You want to win an NCAA Championship in Division I women’s
golf, you’re going to have to beat Stanford at some point.
In 2015, the first year the NCAA went to match play to
determine the champion, nobody could beat Stanford and the Cardinal emerged with
the title. In each of the last three years, the Cardinal fell short of a
national championship, losing to the eventual champion, a Pac-12 rival in each
case.
Three years ago, Stanford was stunned by Washington in the
Final Match and in each of the last two seasons the Cardinal have been edged in
the semifinals by Arizona State and Arizona, respectively. They have been
excruciating losses, each of them, but match play can be that way.
The bar has been set high in Palo Alto. Stanford expects to
be in the mix when it comes time to determine the national champion each
spring. I’d probably me more surprised if the Cardinal are not in the
semifinals at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. in May, than I
would be if they are one of the last four standing.
Stanford’s class was on display in the second round of the
Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge Monday at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos
Verdes Estates, Calif., an early summit meeting of some of the country’s top
teams as the spring campaign of the 2018-’19 season tees off.
Led by Andrea Lee, a junior from Hermosa Beach, Calif. and
the No. 5 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Stanford,
No. 13 in the latest Golfstat
rankings, ripped off the only sub-par team round in the first two days, a
5-under-par 279 over the 6,017-yard, par-71 Palos Verdes layout. Combined with
their opening-round 295, it gave the Cardinal a 6-over 574 total and a six-shot
lead over Pac-12 rival UCLA heading into Tuesday’s final round.
Lee is a relentless competitor. She has been a member of the
last two U.S. Curtis Cup teams, including the 2018 edition that rolled to a
17-3 victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in
Scarsdale, N.Y.
It looked like the umbrellas were out again in SoCal Monday,
but Lee put her head down and carded a second straight 1-under 70. At 2-under
140 through two rounds, Lee is the only player under par and has a three-shot
lead on a talented foursome at 1-over 143.
Two-time reigning Pac-12 champion UCLA, which had grabbed
the opening-round lead with a 7-over 291, carded a solid 5-over 289 and is six
shots behind Stanford in second at 12-over 580. The Bruins are ranked 13th.
No. 2 Texas, the two-time reigning Big 12 champion, is
another six shots behind UCLA in third place at 18-over 586 after adding a
4-over 288 to its opening-round 298. Trailing the Longhorns by one at 19-over
587 is Southern California, the No. 1 team in the country. The Trojans, who
also made it to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship last spring, shaved 11
shots off an opening-round 299 with a 4-over 288.
No. 14 Wake Forest added a 292 to its opening-round 300 and
is five shots behind Southern Cal in fifth at 24-over 592. Upstart Oklahoma
State, ranked 74th, is two shots behind Wake Forest in sixth place
at 26-over 594. The Cowgirls added a 5-over 289 to their opening-round 305.
Reigning national champion Arizona, ranked ninth, is alone
in seventh in the elite 16-team field, 11 of which are among the Golfstat top 20, at 31-over 599. The
Wildcats opened with a 302 before adding a 297 Monday.
Backing up Lee for Stanford are teammates Albane Valenzuela,
a junior from Switzerland and the No. 6 player in the Women’s WAGR, and Mika
Liu, a sophomore from Beverly Hills, Calif., both of whom are among a trio of
players tied for sixth at 2-over 144.
Valenzuela, the runnerup in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur at
San Diego Country Club, matched par with a 71 after opening with a 73. Liu, one
of Lee’s teammates on the 2016 U.S. Curtis Cup team that fell to GB&I across
the pond at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin, fired a 2-under 69
Monday after opening with a 75.
Stanford got a third sub-par round from Ziyi Wang, a junior
from China who matched Liu’s 2-under 69 after opening with a 77 and is in the
group tied for 14th at 4-over 146. That gave the Cardinal four
scores at par or better for the day.
Rounding out the Stanford lineup was Kelsey Zeng, a
sophomore from Orlando, Fla. who is in the group tied for 79th at
160 after adding a 79 to her opening-round 81.
Included among the four players chasing Lee in the group tied
for second at 1-over 143 are Florida State’s Frida Kinhult, a freshman from
Sweden and the No. 2 player in the Women’s WAGR, and UCLA’s Patty Tavatanakit,
a sophomore from Thailand and the No. 3 player in the Women’s WAGR.
Kinhult had the best individual round of the tournament, a
3-under 68, after opening with a 75. Tavatanakit, the reigning Pac-12
individual champion, added a 1-under 70 to her opening-round 73.
Rounding out the foursome at 143 are Arizona’s Yu-Sang Hou,
a sophomore from Taiwan, and Texas’ Agathe Laisne, a sophomore from France.
Hou, one of the heroes of the Wildcats’ run to the national
championship last spring, matched par with a 71 after opening with a 72.
Laisne, winner of the 2017 European Ladies’ Amateur Championship, was one of
the co-leaders after posting a 2-under 69 in Sunday’s opening round before
backing off a little with a 3-over 74.
Joining Stanford’s Valenzuela and Liu in the trio tied for
sixth at 2-over 144 was Wake Forest’s Letizia Bagnoli, a freshman from Italy.
Bagnoli shared the opening-round lead with Laisne with a 2-under 69 and she,
too, fell back a little with a 4-over 75.
Among the group of five players tied for ninth at 3-over 145
is Bagnoli’s teammate, Jennifer Kupcho, a senior from Westminster, Colo. and
the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR. Kupcho, the reigning NCAA individual
champion, fired a 1-under 70 after opening with a 75.
Kupcho, a teammate of Lee’s on the winning U.S. Curtis Cup team
last summer, could have turned pro following an impressive runnerup finish in
the LPGA Q-Series at the Pinehurst Resort last fall. But she took advantage of
the opportunity offered by the LPGA to defer the start of her pro career until
July.
The delayed start to her professional career might hurt
Kupcho’s chances of retaining her LPGA Tour playing privileges for 2020, but
she made it quite clear she wanted to finish out her senior season at Wake.
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