Tribute: Europeans will wear ribbons to honour slain golfer

The European Ryder Cup team will wear yellow ribbons during this week’s match-play in memory of Celia Barquin Arozamena, a former Iowa State golfer from Spain who was stabbed to death Sept. 17 on a golf course in Ames, Iowa.

“Obviously, the golfing family extends way beyond what we are trying to do this week,” European captain Thomas Bjorn said Tuesday. “Those events in America, with Celia being killed while playing golf, is something that’s hit everybody in the golf family, and obviously our two Spanish players very much.

“We felt that, after a conversation between Ryder Cup Europe with Celia’s mother, we would honour her this week.”

Sergio Garcia, who along with Jon Rahm is representing Spain on this year’s European Ryder Cup team, noted Barquin Arozamena’s death on Twitter last week.

Barquin Arozamena, 22, exhausted her college eligibility last season, when she became just the second Cyclones golfer to earn medallist honours at a conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA regional for a fourth straight year. She had returned to Iowa State to finish her civil engineering degree.

The native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, also won the European Ladies’ Amateur championship in July.

Prosecutors have charged Collin Daniel Richards with first-degree murder in Barquin Arozamena’s slaying.

According to Ames police reports Richards was homeless at the time of the slaying and staying at an encampment near the golf course where Barquin Arozamena’s body was found.