shines on her, a sophomore, halfway across the world from where her story began.
Now in the infant stages of composing a tale that seemingly has no end in sight.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
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