Wake Forest takes title in another shootout at UCF Challenge; UCF's Nordfors captures individual crown

    It’s hard to call the 2021-2022 season a disappointment for Wake Forest.

   The Demon Deacons claimed an Atlantic Coast Conference championship and you can’t take that trophy away from them. They advanced out of the NCAA’s Franklin Regional to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. and then they hit the wall.

   The goal for any team at Wake Forest’s level is to get into match play at the NCAA Championship and the Demon Deacons had some accomplished match-play players in their lineup. They just didn’t get there. And that, I’m quite sure, left them disappointed.

   For the trio of Rachel Kuehn, a senior from Asheville, N.C. and No. 8 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Lauren Walsh, a senior from Ireland and No. 66 in the Women’s WAGR, and Emilia Migliaccio, a graduate student from Cary, N.C. and No. 29 in the Women’s WAGR, this spring will be one last shot to put together a run at a national championship.

   Migliaccio won a match in Wake Forest’s 3-2 loss to Duke in the Final Match of the 2019 NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. It seems like a long, long time ago.

   Wake Forest came out of the fall portion of the 2022-’23 season at No. 2 in the Golfstat rankings. Even if No. 1 Stanford seems almost unbeatable, the Demon Deacons would love to give it their best shot against anyone, even the Cardinal.

   Wake Forest began the final leg of its journey this week in the UCF Challenge, claiming the team crown for the second straight year at Eagle Lodge Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. The UCF Challenge wrapped up Tuesday.

   With Kuehn finishing in third place in the individual standings and Walsh landing in a tie for fourth, Wake Forest went 42-under par with an 822 total and needed almost every one of its birdies to overcome runnerup Mississippi State, a tough Southeastern Conference entry, by four shots and perennial Big Ten power Northwestern, which finished a shot behind the Bulldogs in third place.

   Of course, Wake Forest won the UCF Challenge title a year ago with a 45-under 819, so the Demon Deacons had an inkling that they might have to take it low to repeat as the champion.

   Kuehn opened with a sparkling 8-under 64 over the 6,379-yard, par-72 Eagle Creek layout to help Wake Forest a sizzling team score of 20-under 268.

   But Northwestern, which moved up from No. 37 to No. 27 in the Golfstat rankings with its strong showing at Eagle Creek, wasn’t far behind with a strong opening round of 16-under 272. And the Wildcats took a three-shot lead over Wake Forest into the final round as they added an 18-under 270 in Monday’s second round. Wake Forest put together a pretty solid 11-under 277 of its own in the second round.

   And the Demon Deacons just kept pouring it on in the final round, registering a second straight 11-under 277 to get it to 42-under.

   Mississippi State started the week ranked 11^th, but moved up to No. 7 in the aftermath of the UCF Challenge. The Bulldogs were right there the whole way as they added a 17-under 271 in Monday’s second round to their opening round of 11-under 277. Mississippi State closed with a 10-under 278 to finish four shots behind Wake Forest in second place with a 38-under 826, smashing the program record in relation to par for a 54-hole event by six shots.

   Mississippi State was boosted by Julia Lopez Ramirez, a sophomore from Spain, who put together a fairly spectacular 54-hole total of 19-under 197 total that somehow only earned her runnerup honors behind individual champion Anna Nordfors, a graduate student at host Central Florida who came in with an otherworldly 21-under 195 total.

   Northwestern ran out of steam a little in the final round as the Wildcats recorded a 3-under 285 to finish a shot behind Mississippi State with a 37-under 827 total, pretty strong for a program that always seems to be playing its best golf late in the spring.

   Mississippi State was there at Grayhawk last spring, the Bulldogs advancing out of a tough Tallahassee Regional as a six seed, and the Wildcats just missed making it to the NCAA Championship as they lost in a playoff to Big Ten rival Purdue as a seven seed in the Stanford Regional.

   Host UCF, behind Nordfors, finished 10 shots behind Northwestern in fourth place with a 27-under 837 total. The Knights, who moved into the Golfstat top 25 with their strong showing in their home tournament at No. 22, added a 12-under 276 in Monday’s second round to their opening-round 277 before finishing up with a 4-under 284.

   Nordfors is taking the extra year of eligibility granted to players when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the final months of the 2019-’20 season at UCF after an outstanding four-year career at Campbell. Nordfors was the Big South champion at Campbell last spring.

   Nordfors established a single-round program record at UCF when she matched the 8-under 64 posted by Wake Forest’s Kuehn in Sunday’s opening round. That record lasted all of one day as Nordfors came back in Monday’s second round with a sizzling 9-under 63.

   Nordfors finally cooled off, if you can call a 4-under 68 cooling off, in the final round to reach 21-under and two shots clear of Ramirez.

   Mississippi State’s SEC rival Kentucky was another seven shots behind UCF in fifth place with a 20-under 844 total, a showing that bumped the Bluegrass Wildcats from No. 31 into Golfstat’s top 25 at No. 24. After opening with a 5-under 283, Kentucky registered an 11-under 277 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 284.

   Kentucky was missing Jensen Castle, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion from West Columbia, S.C., from its lineup. Castle, a senior, finished second in the individual standings while leading Kentucky to a runnerup finish behind Wake Forest in the UCF Challenge a year ago.

   Colonial Athletic Association champion College of Charleston was a shot behind Kentucky in sixth place with a 19-under 845 total as the Cougars added an 11-under 277 in Monday’s second round to their opening-round 280 before matching par in the final round with a 288.

   It was the opening of the spring campaign for the Big Ten’s Penn State and the Nittany Lions finished in a tie for 12^th place in the 18-team field with Iowa State, out of the Big 12, and North Carolina Wilmington, another CAA entry, each landing on 2-under 862. Penn State’s ranking held at No. 70 after the UCF Challenge while Iowa State saw its ranking drop from No. 23 to No. 30 and UNCW also head steady at No. 74.

   After opening with a 2-over 290, Penn State came in under par in the final two rounds, carding a 3-under 285 in Monday’s second round and a 1-under 287 in the final round.

   Kuehn added a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 64 and closed with a 69 to finish four shots behind Mississippi State’s Ramirez in third place in the individual standings with a 15-under 201 total and lead the way for Wake Forest.

   Walsh also had three sub-70 rounds in getting her share of fourth place with a 12-under 204 total, three shots behind her teammate Kuehn. After opening with a sparkling 5-under 67, Walsh added a 69 in Monday’s second round before finishing up with a 68.

   The Demon Deacons also got a strong showing from the defending individual UCF Challenge champion, Carolina Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain. Chacarra finished among a trio of players tied for 11^th place with an 8-under 208 total as she recorded back-to-back 70s in the final two rounds after opening with a 4-under 68.

   Chacarra had fired a stunning 10-under 62 in the final round a year ago to storm to a four-shot victory.

   Migliaccio gave Wake Forest a fourth finisher inside the top 20 as she added a 70 in Monday’s second round to her opening round of 3-under 69 before matching par in the final round with a 72 to finish among the group tied for 20^th place with an 8-under 208 total.

   Migliaccio was on her way to the LPGA Tour when she played in that Final Match of the NCAA Championship with Wake Forest in 2019 at the Blessings. But she decided to change her path in the spring of 2021. She would remain an amateur for the foreseeable future.

   Migliaccio was at Grayhawk for last year’s NCAA Championship, but not as a member of the Wake Forest team. She took the 2021-’22 season off to take an internship with The Golf Channel. She was doing post-round interviews at Grayhawk, unfortunately not of her once and future Wake Forest teammates. Migliaccio is back for a sixth year at Wake Forest, taking the extra year of eligibility she had coming to her from that nightmare spring of 2020.

   Migliaccio and Kuehn have played on winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams in a nine-month span, courtesy, of course, of the pandemic, at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales in August of 2021 and at the iconic East Course at Merion Golf Club last June. Their Wake Forest teammate Walsh played on the losing Great Britain & Ireland teams in both cases.

   They have played in some high-leverage match-play situations. If they can get the Demon Deacons into the match-play bracket this spring at Grayhawk, they would be dangerous.

   Rounding out the Wake Forest lineup at Eagle Creek was Mimi Rhodes, a junior from England who finished in the group tied for 31^st place with a 2-under 214 total. After opening with a 74, Rhodes posted a pair of back-to-back 2-under 70s.

   Mississippi State’s Ramirez, who finished fifth in the individual standings in last spring’s SEC Championship at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., added a sizzling 8-under 64 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 66, but still trailed Nordfors by three shots heading into the final round. A final round of 5-under 67 left her two shots behind Nordfors in second place with a 19-under 197 total. Not a victory, but a tremendous tournament regardless.

   Joining Wake Forest’s Walsh in the tie for fourth place at 12-undere was Iowa State’s Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn, a freshman from Thailand. After opening with a 70, Chul-Ak-Sorn registered back-to-back 5-under 67s in the final two rounds.

   College of Charleston’s Emma Schimpf, a sophomore from Daniel Island, S.C., and Northwestern’s Lauren Nguyen, a sophomore from Seattle, Wash., finished in a tie for sixth place, each landing on 11-under 205.

   Schmipf was the runnerup in last spring’s CAA Championship at the Reserve Club at St. James Plantation in Southport, N.C. She snuck down to Florida in December and claimed the title in the Women’s Dixie Amateur in a playoff at Palm Aire Country Club’s Cypress Course in Sarasota.

   After opening with a 3-under 69 at Eagle Creek, Schimpf ripped off a sparkling 6-under 66 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 70. Nguyen was only four shots off of Nordfors’ blazing pace when she added an 8-under 64 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 67. Nguyen cooled in the final round with a 2-over 74 to join Schimpf at 11-under.

   Nguyen’s teammate Dianna Lee, a freshman from San Diego, Calif., finished alone in eighth place with a 10-under 206 total. After opening with a 70, Lee climbed up the leaderboard with a 5-under 67 in Monday’s second round and a final-round 69.

   Ramirez’s Mississippi State teammate, Izzy Pellot, a freshman playing not far from her Orlando home, and Kentucky’s Laney Frye, a senior home girl from Lexington, Ky., finished in a tie for ninth place, each posting a 9-under 207 total.

   Pellot, coming off a standout junior career, added a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 69 before finishing up with a 70. Frye rattled off three straight 3-under 69s.

   Joining Wake Forest’s Chacarra in the trio tied for 11^th place at 8-under 208 were a third Northwestern player in the top 11, Jieni Li, a junior from China, and Frye’s Kentucky teammate, Ivy Shepherd, a graduate student from Peachtree City, Ga.

   Li added a 71 in Monday’s second round to her opening round of 3-under 69 before closing with a solid 4-under 68. Shepherd, whose college career started at Clemson, carded back-to-back 3-under 69s in the first two rounds before finishing up with a 70.

   Penn State was led by Sarah Willis, a fifth-year player from Eaton, Ohio who finished among the group tied for 17^th place with a 6-under 210 total. Willis, who has been a really solid player for head coach Denise St. Pierre during Willis’ time in Happy Valley, was the picture of consistency, registering three straight 2-under 70s at Eagle Creek.

   Drew Nienhaus, a sophomore from St. Louis, Mo., backed up Willis as she landed in the group tied for 37th place at even-par 216. After opening with a 3-over 75, Nienhaus matched par with a 72 in Monday’s second round before closing with a solid 3-under 69.

   Isha Dhruva, a senior from Katy, Texas ended up among the group tied for 60^th place with a 3-over 219 total. After opening with a 2-over 74, Dhruva matched par in Monday’s second round with a 72 before finishing up with a 73.

   Mathilde Delavallade, a senior from France, struggled a little at Eagle Creek as she carded back-to-back 3-over 75s in the final two rounds after opening with a 71 to finish alone in 71^st place with a 5-over 221 total.

   Rounding out the Penn State lineup was sophomore Michelle Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus who finished in the group tied for 77^th place at 8-over 224. Cox, the 2021 Pennsylvania Junior Girls Championship winner, bounced back from an opening-round 78 with a solid 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 3-over 75.

   Taylor Waller, a fifth-year player who starred scholastically at Canon-McMillan, competed as an individual for Penn State and finished among the group tied for 52^nd place with a 2-over 218 total. Waller opened with a 1-under 71, added a 1-over 73 in Monday’s second round and closed with a 74.