![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Pimpisa-_Fai_-Rubprong-1024x572.jpeg\")
Pimpisa \u201cFai\u201d Rubrong, who hails from Thailand, is the only non-European player on the Arizona State women’s golf team. (Photo by Kal Goff\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\nPHOENIX \u2013 The No. 23 Arizona State women\u2019s golf team is chasing its ninth national championship and first since 2017. If it accomplishes that domestic feat, it will do so with a lineup made up entirely of international players.<\/p>\n
Missy Farr-Kaye has tutored many domestic players in her 11 years as ASU\u2019s coach, but she is enjoying this team\u2019s decidedly international flavor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun to go around the world to look for future Sun Devils,\u201d Farr-Kaye said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an English player that\u2019s going to be coming (and) we have two English players (already). We have an Italian coming next year. We have players from Ireland that have known our previous players from Ireland, and they trust each other, and they share with them how great it is to be here and be a Sun Devil golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASU has a long history of bringing in international players. Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), Carlota Ciganda (Spain), Linn Grant (Sweden), Azahara Mu\u00f1oz (Spain), Alexandra F\u00f6rsterling (Germany), Alessandra Fanali (Italy), Olivia Mehaffey (Ireland) and Louise Stahle (Sweden) are just some of the big names that have come through Tempe this millennium.<\/p>\n
English golfer Patience Rhodes, a redshirt junior at ASU, said one of the plusses of having such an international cast of players is the ease with which they bond due to their similar backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cI think we all bond because we\u2019re all far away from home, and it’s just nice to be in the same boat as someone else and you get to speak to people and they understand you and what you\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n
English golfer Isla McDonald-O\u2019Brien said ASU was an easy choice after talking to the staff while being scouted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches come over to Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cThey meet us at events and recruit us. Then we get in contact with them, and then I came on a visit, and now I\u2019m here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McDonald-O\u2019Brien said knowing Rhodes had a similar heritage helped when picking a school.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Patience were on an England squad together for one year,\u201d McDonald-O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThen she came out to ASU and I was like \u2018Wow, I want to follow her.\u2019 So when it came to recruiting I did look where there were English people just to see, because it\u2019s nice to have that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also on the team are Denmark’s Johanna Axelsen, Thailand’s Pimpisa \u201cFai\u201d Rubrong, Germany’s Paula Schulz-Hanssen and Ireland’s Beth Coulter and Kate Dillon.<\/p>\n
Pimpisa \u201cFai\u201d Rubrong, who hails from Thailand, is the only non-European player on the Arizona State women’s golf team. (Photo by Kal Goff\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n
On a heavily European team, freshman Rubrong is the exception. The college experience has been eye opening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Thailand, it’s not common to go to college golf,\u201d Rubrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great experience to come to college golf here. I feel like I can know more about how college golf is working and how the team is going to be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farr-Kaye said current players play a role in the scouting process, sometimes becoming a deciding factor in whom the team decides to scout.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody on our roster is a big part of the future,\u201d Farr-Kaye said. \u201cOftentimes when they\u2019re here, I make sure they\u2019re connected to our former players; really trying to make sure those connections are in place, and then they do a great job by the time they\u2019re seniors to look out for the freshman.\u201d<\/p>\n
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2026\/03\/20\/asu-womens-golf-international-players\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org”>Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/favicon1.png?resize=85%2C85&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=101010″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2026\/03\/20\/asu-womens-golf-international-players\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanonical Tag:<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Tag\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArticle Content:<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGlobal approach: ASU women\u2019s golf team composed of only international players<\/p>\n
Thomas Bonvehi, Cronkite News
\nMarch 20, 2026<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2013 The No. 23 Arizona State women\u2019s golf team is chasing its ninth national championship and first since 2017. If it accomplishes that domestic feat, it will do so with a lineup made up entirely of international players.<\/p>\n
Missy Farr-Kaye has tutored many domestic players in her 11 years as ASU\u2019s coach, but she is enjoying this team\u2019s decidedly international flavor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun to go around the world to look for future Sun Devils,\u201d Farr-Kaye said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an English player that\u2019s going to be coming (and) we have two English players (already). We have an Italian coming next year. We have players from Ireland that have known our previous players from Ireland, and they trust each other, and they share with them how great it is to be here and be a Sun Devil golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASU has a long history of bringing in international players. Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), Carlota Ciganda (Spain), Linn Grant (Sweden), Azahara Mu\u00f1oz (Spain), Alexandra F\u00f6rsterling (Germany), Alessandra Fanali (Italy), Olivia Mehaffey (Ireland) and Louise Stahle (Sweden) are just some of the big names that have come through Tempe this millennium.<\/p>\n
English golfer Patience Rhodes, a redshirt junior at ASU, said one of the plusses of having such an international cast of players is the ease with which they bond due to their similar backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cI think we all bond because we\u2019re all far away from home, and it’s just nice to be in the same boat as someone else and you get to speak to people and they understand you and what you\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n
English golfer Isla McDonald-O\u2019Brien said ASU was an easy choice after talking to the staff while being scouted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches come over to Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cThey meet us at events and recruit us. Then we get in contact with them, and then I came on a visit, and now I\u2019m here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McDonald-O\u2019Brien said knowing Rhodes had a similar heritage helped when picking a school.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Patience were on an England squad together for one year,\u201d McDonald-O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThen she came out to ASU and I was like \u2018Wow, I want to follow her.\u2019 So when it came to recruiting I did look where there were English people just to see, because it\u2019s nice to have that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also on the team are Denmark’s Johanna Axelsen, Thailand’s Pimpisa \u201cFai\u201d Rubrong, Germany’s Paula Schulz-Hanssen and Ireland’s Beth Coulter and Kate Dillon.<\/p>\n
On a heavily European team, freshman Rubrong is the exception. The college experience has been eye opening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Thailand, it’s not common to go to college golf,\u201d Rubrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great experience to come to college golf here. I feel like I can know more about how college golf is working and how the team is going to be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farr-Kaye said current players play a role in the scouting process, sometimes becoming a deciding factor in whom the team decides to scout.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody on our roster is a big part of the future,\u201d Farr-Kaye said. \u201cOftentimes when they\u2019re here, I make sure they\u2019re connected to our former players; really trying to make sure those connections are in place, and then they do a great job by the time they\u2019re seniors to look out for the freshman.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Content\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTracking snippet:<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCopy Snippet\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Thomas Bonvehi, Cronkite News March 20, 2026 PHOENIX \u2013 The No. 23 Arizona State women\u2019s golf team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[47601,49,48,622,213782,213783,213784,213785,213786,82,87798],"class_list":["post-549704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-asu","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-isla-mcdonald-obrien","tag-missy-farr-kaye","tag-ncaa-womens-golf","tag-patience-rhodes","tag-pimpisa-fai-rubpron","tag-sports","tag-sun-devils"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}