They’ve waited a year to avenge that bitter defeat at the hands of Northwestern in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match.
Tuesday morning, the time arrives for Stanford to try to win three matches and bring a fourth national championship back to The Farm.
For the sixth straight spring, the Cardinal, the No. 1 team in the Scoreboard, powered by clippd, rankings throughout the wraparound 2025-2026 season, will enter match play as the top seed after dominating four rounds of qualifying with a 22-under-par 1,130 total.
Stroke play concluded on a Memorial Day Monday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course with wind and some tough pin positions conspiring to send scores higher.
But Atlantic Coast Conference champion Stanford, behind its senior leader, Megha Ganne, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion from Holmdel, N.J. and No. 10 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), closed with a solid 1-under 287 over the 6,330-yard, par-72 North Course layout, the second-best team round of the day.
An individual champion was crowned Monday as Texas’ Farah O’Keefe, a junior home girl from Austin, Texas and No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, finished with a flourish, making back-to-back birdies the 17th and 18th holes for a 2-under 70 that gave her a 12-under 276 total and a two-shot victory over Ganne.
O’Keefe, who has been so solid throughout this 2025-’26 season, led the Longhorns, out of the Southeastern Conference, into the match-play bracket as they finished in a tie for third place with SEC rival Arkansas, each landing on 1-over 1,153.
Texas closed with a 7-over 295 to get its share of third place with Arkansas with the Longhorns getting the four seed in a tiebreaker.
Stanford’s closest pursuer was its old Pac-12 rival Southern California, the Big Ten champion which finished 13 shots behind the Cardinal in second place with a 9-under 1,143 total.
The Women of Troy are No. 2 in the Scoreboard rankings and, by finishing second, they will be in the opposite bracket from Stanford. A 1 vs. 2 Final Match is still very much in play, but it is match play, after all, and anything can, and often does, happen.
Catherine Park, a senior from Irvine, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, led the way for Southern Cal as she closed with a 2-over 74 to finish alone in fourth place in the individual standings at 8-under 280.
It was Ganne, O’Keefe and Park who represented the United States in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship at the Tenah Merah Country Club in Singapore last October with the Red, White & Blue lifting the Espirito Santo Trophy in a tiebreaker after finishing in a tie for the top spot with Spain and South Korea.
Ganne seems particularly focused on closing out her career at Stanford with a second national championship on her watch.
She closed with a 2-under 70 to earn a runnerup finish in the individual chase with a 10-under 286 total that left her two shots behind O’Keefe.
Stanford will open match play Tuesday morning against West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, No. 11 in the Scoreboard rankings, as the Waves closed with a 3-over 291 to edge Big 12 champion Iowa State by a shot for the final spot in the match-play bracket with an 11-over 1,163 total.
Arkansas, No. 7 in the Scoreboard rankings, shared third place with its SEC rival Texas at 1-over after the Razorbacks closed with a 4-over 292 and earned the three seed in the match-play bracket in a tiebreaker.
Arkansas ended up with two players among the top 10 in the final individual standings, led by Maria Jose Marin, a junior from Colombia and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR who finished in a tie for fifth place with Tennessee’s Kyra Van Kan, a sophomore from South Africa, each landing on 7-under 209.
Jose Marin was the defending NCAA individual champion and was paired with O’Keefe, who would succeed her in claiming medalist honors. Jose Marin added a victory in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship last month to her burgeoning amateur resume.
Jose Marin closed with a 2-under 70.
Jose Marin was joined in the top 10 by her teammate Reagan Zibilski, a senior from Springfield, Mo. and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR. Zibilski also closed with a 2-under 70 to finish among a trio of players tied for eighth place at 5-under 283.
Arkansas’ quarterfinal opponent will be Big 12 representative Oklahoma State, No. 21 in the Scoreboard rankings, as the Cowgirls also had a pair of players finish among the top 10 in the individual standings that powered them to a sixth-place finish in the team chase with a 3-over 1,155 total.
Oklahoma State struggled a little in the final round, closing with a 301, but held on to earn a spot in the match-play bracket for the first time in six seasons.
Ellie Bushnell, a junior from Granite Bay, Calif., closed with a 1-over 73 as she led the way for the Cowgirls by finishing in seventh place with a 6-under 282 total.
Her teammate, Marta Silchecnko, a junior from Latvia and No. 47 in the Women’s WAGR, was in the trio tied for eighth place, a shot behind Bushnell at 5-under 283. Silchenko, who was hanging around near the top of the leaderboard all week at La Costa, closed with a 2-over 74.
Probably the most intriguing story of Monday’s final round was those Eastern Michigan Eagles, the Mid-American Conference runnerup and No. 27 in the Scoreboard rankings, finishing in fifth place in the team standings, a shot behind Arkansas and Texas with a 2-over 1,154 total.
Making its first appearance at nationals, Eastern Michigan didn’t back its way into the match-play bracket, the Eagles seized the moment, recording the best team round of the day, a 4-under 284.
Eastern Michigan will draw Texas in the opening round of match play.
A seventh-place finish for ACC power Duke sets up a blue-blood women’s college golf showdown in the quarterfinals between the Blue Devils and Southern California.
Led by Rianne Malixi, its fabulous freshman from the Philippines and No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, Duke closed with a solid 5-over 293 to finish four shots behind Oklahoma State in seventh place with a 1,159 total, comfortably ahead of the battle between Pepperdine and Iowa State for the final spot in the match-play bracket.
Malixi, winner of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in the summer of 2024, started slowly at La Costa with an opening round of 1-over 73.
But she found her groove and was coming hard at the end. Malixi carded a 2-under 69 in Saturday’s second round and a 4-under 68 in Sunday’s third round. She made a run at the lead in Monday’s final round before settling for another 69 to finish a shot behind Stanford’s Ganne in third place in the individual standings with 9-under 279 total.
Backing up Ganne in Stanford’s all-star lineup were Ganne’s classmate, Kelly Xu of Claremont, Calif. and No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR, and Meja Ortengren, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, both of whom landed among the group tied for 14th place with a 2-under 286 total.
Xu was the low Cardinal in Monday’s final round with a solid 3-under 69. Ortengren had begun the day just a shot behind the co-leaders O’Keefe and Southern Cal’s Park, but struggled in Monday’s final round, finishing up with a 79.
Paula Martin Sampedro, a junior from Spain and No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, closed with a 2-over 74 and finished among the trio tied for 20th place with an even-par 288 total.
Martin Sampedro defeated O’Keefe in the final last summer to capture the Royal & Ancient Women’s Amateur Championship at Nairn Golf Club in Scotland.
Rounding out the Stanford lineup was Andrea Revuelta, a sophomore from Spain and No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR, as she also closed with a 2-over 74 to finish in a tie for 53rd place with an 9-over 296 total.
Revuelta was the runnerup to Jose Marin in last month’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Tennessee’s Van Kan, one of the heroes of the Volunteers’ run to the SEC Championship, matched par in the final round with a 72 to get a share of fifth place with Duke’s Malixi at 7-under. It was the second-highest finish at nationals for a Tennessee player in the program’s history.
Rounding out the trio tied for eighth place at 5-under was TCU’s Kristin Angosta, a junior from Las Vegas, Nev. who was competing as an individual. Angosta closed with a 1-over 73 to become the first Horned Frog to finish in the top 10 in the NCAA Championship in 41 years.
Duke’s Avery McCrery, the Wilmington, Del. native who began her scholastic career at the Tower Hill School, will finish her freshman season with the Blue Devils playing a match in the NCAA Championship.
McCrery, the Girls Junior PGA Championship winner in 2024 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., contributed a 2-over 74 in Monday’s final round with the Dookies clinging to their spot in the match-play bracket.
That left McCrery in the group tied for 46th place with a 7-over 295 total in her first appearance at nationals.
Another of McCrery’s teammates, Katie Li, a junior from Basking Ridge, N.J., struggled a little in Monday’s final round with a 6-over 78, but finished among the trio tied for 55th place with a 9-over 297 total.
Another New Jersey native, Northwestern sophomore Megan Meng, who starred scholastically at Hopewell Valley Central in Pennington, also closed with a 6-over 78 as she finished in the group tied for 64th place with an 11-over 299 total.
The Wildcats, in defense of their national championship, finished in 14th place among the 15 teams that survived the cut following the third round with a 25-over 1,177 total. Northwestern, No. 31 in the Scoreboard rankings, is a perennial Big Ten power.
The most exciting day in college women’s golf, quarterfinal/semifinal day at the NCAA Championship, beckons. Let the matches begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment