Walsh leads the way as Wake Forest remains atop team standings in NCAA Championship

   Atlantic Coast Conference power Wake Forest maintained its spot at the top of the team standings following Saturday’s second round of the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., but Stanford, the No. 1 team in women’s college golf, is right on the Demon Deacons’ heels.

   The Demon Deacons, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, added an 8-under-par 280 over the 6,386-yard, par-72 Grayhawk layout to their opening-round 279 for a 17-under 559 total.

   Wake Forest was led by veteran senior Lauren Walsh of Ireland and No. 48 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking as she carded a second straight 5-under 67 to take the lead in the individual standings with a 10-under 134 total.

   The best team round of the day belonged to Pac-12 power Stanford, which has been the No. 1 team in women’s college golf throughout the wraparound 2022-2023 season and is defending the national championship it won a year ago at Grayhawk.

   The Cardinal, behind a 5-under 67 from Rose Zhang, who has been the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR since she arrived on campus in Stanford in the fall of 2021, recorded a 15-under 273 after matching par in the opening round with a 288 for a 15-under 561 total that left them in second place, two shots behind Wake Forest.

   Zhang, a sophomore from Irvine, Calif., is seeking a second straight NCAA individual crown. The winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this spring, Zhang had matched par in the opening round with a 72. Her 5-under 139 total left her among a trio of players tied for sixth place.

   The field of 30 teams will be cut in half following Sunday’s third round. The final 15 teams will battle it out in Monday’s final round of qualifying for match play with the top eight finishers earning spots in the match-play bracket. The quarterfinals of match play will tee off Tuesday morning.

   The battle for the NCAA’s individual title will conclude Monday when Golf Channel cameras will start to roll.

   Walsh, who has represented Great Britain & Ireland in the last two playings of the Curtis Cup Match, had five birdies and an eagle on her scorecard while taking the individual lead.

   After making birdies at the third and fourth holes, Walsh stumbled briefly with a bogey at the fifth hole. She then made an eagle at the par-5 seventh and added birdies at eight and 10 before giving a shot back with a bogey at 12. Walsh got it back to 5-under for the day and 10-under for the championship with a birdie at the 15^th hole.

   Southern California’s Catherine Park, a freshman from Irvine, Calif., had the best round of the day, a sizzling 8-under 64, and was a shot behind Walsh in second place with a 9-under 136 total.

   Another one of women’s college golf’s top teams, Southeastern Conference power South Carolina, ranked No. 4, also moved up the leaderboard with a 12-under 276. Combined with their opening round of 2-under 286, it left the Gamecocks in third place, a shot behind Stanford with a 14-under 562 total.

   No. 11 Texas, out of the Big 12, also registered a 12-under 276 and was in fourth place with an 8-under 568 total that left the Longhorns six shots behind South Carolina. Texas had opened with a 4-over 292.

   Big 12 champion Oklahoma State, ranked 24^th, and SEC champion Texas A&M, were three shots behind Texas in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 5-under 571.

   The Cowgirls had opened with a solid 8-under 280, but fell back with a 3-over 291 in Saturday’s second round. The Aggies added a 4-under 284 to their opening round of 1-under 287.

   No. 9 Southern California, the Pac-12 champion, bounced back from an opening-round 296 with a 12-under 276 and was alone in seventh place with a 4-under 572 total.

   West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, ranked 16^th, and Wake Forest’s ACC rival Florida State, ranked 10^th, were two shots behind Southern Cal in a tie for eighth place, each landing on 2-under 574 after Saturday’s second round.

   The Waves bounced back from an opening-round 295 with a 9-under 279 while the Seminoles carded a 2-under 286 after matching par in the opening round with a 288.

   Rounding out the top 10 was Mountain West Conference champion New Mexico as the Lobos, ranked 39th, matched par with a 288 in the second round and was alone in 10^th place with a 1-under 575 total.

   Backing up Walsh for Wake Forest was Mimi Rhodes, a junior from England who carded her second straight 2-under 70 that left her in the group tied for ninth place at 4-under 140.

   Rachel Kuehn, a senior from Asheville, N.C. and No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, matched par with a 72 for the Demon Deacons and was in a group tied for 24^th place with a 2-under 142 total.

   Graduate student Emilia Migliaccio of Cary, N.C. and No. 32 in the Women’s WAGR was a shot behind Kuehn in the group tied for 32^nd place at 1-under 143 after adding a 1-under 71 to her opening-round 72.

   Migliaccio is in her sixth year at Wake Forest, taking the extra year granted by the NCAA to make up for the spring of 2020 lost to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Migliaccio took a gap year in 2021-’22 and was at Grayhawk a year ago doing post-round interviews as part of her internship with The Golf Channel.

   Rounding out the Wake Forest lineup was Carolina Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR who added a 2-over 74 in the second round to her opening-round 72 and was in the group tied for 62^nd place with a 2-over 146 total.

   Oklahoma State’s Maddison Hinson-Tochard, a junior from Australia and No. 58 in the Women’s WAGR, was a shot behind Southern Cal’s Park in third place in the individual standings. Hinson-Tolchard had grabbed the lead in the opening round with a 6-under 66 and added a 2-under 70 that left her with an 8-under 136 total.

   Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek, a sophomore from France, and San Jose State’s Lucia Lopez-Ortega, a sophomore from Spain, were a shot behind Hinson-Tolchard at 7-under 137 in a tie for in a tie for fourth place.

   Cernousek added a 4-under 68 to her opening-round 69 while Lopez-Ortega, who had opened with a 68, added a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round.

   Joining Stanford’s Zhang in the trio tied for sixth place at 5-under 139 were Lopez-Ortega’s San Jose State teammate, Kajsa Arwefjall, a senior from Sweden and No. 45 in the Women’s WAGR, and South Carolina’s Mathilde Claisse, a senior from France and No. 83 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Arwejfall added a 4-under 68 to her opening-round 71 while Claisse, who had opened with a 70, posted a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round.

   Stanford’s Rachel Heck, a junior from Memphis, Tenn. and No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, had returned to the Cardinal lineup in the opening round after sitting out the spring with a shoulder injury, but struggled to an 82. Heck won the NCAA individual title at Grayhawk in 2021 as a freshman.

   Heck was replaced in the lineup for the second round with another player returning from injury, Brooke Seay, a senior from San Diego and No. 57 in the Women’s WAGR. Seay, who had also missed the spring portion of the wraparound 2022-’23 season, contributed a solid 3-under 69 to Stanford’s second-round surge.

   Wake Forest’s ACC rival Duke, ranked 22^nd, struggled in the second round with a 296 that left it in 15^th place with a 15-over 584 total.

   Blue Devils junior Phoebe Brinker, who starred scholastically at Archmere Academy and is No. 51 in the Women’s WAGR, added a 3-over 75 to her opening-round 74 that landed her among the group tied for 91^st place with a 5-over 149 total.