A record roll for Crimson Tide in runaway victory in The Schooner Fall Classic

   It’s not like it was a big secret that Alabama was going to have a tremendous women’s golf team this fall.

   The tipoff might have been when three members of the Crimson Tide reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur this summer at The Golf Club of Tennessee.

   Nobody knows better than two of those players, Lauren Stephenson, a senior from Lexington, S.C., and Kristen Gillman, a junior from Austin, Texas, that nobody wins an NCAA championship in October. Stephenson and Gillman, who captured her second U.S. Women’s Amateur title at The Golf Club of Tennessee in August, are key holdovers from an Alabama team that made it all the way to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match last spring only to fall to Arizona.

   So let’s just keep it in the moment. Who knows what’s going to happen between now and next spring’s NCAA Championship at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.?

   And some of the moments the powerful Crimson Tide had last weekend in winning the team title in The Schooner Fall Classic are worth celebrating in their own right.

   Let’s start with 45-under par and let that roll around in your brain for a couple of minutes. That’s a team score, 45-under, four better than any NCAA Division I team has ever done. Dare I say, Roll Tide. It was accomplished over the 6,048-yard, par-71 Belmar Golf Club layout that is the home track of the Oklahoma Sooners.

   Or how about the school-record 22-under 262 Alabama posted in Saturday’s second round, which gave the Crimson Tide a school-record 36-hole total of 34-under 534.

   Let’s focus in on that spectacular second round a little more. Jiwon Jeon, the former junior college standout at Daytona State College from South Korea who lost to Gilman in the U.S. Women’s Amateur final, had a 7-under 64 on her way to the individual title.

   Stephenson, No. 3 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), had a 6-under 65. Gillman, No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, had a 3-under 68. Angelica Moresco, a sophomore from Italy, matched Stephenson’s 65. So that’s a 64, two 65s and a 68. So that’s how you get to 22-under for the day.

   Alabama followed that up with its worst score of the weekend, an 11-under 273. It added up to 807, 45-under.

   Two-time reigning Big 12 champion Texas had to be feeling pretty good about its 28-under 824 total, but that left the Longhorns 17 shots behind Alabama.

   It brings to mind the famous Hubert Green line after he finished third behind Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in the Duel in the Sun, the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry: “I won the golf tournament, I don’t know what those two guys were doing.”

   Texas had a pair of 12-under 272s Friday and Saturday and still trailed the Crimson Tide by 10 shots. The Longhorns finished up with a 4-under 280.

   Host Oklahoma ripped off a pretty remarkable 17-under 267 in Saturday’s second round, but it barely registered in the midst of the Crimson Tide rout. The Sooners struggled in the opening round with a 5-over 289 and finished up with a 9-under 275, their 26-under last two rounds earning them third place at 21-under 831.

   Miami, which put together a 17-under 267 of its own in the final round, was fourth, two shots behind Oklahoma at 19-under 823. Like the Sooners, the Hurricanes struggled in the opening round with a 7-over 291 before firing a 9-under 275 in Saturday’s second round to set the stage for Sunday’s big finish.

   Baylor bettered par in all three rounds, an opening round of 6-under 278, a 4-under 280 in the second round and a final round of 3-under 281, to finish fifth at 13-under 839.

   Notre Dame and senior Isabella DiLisio, the 2013 PIAA Class AAA champion at Mount St. Joseph, fired a 6-under 278 in the final round, tied for the second-lowest team round in program history, to climb into 10^th place in the 15-team field at 1-under 861.

   Pretty good showing, but a remarkable 44 shots behind Alabama. The Irish opened with a 7-over 291 before shaving nine shots off that total with a 2-under 282 in the second round.

   Let’s get back to Alabama. Before The Schooner Fall Classic, the Crimson Tide had never had a player break 200 in a 54-hole event. They now have two.

   Jeon, a junior and No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, sandwiched that sparkling 64 in the second round with a pair of 6-under 66s for a 17-under 196 total that was a school record for total and in relation to par.

   Stephenson, a teammate of Gillman’s on a United States Curtis Cup team that scored a smashing 17-3 victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. in June, only trailed Jeon by a shot after adding that second-round 65 to her opening round of 5-under 66. She added a 3-under 68 for a 14-under 199 total that made her the runnerup to Jeon in the individual chase.

   Moresco shared eighth place at 7-under 206 after matching par with a 71 in the opening round and finishing up with a 1-under 70 around her second-round 65.

   Gillman, who never seems to play a really awful round, opened with a 2-under 69 and finished with a 1-under 70 around her second-round 68 to finish among the group tied for 10^th at 6-under 207.

Kenzie Wright, a junior from Frisco, Texas who transferred to Tuscaloosa from SMU, rounded out the Alabama lineup as she finished among the group tied for 32^nd at even-par 213. Wright’s final round of 2-under 69 was a counter for the Crimson Tide.

   Texas A&M’s Amber Park, a sophomore from Allen, Texas, finished three shots behind Stephenson in third at 11-under 202. After opening with a 5-under 66, Park added a 4-under 67 before finishing up with a 2-under 69.

   Miami’s Kristyna Frydova, a sophomore from the Czech Republic, ripped off back-to-back 5-under 66s in the second and third rounds to finish a shot behind Park in fourth at 9-under 204.

   Texas accounted for two of the three players who finished tied for fifth at 8-under 205 as Emilee Hoffman, a senior from Folsom, Calif., and freshman Hailee Cooper, one of the most highly-sought recruits in the country a year ago from Montgomery, Texas, both landed on that number.

   Hoffman ripped off back-to-back 4-under 67s in the first two rounds before cooling off with an even-par 71 in the final round. Cooper fired a sizzling 6-under 65 in Saturday’s second round and put a pair of 1-under 70s around it.

   Rounding out the trio at 205 was Oklahoma’s Kaitlin Milligan, a sophomore homegirl from Norman, Okla. who fired a 5-under 66 in the second round and finished up with a 3-under 68.

   Milligan’s teammate, Libby Winans, a freshman from Richardson, Texas, joined Alabama’s Moresco in a tie for eighth at 7-under 206. Winans mirrored the effort by Milligan, opening with an even-par 71, adding a 5-under 66 in the second round and finishing up with a 3-under 68.

   Notre Dame’s solid 6-under 278 in the final round featured a trio of 2-under 69s by DiLisio, Emma Albrecht, a senior from Ormond Beach, Fla., and Abby Heck, a sophomore from Memphis, Tenn.

   Emma Albrecht and Heck led the way for the Irish as both finished among the group tied for 25^th at 2-under 211. Emma Albrecht matched par in the first two rounds with a pair of 71s while Heck started slowly with a 3-over 74 before firing a 3-under 68 ahead of her final-round 69.

   DiLisio opened with a 2-over 73 and matched par with a 71 in the second round before her final-round 69 as she finished among the group tied for 32^nd at even-par 213.

   Maddie Rose Hamilton, a senior from Louisville, Ky., matched par in the final round to end up in the group tied for 44^th at 4-over 217. Freshman Claire Albrecht, Emma Albrecht’s younger sister, rounded out the Notre Dame starting lineup as she closed with her second straight 4-over 75 to finish among the group tied for 59^th at 223.

   Mia Ayer, a junior from Waco, Texas, competed as an individual and joined Claire Albrecht in that group tied for 59^th at 223 after matching par in the final round with a 71.

   Notre Dame never stopped grinding last year and was rewarded with a bid to the NCAA Madison Regional. The Fighting Irish appear to be picking up right where they left off last spring.