Hard to believe it’s been five months since Wake Forest captured the women’s title by beating Southern California and Florida claimed the men’s crown by defeating Georgia Tech in back-to-back weeks of thrilling NCAA Championship action at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
It’s what makes last week’s East Lake Cup, which brings together the previous spring’s NCAA semifinalists at the Atlanta Athletic Club with The Golf Channel broadcasting the proceedings, such a big event.
It’s just about time for college golf’s midseason pause and the East Lake Cup offers a chance to look back at the fall portion of the wraparound 2023-2024 season and ahead to next spring’s sprint to the NCAA Championship, which moves to a new site, the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s Champions Course in Carlsbad, Calif.
La Costa’s Champions Course, once the home of the Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour, has had a facelift courtesy of Gil Hanse and his band of renovation experts. It will be the home of the next three NCAA Championships and there’s talk of making it the permanent home of the annual extravaganza of Division I college golf.
College golf is unique in that there is a chance that some of the players who teed it up in the fall may turn professional during the midseason pause, changing the outlook for the teams they are departing. It happens more on the women’s side with the LPGA Q-Series coming up at the end of this month, but it has happened on the men’s side as well.
For now, it looks like the teams that were two of the big favorites on the women’s side going into the postseason last spring, Wake Forest, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and perennial Pac-12 power Stanford, remain on solid footing.
The defending national champion Demon Deacons pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Cardinal in a tight, tense battle for the East Lake Cup title in Atlanta last week.
On the men’s side, North Carolina, with the addition of one of the other Ford triplets, Maxwell, to his brother David on the roster, helped the Tar Heels claim a 3.5-1.5 victory over ACC rival Florida State in the East Lake Cup final.
Followers of Division I women’s college golf had hoped for a Wake Forest-Stanford showdown during last spring’s postseason, but never got it as the Cardinal were stunned in the semifinals by Pac-12 rival Southern California.
A lot of the big names that made a Wake Forest-Stanford match such an intriguing prospect were not there last week for one reason or another.
Emilia Migliaccio and Lauren Walsh exhausted their college eligibility after playing key roles in the Demon Deacons’ run to a national title.
Rose Zhang, the best amateur player on the planet for two years, already owns an LPGA Tour victory after turning pro following her second straight NCAA individual crown at Grayhawk for Stanford.
Rachel Heck, the NCAA individual champion as a freshman in 2021, and Brooke Seay are both on the Stanford roster, although neither was in the lineup in Atlanta. Both were struggling to recover from injuries last spring, but if both are healthy and playing in the spring of 2024, the Cardinal would again be one of the favorites to capture an NCAA crown.
Heck received the Tom Cousins Award, named for the founder of the East Lake Cup, last week, but she was unable to tee it up in the East Lake Cup because she was preparing to represent the United States in the Pan American Games at the Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago, Chile.
Wake Forest still had three players who were in the lineup in their title-clinching victory over USC at Grayhawk among the five the Demon Deacons sent out there against Stanford last week and two of them accounted for full points, including the clincher, which came from Carolina Chacarra, a junior from Spain and No. 30 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
Chacarra topped Stanford’s Meghan Ganne, a sophomore from Holmdel, N.J. and No. 64 in the Women’s WAGR, 1-up, in a battle of heavyweights that gave Wake Forest the edge in the East Cup title match.
Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn, a graduate student from Asheville, N.C. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, is back for a fifth year and she rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Sadie Englemann, a senior from Austin, Texas and No. 52 in the Women’s WAGR.
Kuehn represented the United States as the Stars & Stripes finished in a tie for sixth place in last month’s Women’s World Amateur Team Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. She wore the Red, White & Blue in back-to-back U.S. wins in the Curtis Cup against Great Britain & Ireland at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales in August of 2021 and again at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township in June of 2022. She’s pretty good at this match-play thing.
Englemann flashed her considerable talent by capturing medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the East Lake Cup with a 3-under 69 over the 6,276-yard, par-72 Atlanta Athletic Club layout.
Ganne had finished in a tie for second place in the one-day, stroke-play shootout Oct. 30th with a 1-under 71 as the Cardinal claimed the top seed in the four-team match-play bracket with an even-par 288 total.
Wake Forest’s third full point in the title match against Stanford came from talented newcomer Macy Pate, a freshman home girl from Winston-Salem, N.C. Pate pulled out a 1-up decision over Caroline Sturdza, a junior from Switzerland.
The freshmen often show up on the college golf scene ready to contribute right away. Pate had to be feeling a little pressure in that situation with The Golf Channel cameras rolling, but it didn’t seem to bother her all that much.
Stanford’s Kelly Xu, a sophomore from Claremont, Calif., put a point on the board by outlasting Anne-Sterre den Dunnen, a sophomore from the Netherlands, in a 21-hole thriller. Xu was in the Stanford lineup in the Cardinal’s run to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship last spring.
Stanford’s other point came from Paula Martin Sampedro, a freshman from Spain and No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR, as she earned a 1-up verdict over Mimi Rhodes, a senior from England who was in the lineup for Wake Forest in its victory over USC in the Final Match at Grayhawk last spring.
The victory was the third of the fall campaign for Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons won another match-play event, The Jackson T. Stephens Cup at the Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, by knocking off Texas, 3-2, in the final and claimed the title in the Schooner Classic at Belmar Golf Club in Norman, Okla.
Wake Forest reached the final in Atlanta with a 3-2 victory over reigning Pac-12 champion Southern Cal in one of the Halloween semifinal matches. It was a rematch of last spring’s Final Match in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk.
Rhodes picked up an important point when she claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Catherine Park, a sophomore from Irvine, Calif. and No. 45 in the Women’s WAGR. Catherine Park finished in a tie for second place behind Zhang in the individual chase in the NCAA Championship last spring at Grayhawk.
Chacarra picked up a point with a 2 and 1 victory over Amari Avery, a junior from Riverside, Calif. and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR and Kuehn captured a 2 and 1 victory over Cindy Kou, a junior from China.
The Trojans got a point from their veteran, Brianna Navarrosa, a senior from San Diego, as she rolled to a 4 and 3 decision over Pate. It was Navarrosa who stunned Zhang to fuel Southern Cal’s semifinal upset of Stanford in the NCAA semifinals at Grayhawk.
Southern Cal has a talented freshman who stepped right into its lineup as well and Bailey Shoemaker, the Dade City, Fla. native who was coming off a standout career in junior golf, earned a 2 and 1 victory over del Dunnen.
Stanford’s Ganne pulled out a thriller in 22 holes over Texas A&M’s Zoe Slaughter, a sophomore from Houston, to give the Cardinal the deciding point in a 3-2 victory in the other semifinal. Ganne and Southern Cal’s Avery were the breakout young stars on the U.S. team in the Curtis Cup at Merion.
Englemann rolled to a 4 and 3 victory over Mia Nixon, a sophomore from Martins Mill, Texas, and Martin Sampedro captured a 2 and 1 win over Lana Calbuso-Kwee, a junior from Wailuku, Hawaii for the other two Stanford counters.
Texas A&M, the reigning Southeastern Conference champion, got a 2 and 1 victory by Bianca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, a graduate student from Spain, over Sturdza, and a 3 and 1 triumph for Jennie Park, a graduate student from Carrollton, Texas and No. 70 in the Women’s WAGR, over Xu to account for its two points.
Southern Cal got match wins from Avery, Navarrosa and Catherine Park in a 3-2 victory over Texas A&M in the third-place match.
Wake Forest had finished three shots behind Stanford in second place in qualifying for match play with a 3-over 291 total. Southern Cal was a shot behind Wake Forest in third place with a 4-over 292 total. It was another nine shots back to Texas A&M in fourth place with a 13-over 301 total.
Backing up Englemann and Ganne for Stanford was Martin Sampedro, who matched par with a 72 to finish in a tie for sixth place with Southern Cal’s Catherine Park and Wake Forest’s Kuehn.
Xu finished in a tie for 15th place for the Cardinal with a 4-over 76 and Sturdza rounded out the Stanford lineup as she finished in a tie for 19th place with a 79.
Joining Stanford’s Ganne in the tie for second in the individual standings at 1-under 71 were Southern Cal’s Kou, Texas A&M’s Jennie Park and Wake Forest’s Pate.
Wake Forest’s Chacarra finished alone in ninth place with a 1-over 73, a shot behind the trio of Martin Sampedro, Kuehn and Catherine Park. Southern Cal’s Shoemaker rounded out the top 10 as she finished in 10th place with a 2-over 74.
On the men’s side, David Ford, a junior from Peachtree Corners, Ga. and No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), arrived in Atlanta fresh from helping the United States claim the Eisenhower Trophy by winning the title in the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi.
David Ford then led North Carolina to the team title in the East Lake Cup, his 4 and 3 victory over a tough customer in Florida State’s Frederik Kjettrup, a senior from Denmark and No. 16 in the WAGR, leading the Tar Heels past their ACC rival.
North Carolina looks awfully tough at this point as the Tar Heels trotted out a lineup that included four players in the WAGR’s top 100.
North Carolina was missing Dylan Menante, a fifth-year player from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 6 in the WAGR, as Menante was representing the United States in the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Menante won a bronze medal competing against a field that included professional players.
David Ford and Menante were teammates on the U.S. team that rallied for a 14.5-11.5 victory over Great Britain & Ireland in a Walker Cup contested at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews, in September.
North Carolina also got full points from Austin Greaser, a graduate student from Vandalia, Ohio and No. 10 in the WAGR who claimed a 2 and 1 verdict over Florida State’s Gray Albright, a senior from Ocala, Fla., and Peter Fountain, a senior from Raleigh, N.C. and No. 79 in the WAGR who cruised to a 4 and 3 verdict over Tyler Weaver, a freshman from England.
Maxwell Ford, one of the Ford triplets, headed for Chapel Hill in the summer to join his brother after spending two seasons at Georgia. He picked up a half-point in the East Lake Cup by finishing in a deadlock with Luke Clanton, a sophomore from Hialeah, Fla. and No. 18 in the WAGR.
The lone full point for the Seminoles was earned by Brett Roberts, a senior from Coral Springs, Fla. and No. 58 in the WAGR who claimed a 3 and 2 win over Kenan Poole, a senior from Raleigh, N.C.
Maxwell Ford had to go 22 holes to outlast Kale Fontenot, a freshman from Lafayette, La., to pull out the clinching point for North Carolina in its 3-2 victory over ACC rival Georgia Tech in a Halloween semifinal. Maxwell Ford had to win the final two holes of regulation to send the match to extra holes.
A day earlier Fontenot had captured medalist honors in qualifying for match play with a sparkling 4-under 68 over an Atlanta Athletic Club layout that played to 7,308 yards and a par of 72 for the guys.
The Ford brothers, David and Maxwell, had finished a shot behind Fontenot in a tie for second place in the one-day shootout, each recording a 3-under 69.
David Ford picked up a point for North Carolina with a 5 and 4 victory over Georgia Tech’s Hiroshi Tai, a sophomore from Singapore, and Greaser claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Bartley Forrester, a fifth-year player from Gainesville, Ga.
Fountain dropped a 4 and 3 decision to Carson Kim, a freshman from Yorba Linda, Calif., and Christo Lamprecht, a senior from South Africa and No. 2 in the WAGR, picked up the other full point for the Yellow Jackets as he went 21 holes to edge Poole.
Lamprecht, Forrester and Tai were in the lineup for the Georgia Tech team that defeated North Carolina in the semifinals and then lost to Florida in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match last spring at Grayhawk. David Ford, Greaser and Fountain were in the North Carolina lineup in the Tar Heels’ loss to the Yellow Jackets in the semifinals at Grayhawk.
In the other East Lake Cup semifinal, Florida State avenged its lost to cross-state rival Florida, which plays out of the ultra-competitive SEC, in last spring’s NCAA semifinals at Grayhawk as the Seminoles pulled out a 3-2 victory when Clanton birdied the 18th hole to claim a 1-up victory over Matthew Kress, a sophomore from Saratoga, Calif.
Kress was the lone player in the lineup in Atlanta who played for the Gators in their title-clinching victory over Georgia Tech in the Final Match at Grayhawk last spring.
Florida State also got points from Weaver, who earned a 2 and 1 win over Parker Bell, a sophomore from Tallahassee, Fla., and Albright, who claimed a 3 and 1 victory over Ian Gilligan, a junior from Reno, Nev. and No. 73 in the WAGR.
Florida’s Tyler Wilkes, a senior from Tampa, Fla., cruised to a 5 and 3 win over Kjettrup and Luke Poulter, a redshirt freshman from Orlando, Fla. knocked off Roberts, 4 and 3, to account for the two points for the Gators.
Georgia Tech got full points from Lamprecht and Tai and half-points from Forrester and Kim in a 3-2 win over Florida in the third-place match.
Albright and Clanton led the way for Florida State as they finished in a tie for fourth place in the qualifying for match play, each tallying a 2-under 70 as the Seminoles earned the top seed in the match-play bracket with a 5-under 283 total.
North Carolina, behind the Ford brothers, was two shots behind Florida State in second place with a 3-under 285 total.
It was five more shots back to Georgia Tech in third place with a 2-over 290 total behind Fotenot, the individual medalist.
Florida was two shots behind Georgia Tech in fourth place with a 4-over 292 total.
Kjettrup backed up Albright and Clanton for Florida State in stroke-play qualifying as he finished in a tie for sixth place with Florida’s Poulter at 1-under 71.
Roberts matched par with a 72 for the Seminoles as he finished in a tie for eighth place in the individual standings with Georgia Tech’s Lamprecht and Florida’s Kress.
Rounding out the Florida State lineup was Weaver as he finished in the group tied for 13th place with a 2-over 74.
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