Senior golfer Sophie Bert eyes down a hybrid shot during the Big 12 Championship last week at Houston Oaks Golf Course. Bert was the first Wildcats to win the individual conference title. (Courtesy photo | K-State Athletics)
Putt after putt, Kansas State women’s golf is making history in Manhattan. The program’s first trip to the NCAA regionals in nearly a decade is the latest mark in a historic season.
In just his second year at the helm, Stew Burke transformed K-State women’s golf from stalled success at the Big 12 Championship to back-to-back years competing in the top half of the conference.
It started in 2024 as a third-place finish — K-State’s best placing ever in a conference tournament — was just short of sending the Wildcats to NCAA Regionals. In 2025, there was no doubt about the team’s status as they clinched the No. 5 seed in the Lexington Regional, making the postseason as a team for the first time since 2017.
One of the keys to making that happen was senior transfer Sophie Bert.
A native of Deurle, Belgium, Bert lined up her final putt on the 18th green at Houston Oaks with history on the line last week. When the ball dropped, so did a weight off K-State’s shoulders — the Wildcats had their first-ever individual Big 12 champion.
Bert’s 2-under par 211 score cemented her as the only player to finish below par while carding the best three-round total in K-State’s Big 12 Championship history.
“I still pinch myself a little bit,” Bert said on her conference title win. “But I try to focus on the next tournament because that’s what matters right now.”
A transfer from East Tennessee State, Bert was a perfect pairing with the Wildcats, posting the team’s second-highest scoring average with six top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the Westbrook Invitational in February.
K-State senior Carla Bernat, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, has garnered the attention of national media, and rightfully so, as she shined again with a tie for second place in Houston, giving K-State two players in the top 10 of a conference championship for the first time.
But Bernat, who Burke emphasizes is a “team-player,” will be one of the first to tell you the Wildcats are not a one-woman band — Bert’s takeover of the Big 12 Championship only made that clearer.
“We’re a hardworking, blue-collar team — a team that everyone can root for,” Burke said after his team’s selection on the GOLF Channel. “We’re going to do our best with grit and effort.”
Within the span of a week, Bert was doused in a water bottle bath after the Big 12 win and then sat alongside her teammates to celebrate the team’s NCAA ticket punch on Wednesday.
“It’s really cool — being new on the team as well — it’s an awesome feeling,” Bert said on the team’s accomplishment. “I feel like I’ve known [my teammates] for a long time, it’s crazy that I’ve only known them for a year.”
Junior Noa van Beek, the only Wildcat from before the Burke era, said the team’s infectious attitude inspires performances down the roster.
“[Bernat and Bert’s] individual performances definitely help for the team as well, because we see that it’s possible,” van Beek said. “We get more self-belief because they deserve it, and I think we deserve it as a team.”
While Bernat and Bert both graduate this spring, the foundation was laid early in the Burke era, and there’s undoubtedly an upward climb for the Wildcats.
“When Gene Taylor had the faith to hire me, I sat there and told him, ‘We’re gonna put your golf program not just back on the regional map, but nationally,’” Burke said. “Through the team play and Carla’s and Sophie’s achievements, people know who we are.”