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Sunday, February 3, 2019

UCLA grabs four-shot lead over star-studded Northrop Grumman field


   The Pac-12 has produced the last four NCAA champions and accounted for three of the four semifinalists in the NCAA Championship each of the last two seasons.
   But none of those teams was UCLA, although the Bruins were crowned Pac-12 team champions in each of those two seasons. Welcome to life in the most competitive conference in Division I women’s golf.
   It probably didn’t help UCLA’s chances this year that Lilia Vu, who was at or near the top of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) for most of the last year, turned pro during the midseason break after a strong finish in the LPGA Q-Series at the Pinehurst Resort in November.
   The Bruins aren’t the only team to lose a top player – or two in Alabama’s case – to the LPGA Tour. It’s where a lot of these women are trying to get to and if you’re recruiting top-notch talent, you want them to think they’re good enough to make it to the big leagues some day. Not a whole lot you can do when some day arrives a little earlier than you hoped.
   The spring campaign of NCAA Division I women’s golf teed off Sunday with the opening round of the UCF Challenge in Orlando, Fla., covered in a separate post, and the opening round of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at the Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. It never rains in Southern California, but it did Sunday.
   The Northrop Grumann’s 16-team field includes 11 of the top 20 teams in the latest Golfstat rankings. More than a few of these teams are going to still be playing when the NCAA Championship gets under way at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. in three short months.
   The 6,017-yard, par-71 Palos Verdes layout played pretty tough in the rain Sunday, but it was UCLA, No. 12 in the latest Golfstat rankings, which grabbed a four-shot lead with an opening round of 7-over-par 291.
   Not surprisingly, two of the Bruins’ closest pursuers are Pac-12 rivals Stanford, ranked 13th, and top-ranked Southern California, two of the three teams that represented the conference in the semifinals in last spring’s NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
   Stanford carded a solid 11-over 295 and is alone in third. Southern Cal, coming off a strong fall campaign, is tied for third with two-time reigning Big 12 champion Texas, ranked second, and No. 71 Ohio State at 15-over 299, four shots behind Stanford. Several of Ohio State’s Big Ten sisters are playing in the UCF Challenge, but the Buckeyes went west to test the loaded Northrop Grumman field.
   Ohio State lost Jaclyn Lee, the talented Canadian who won the Big Ten individual title last spring, to the pro ranks during the midseason break.
   No. 14 Wake Forest is alone in sixth at 300, reigning national champion Arizona, ranked ninth, is seventh at 19-over 303 and No. 26 Furman and No. 35 Baylor are tied for eighth at 20-over 304.
   Vu’s departure hurts UCLA’s depth, but the Bruins certainly still have some talented players. They were led in the opening round of the Northrop Grumman by Beth Wu, a senior from Diamond Bar, Calif. and Claire Legaspi, a junior from the Philippines, both of whom are in a group of four players tied for fourth in the individual standings at even-par 71.
   Only three players broke par at Palos Verdes Sunday, led by individual co-leaders Agathe Laisne, Texas’ talented sophomore from France, and Wake Forest’s Letizia Bagnoli, a freshman from Italy, each of whom carded a 2-under 69.
   Backing up the top two for UCLA was reigning Pac-12 individual champion Patty Tavatanakit, a sophomore from Thailand who is No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR. Tavatanakit is in the group tied for 11th after carding a 2-over 73.
   Mariel Galdiano, a junior from Pearl City, Hawaii and No. 15 in the Women’s WAGR, was UCLA’s final counter, posting a 5-over 76 and is among the group tied for 30th. Galdiano is as battle-tested as they come. She has played on the last two U.S. Curtis Cup teams, including last summer’s group that was a dominating 17-3 winner over Great Britain & Ireland at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.
   I watched her fire a 6-under 65 to grab medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club before she had ever swung a club as a collegiate golfer. Girl’s got game.
   Rounding out the UCLA lineup was Vera Markevich, a sophomore from Russia who signed for an 85.
   Laisne was overshadowed a little in her freshman season at Texas, but she arrived in Austin after capturing the title in the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship. And she was part of a spectacular freshman class all across the country that included her teammate Kaitlyn Papp.
   It might have taken Laisne a year to get adjusted to college life in the States, but no team carried a better No. 5 player than the Longhorns did last spring and improved play by her makes Texas very deserving of its lofty No. 2 ranking.
   The only other player to better par Sunday was Stanford’s Andrea Lee, a junior from Hermosa Beach, Calif. and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR. Like UCLA’s Galdiano, Lee is a veteran of the last two U.S. Curtis Cup teams. Lee is alone in third in the individual standings at 1-under 70. Lee has led the Cardinal to the final four at the NCAA Championship in each of the last two springs.
   Joining UCLA’s Wu and Legaspi in the group tied for fourth at even-par 71 were Southern California’s Amelia Garvey, a sophomore from New Zealand, and Florida’s Carlotta Ricolfi, a junior from Italy who is competing as an individual for the Gators. Garvey was one of the Trojans’ freshman fab four that led them to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship last spring.
   Yu-Sang Hu, a sophomore from Taiwan who was just one of the heroes of Arizona’s stunning run to the national championship last spring, heads a group of three players tied for eighth at 1-over 72.
   The other two players joining Hu at 72 are both from Ohio State, Aneka Seumanutafa, a freshman from Emmitsburg, Md., and Sofia Seldemirova, a sophomore from Bulgaria. Seldemirova is competing as an individual and, like Florida’s Riocolfi, is trying to make her case for a spot in the starting lineup.




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