Southern Cal gets jump on talented Pac-12 Championship field

   A showdown between cross-town rivals Southern California, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, and No. 4 UCLA seemed to be in the offing when the Pac-12 Championship teed off Monday at Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, Calif.

   And through Round 1, that’s the way it played out with Southern Cal, behind a 5-under 67 from Tiffany Chan, a junior from Hong Kong, fired a 10-under 278 team score to take a four-shot lead on UCLA.

   But there is a lot of golf to be played in a 11-team field that includes eight of the Golfstat top 20 and in which eight teams broke par in the opening round. That’s right, eight teams broke par. Oh yeah, and one of those teams, No. 12 Stanford, is just the reigning national champion.

   Chan was backed up by two of her teammates who were in the 11-player logjam tied for fifth at 2-under 70. They were Robynn Ree, a freshman from Redondo Beach, Calif., and Gabriela Then, a junior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

   UCLA’s 6-under 282 was paced by three of the players in that 11-player group at 2-under 70. They were Bronte Law, a junior from England and ranked by Golfstat as the No. 1 individual player in Division I, Lilia Vu, a freshman from Fountain Valley, Calif., and Bethany Wu, a freshman from Diamond Beach, Calif. and a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup team.

   Arizona State, ranked 10^th, looms in third place at 3-under 285, three shots back of UCLA. The Sun Devils were led by Monica Vaughn, a junior from Reedsport, Calif. and a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup team who is alone in fourth place after a 3-under 69. That’s right, two U.S. Curtis Cuppers in this field and UCLA’s Law is probably a good bet to be on the Great Britain & Ireland side.

   The individual leader after Day 1 is Arizona’s Haley Moore, a freshman from Escondido, Calif. who fired a 6-under 66 to lead USC’s Chan by one. Moore helped the No. 11 Wildcats post a 2-under 286 team score, which puts them in a tie for fourth with Oregon, ranked 20^th, and Colorado, ranked 40^th.

   Oregon was paced by Cathleen Santoso, a junior from Australia who is in that large group at 2-under 70. Colorado also has two players who came in at that popular 2-under 70 figure, Esther Lee, a junior from Los Alamitos, Calif., and Alexis Keating, a senior from Elma, Wash.

   Stanford, ranked 12^th, and Washington State, ranked 81^st, are tied for seventh at 1-under 287.

   The defending NCAA champion Cardinal was led by Shannon Aubert, a sophomore from Stuart, Fla., while the Cougars were led by Alivia Brown, a sophomore from Gig Harbor, Wash., and Cherokee Kim, a junior from DuPont, Wash. If you guessed that Aubert, Brown and Kim all shot 2-under 70, you’ve been paying attention.

   In an otherwise disappointing day for No. 13 Washington – although its 1-over 289 total is only four shots out of third place in this tightly bunched field – Ying Lee, a senior from China, carded a 4-under 68 and is all alone in third place in the individual chase, two shots back of Arizona’s Moore.