There is never a dull moment when the premier conference in
women’s college golf gets together.
They weren’t competing for a conference championship when
they gathered for the Nanea Pac-12 Preview this week at the Nanea Golf Club in
Kailua Kona, Hawaii, but with so many of the top amateur players in the world
in the field, there is always a chance that you’re looking at the next NCAA
individual or team champion.
The conference had produced the national champion the first
four years since the match-player layer was added to the NCAAs in 2015 before
Atlantic Coast Conference powers Duke and Wake Forest reached the final last
spring at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Still, three of the final eight teams still standing for
match play at The Blessings were from the Pac-12. And two of them, Stanford,
the 2015 champion in the first year of match play, and Southern California, are
the only two teams to have qualified for match play in each of the first five
years since the format was adopted.
The drama this time of the year can often be as much about
who is not here as who is.
Stanford, No. 1 in the latest Golfstat rankings,
played without seniors Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland and No. 2 in the Women’s
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach, Calif. and
No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR.
Valenzuela and Lee both played well enough in the LPGA
Q-Series, which concluded Saturday at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club
and which provided more than enough fodder for a blog post earlier this week,
to earn playing privileges for the LPGA Tour in 2020. They have the option to
defer accepting their LPGA Tour card until after the Division I postseason
concludes in the spring or to start their professional careers in January.
Southern California junior Jennifer Chang of Cary, N.C. and
No. 10 in the Women’s WAGR has already made that call. She also qualified for
the LPGA Tour at Pinehurst and has let it be known that she is leaving college
golf behind.
You want to recruit players who are good enough to play
professional golf. If they get there a little ahead of schedule, you wish them
well and move on. A couple of years ago when Chang was a freshman, Southern Cal
lost a couple of players to the pro ranks during the midseason break. Chang,
three other freshmen and a sophomore proceeded to make a run to the NCAA
semifinals at the Karsten Creek Golf Club.
The team that was crowned the national champion at Karsten
Creek, Arizona, ranked eighth, outdueled No. 22 UCLA by two shots to capture
the team crown in the Nanea Pac-12 Preview, which concluded Wednesday.
The Wildcats, coming off a third-place finish in last week’s
East Lake Cup at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, opened Monday with the
best team round of the tournament, a 10-under-par 282 over the 6,429-yard,
par-73 Nanea layout.
They fell two shots behind UCLA with a 1-under 291 in
Tuesday’s middle round before closing with an 8-under 284 in Wednesday’s final
round for a 19-under 857 total. UCLA opened with a 7-under 285 and took the
lead with a 6-under 286 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 4-under
288 for a 17-under 859 total. That’s good enough to win most college
tournaments, but the Pac-12 is tough company, elite company.
Arizona State, ranked second, was another 10 shots behind
UCLA in third place at 7-under 869. The Sun Devils, the 2017 national
champions, opened with a 3-over 295 and added a 6-under 286 before finishing up
with a 4-under 288.
No. 5 Southern California was six shots behind Arizona in
fourth place at 1-under 875. The Trojans had back-to-back 2-under 290s in the
first two rounds before closing with a 3-over 295.
Top-ranked Stanford, without its two top guns, finished in a
tie for fifth in the 12-team field with No. 15 Oregon at 4-over 880
After opening with a 2-over 294, the Cardinal added a
1-under 291 before finishing up with a 3-over 295. The Ducks only trailed
Arizona by five shots after firing an opening round of 5-under 287, but
struggled to a 303 in Tuesday’s second round. Oregon bounced back with a
2-under 290 in Wednesday’s final round.
Arizona was the lone Pac-12 representative at East Lake,
which traditionally invites the previous spring’s NCAA semifinalists. The
Wildcats fell to Wake Forest in a closer-than-it-looked 3.5-1.5 decision in the
semifinals before knocking off reigning national champion Duke, 3-2, in the
third-place match.
Vivian Hou, a freshman from Taiwan, was probably Arizona’s
best performer at East Lake, finishing fourth in the qualifying for match play,
getting a draw against Wake Forest and winning her match against Duke. Vivian
Hou and Ya Chun Chang, a sophomore from Taiwan, led the way for Arizona at
Nanea as they finished in a tie for fourth place in the individual standings at
6-under 213.
Vivian Hou fired three consecutive 2-under 71s. Ya Chun Chang
opened with a 1-under 72 and added a 1-under 71 before closing with a 3-under
70. Ya Chun Chang was right in the middle of Arizona’s run to the semifinals
last spring, the young freshman on a team that was led by Bianca Pagdanganan
and Haley Moore, both of whom qualified for the LPGA Tour in the Q-Series at
Pinehurst last week.
Therese Warner, a freshman from Kenneville, Wash. who was
also coming off a strong showing at East Lake, backed up Vivian Hou and Ya Chun
Chung as she finished among the group tied for 10th place at 2-under
217. Warner had a share of the lead after the opening round when she posted a
5-under 68. She backed off with a 4-over 77 in the second round before closing
with a 1-under 72.
Hollie Muse, a junior from England, finished a shot behind
Warner in the group tied for 13th place at 1-under 218. After
opening with a 1-over 74, Muse added a pair of 1-under 72s.
Yu-Sang Hou, a junior from Taiwan and No. 16 in Women’s WAGR,
finished in the group tied for 17th place at even-par 219 as she
sandwiched a 4-over 77 with a pair of 2-under 71s. Locked in a tight battle
with UCLA, Arizona came up with five players under par in Wednesday’s final
round.
The individual title went to Washington’s Rino Sasaki, a
junior from Japan who was the picture of consistency with three consecutive
3-under 70s for a 9-under 210 total. Sasaki finished in a tie for second place
behind Southern Cal’s Jennifer Chang in the individual chase in last spring’s NCAA
Che Elum Regional.
A couple of UCLA players, the veteran senior Mariel Galdiano
of Pearl City, Hawaii and No. 43 in the Women’s WAGR and Ty Akabane, a freshman
from Danville, Calif., finished in a tie for second place at 7-under 212, two
shots behind Sasaki.
Galdiano showed up in my Q-Series post earlier this week
because I recalled that, as the qualifying medalist in the 2016 U.S. Women’s
Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club, she fell in 22 holes in the opening round
of match play to Muni He, the medalist in the eight-round Q-Series at
Pinehurst. Galdiano has twice represented the United States in the Curtis Cup
Match. She brings a wealth of experience to what looks like a young, but
talented UCLA team.
Galdiano sandwiched a 3-under 70 with a pair of 2-under 71s
at Nanea. Akabane matched par in the opening round with a 73 and added a
3-under 70 before closing with a 4-under 69, one of only two sub-70 rounds
recorded in Wednesday’s windup.
Finishing alone in sixth place, a shot behind Arizona’s Ya
Chun Chang and Vivian Hu at 5-under 214, was Arizona State’s Raquel Olmos, a
junior from Spain. After opening with a 1-over 74, Olmos rattled off a pair of
3-under 70s.
Allisen Corpuz, junior from Honolulu, Hawaii and No. 30 in
the Women’s WAGR, was another of Southern Cal’s fab four of freshmen two years
ago. Corpuz shared seventh place in the individual standings with UCLA’s freshman
phenom, Emma Spitz of Austria and No. 18 in the Women’s WAGR, at 4-under 215.
Corpuz opened with a 3-under 70 and added a 2-under 71
before closing with a 1-over 74. Spitz, one of Europe’s top junior players before
arriving at UCLA, fired a 4-under 69 in the opening round and added a 1-under
72 before finishing up with a 1-over 74.
Oregon State’s Ellie Slama, a junior from Salem, Ore., was
another shot behind Corpuz and Spitz in ninth place at 3-under 216 after
sandwiching a 3-over 76 with a pair of 3-under 70s.
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