Florida State head coach Amy Bond had never seen Mirabel Ting move so fast.
After running away with the Seminoles’ home event, the Florida State Match Up, for her fifth individual title in six starts this season, Ting hugged her assistant coach Ryan Heisey and then immediately took off in a dead sprint. Out of the corner of her eye, the standout junior from Malaysia had spotted her teammates, led by top-ranked amateur Lottie Woad, barreling toward her at full speed, their hands full of water bottles.
Ting has rarely been caught of late, but even she couldn’t escape the celebratory shower.
Soaked so badly that her garnet-colored polo was a few shades darker, Ting yelled over at Bond, “No cold tub for me tomorrow!”
Ting had just set the program’s 54-hole scoring record (16-under 200) while tying Matilda Castren for most career victories by a Seminole with seven. The nearly two dozen water bottles were surely a high mark, too. But Bond wouldn’t budge: “Yes, you still have to!”
Not that it had much of an effect.
Ting has been scalding hot this season as she’s risen to the top of the national individual rankings, the margin so significant that she holds a bigger lead on No. 2 Jasmine Koo of USC (33.99 average points) than Koo has over No. 42 Paula Schulz-Hanssen of Arizona State. Ting missed two fall events to compete – and tie for 12th – in the LPGA’s Maybank Championship in her native country, but in the six she has played, she’s 52 under and has been beaten by just five players.
In most other years, Woad would be the clear favorite for the Annika Award, given to the top player in Division I women’s golf. In eight starts, Woad has one victory, a playoff loss and no finishes worse than T-3. She’s lost to only 11 players this season, six not named Ting.
“Lottie’s having an exceptional year, but Mirabel is having the season of a lifetime,” said Bond, who somehow must pick a team MVP soon.
The standard in the women’s college game is Lorena Ochoa, who won eight of 10 events as a sophomore at Arizona in 2001-02. Ochoa lost to just two players all season, Arizona State’s Jimin Kang at the 2002 Pac-10 Championship and Duke’s Virada Nirapathpongporn at the NCAA Championship. Stanford’s Rose Zhang also won eight times two seasons ago, including conference, regional and national titles, though she incurred 15 losses during that sophomore campaign.
And in a smaller sample size, Stanford’s Rachel Heck took six of nine tournaments, including all three postseason events, in Spring 2021, which followed a fall in which the Cardinal did not compete because of the pandemic.
Ting has three events left, starting with the ACC Championship on April 16-19. In the meantime, she’ll tee it up in her second Augusta National Women’s Amateur, coming off a T-8 in her debut. Behind Woad, the reigning champion, Ting could have the second-best odds to win when this year’s ANWA gets underway on Wednesday at Champions Retreat.
“She’s always been a naturally gifted ball-striker, probably the best I’ve ever seen,” Bond said of Ting. “And now, she’s making the putts on top of it. I mean, holy cow.”
The sixth Augusta National Women’s Amateur begins April 2, with 72 of the top players in amateur golf.
In Ting’s words, putting has always frustrated her. “Usually the more I putt, the worse it gets,” she explained. But last December she began working full-time with instructor Kris Assawapimonporn, who most notably coaches Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul, the world’s second-ranked pro behind Nelly Korda but arguably better than anyone since the end of last year’s major season.
Ting’s total reconstruction of her putting included shortening her putter shaft from 33 to 30 inches and adding a longer grip. She now stands closer, eyes directly over the ball, and grips it lower.
“Just trying to keep everything shorter so the putter doesn’t affect the stroke so much,” Ting explained. “Once I made this massive change with my putting, the putts have just miraculously dropped. I have never putted this well.”
She’s in an all-time great headspace, too.
Ting arrived at Florida State via Augusta University two falls ago, albeit ineligible after entering the transfer portal a day after the deadline. She was cleared by the spring and hit the ground running, winning once and not finishing worse than seventh through the ACC Championship. It all came so easy until it didn’t. Ting’s inexperience playing on firm surfaces and in strong winds caught up to her, and she capped her season with a T-36 at regionals in Las Vegas and a T-65 at the NCAA Championship in Carlsbad, California. Her confidence was shattered.
“Postseason was a complete nightmare,” Ting said. “I didn’t know what to do, who to talk to, I was just completely lost and embarrassed.”
Turns out, she just needed a break. Ting didn’t play her next individual tournament until mid-August, when she dusted an amateur field in her native Malaysia by 10 shots. Four weeks later, she was capturing the Folds of Honor Collegiate and igniting this current hot streak.
Bond admits she has a soft spot for Ting, who has navigated the last couple years without her father, Thomas, who died of a heart attack in October 2022, when Ting was a 17-year-old freshman at Augusta. Thomas was his daughter’s biggest supporter, and his death forced a young Mirabel, still a teenager, to take on greater responsibility, especially with the rest of her family, including mom Ng Mei Mei, on the other side of the globe. These days, Ting leans heavily on Bond and former Olympic golfer Michelle Koh, whom Ting calls her sister and who will travel with her to Augusta this week. But much of that “pile of stuff” that Thomas took care of now falls on Mirabel.
Ting appreciates the “kicks in the butt” from Bond, her assistant coaches and her teammates, who aren’t afraid to let her know when she’s being too easily distracted, or slacking with her training, or needing to spend extra time on her chipping.
She also cherishes their grace.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to Coach Amy and sat down and cried; I don’t know how many times I’ve sat down and cried in front of my teammates,” Ting said. “The love and concern that they show me is incredible, and it gets me to this point today where I know that I’m not alone. I’m surrounded by so many people who love and care about me. It impacts a lot in my life right now.
“I lost my dad, but at the same time, I’ve gained this group of people.”
All dry and settled in her apartment the night of her record-tying, home victory, Ting was suddenly flooded by her emotions. So, she picked up her phone and started typing away.
When she finally hit send, it was to Bond – and it was 11:15 p.m.
Sorry to disturb you this late but thank you once again. Win No. 7 is sweet and especially being at home. Glad I’m able to put my name on the Match Up. I’m glad for everything and where my game and life are right now, surrounded by great people who show love and support.
Never thought I could go this low at Seminole with the greens rolling at a 12. I remember when I first played this golf course, the greens were a nightmare to me, and to break the record and how I played this week has shown so much improvement in my game over the years.
Today I’m a champion and have won the home event. But I’m not tomorrow, so I’ll keep working hard. Onwards and upwards. Can’t wait for ANWA and postseason with the girls.
Let’s get some rings on our fingers.
The only way Ting’s season of a lifetime can get better.
