Duke women shoot third-lowest round in NCAA history, win Florida State Match Up

It set a new Blue Devils 18-hole record.

Duke is going need to update its women’s golf record books after its latest victory.

The Blue Devils won the Florida State Match Up on Saturday at Seminole Legacy in Tallahassee, Florida. Duke shot 30 under to beat the hosts, Florida State, by 10 shots to pick up its second win of the year. However, it’s the second-round performance that’s the talk of the tournament.

Duke shot 24-under 264, the third-lowest 18-hole score in NCAA women’s college golf history, on Friday afternoon. It set a new Duke 18-hole record, put the Blue Devils at 31-under 545 after 36 holes, also a new school record.

Meanwhile, freshman Katie Li picked up the first win of her college career, finishing at 12 under to win by three shots over Florida State’s Lottie Woad and Baylor’s Rosie Belsham. Li’s mark of 12 under after 36 holes was a school record, and she became the first freshman to record consecutive rounds of 66 or better.

For legendary coach Dan Brooks, it’s his 143rd victory leading the Blue Devils, the most by any women’s golf coach in NCAA Division I history. It’s also the lowest winning score in the history of the tournament.

Stanford takes top spot in Mizuno WGCA coaches poll for March 15

This is the second poll of the 2024 spring season.

The Womenโ€™s Golf Coaches Association has announced the results of the latest Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll. This is the second poll of the 2024 spring season.

In Division I, Stanford jumped to the top spot after receiving 15 first-place votes, while Wake Forest, the defending national champion, dropped to No. 2 with three votes. UCLA received one first-place vote to climb three spots to No. 3, and South Carolina moved up one spot to No. 4. Rounding out the top five is LSU after jumping five spots.

Dallas Baptist claims the top spot in Division II after receiving nine first-place votes.

College golf: Best practice facilities

Here’s a look at the complete Mizuno WGCA coaches polls for March 15.

Division I

Rank Team (First-place votes) Points
1 Stanford (15) 471
2 Wake Forest (3) 445
3 UCLA (1) 437
4 South Carolina 416
5 LSU 407
6 Arkansas 372
7 USC 361
8 Texas 335
9 Northwestern 309
10 Auburn 297
11 Florida 249
12 Ole Miss 248
13 Oregon 243
14 Arizona 238
15 Arizona State 192
16 Pepperdine 187
17 Texas A&M 182
18 Clemson 168
19 Duke 137
20 Central Florida 104
21 Florida State 101
22 Vanderbilt 72
23 Virginia 71
24 SMU 59
25 San Jose State 22

Receiving votes: North Carolina (13); Purdue (10); USF (10); Georgia (9); Washington (5); Houston (2); Michigan State (1); Mississippi State (1); California (1)

Division II

Rank Team (First-place votes) Points
1 Dallas Baptist (9) 294
2 Nova Southeastern (2) 284
3 Flagler College 270
4 Findlay 265
5 Anderson (1) 256
6 Indianapolis 232
7 West Texas A&M 225
8 Rollins 214
9 Lynn 213
10 St. Mary’s (Texas) 176
11 Central Missouri 173
12 Henderson State 154
13 Barry 152
14 Lee 146
15 Saint Leo 142
16 Midwestern State 119
17 CSU San Marcos 114
18 Wingate 108
19 Lander 83
20 Grand Valley State 61
21 Tampa 56
22 Oklahoma Christian 50
23 North Georgia 47
24 Florida Southern 23
25 Southwestern Oklahoma State 20

Receiving votes: CSU East Bay (11); CSU Monterey Bay (7); Rogers State (4); Eckerd College (1)

Division III

Rank Team (First-place votes) Points
1 Carnegie Mellon (4) 335
2 Pomona-Pitzer (3) 326
3 Williams College (5) 315
4 George Fox (2) 308
5 Emory 295
6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 290
7 Redlands 286
8 Washington St. Louis 232
9 St. Catherine 229
10 Washington and Lee 227
11 Amherst 194
T-12 Illinois Wesleyan 184
T-12 Wellesley 184
14 Texas at Dallas 166
15 Trinity (Texas) 155
16 Centre 139
17 Carleton 116
18 Hamilton 113
19 Mary Hardin-Baylor 110
20 Grinnell 83
21 Rhodes 72
22 Middlebury 55
23 Methodist 53
24 Sewanee: University of the South 33
25 Chapman 19

Receiving votes: Wisconsin, Whitewater (10); Denison (9); Gustavus Adolphus College (4); Whitman College (4); Huntingdon College (3); Lynchburg (1)

NAIA

Rank Team (First-place votes) Points
1 British Columbia (8) 80
2 Keiser 71
3 Oklahoma City 65
4 SCAD Savannah 55
5 Dalton State College 49
6 Texas Wedleyan 39
7 William Carey 32
8 Embry Riddle Aeronautical 20
9 Truett McConnell 19
10 Ottawa-Arizona 5

Receiving votes: Loyola University New Orleans (3); Lewis-Clark State College (1); Oregon Institute of Technology (1)

North Carolina outlasts Alabama, weather conditions to win The Hayt

Individual champion Devin Patel, a Virginia junior, finished with five groups remaining on the course and with a 71.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. โ€” Nothing was easy in the final round of The Hayt on Monday at the Sawgrass Country Club.

Not for team champion North Carolina, whose No. 1 player Austin Greaser dumped his last two tee shots in the water to fall out the lead.

Not for individual champion Devin Patel, a Virginia junior who finished with five groups remaining on the course and with a 71, won by one shot over graduate Canon Claycomb of Alabama (74) and sophomore Ethan Evans of Duke (73) at 3-under-par 213.

But both found a way to win.

The Tar Heels, second in the Bushnell/Golfweek rankings, won their ninth tournament over the last two seasons by four shots over Alabama at 3-under 861, despite chilly, windy conditions most of the day.

Virginia junior Devin Patel won the individual title at The Hayt, the University of North Florida’s invitational at the Sawgrass Country Club. (Photo by Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union)

Patel helped move Virginia to third at 4-over and Ohio State finished fourth at 12-over.

The conditions were difficult but UNC improved on its three-shot lead at the end of the second round, thanks to junior Maxwell Ford’s 69, a 72 from senior Dylan Menante and 74s by Greaser and senior Peter Fountain.

Menante and Greaser tied for sixth at even-par 216, Fountain tied for 15th at 2-over and Maxwell Ford tied for 20th at 4-over.

The Tar Heels led by eight shots with three groups having between one and three holes to play and Greaser had a one-shot lead. But the margin fell to four after Greaser double-bogeyed the par-4 17th hole following the first of his doused tee shots and he knocked his tee shot at the par-5 18th into a small pond on the right, leading to a bogey.

It didn’t matter to the team total. Menante and Fountain, playing ahead of Greaser, both birdied No. 18 to provide enough cushion.

“Winning in our sport is hard,” said UNC coach Andrew DiBitetto. “The guys did a good job of battling and finding a way to pick up a win on a really challenging course and in some pretty challenging conditions.”

Patel won his first college tournament with a simple formula. Keep the ball low, in the fairway and make his hay on the par-5 holes.

He birdied Nos. 4, 11 and 18, the latter on a 2-foot putt after a good chip from the right side to a back-left pin.

“I usually hit the ball low and I’m pretty accurate so the conditions actually played in my favor,” Patel said. “I’ve been working pretty hard on my game and this week showed me I’ve been working on the right things.

Virginia coach Bowen Sargent was delighted with Patel’s victory, considering Ben James (a tie for 11th at 1-over) and Bryan Lee (tie for 27th at 6-over) are both among the top 40 on the Bushnell/Golfweek rankings.

Patel also finished atop a field that contained five 2023 Walker Cup members and five players among the top 25 on the PGA Tour University rankings.

“Going into the week we thought this course would be great for him,” Sargent said. “He’s hit it really straight and he’s a good iron player. It was a good venue for him. On our team, it’s hard enough to beat Ben and Bryan but he played great. We’re very proud of him.”

The host team, University of North Florida, finished ninth to break a streak of five consecutive top-five finishes in its event, with a victory and two seconds. Senior Robbie Higgins (75) finished in a tie for sixth at even-par, his third finish of sixth or higher in The Hayt.

Marquette’s Max Lyons makes hole-in-one on par 4, first ace of college career

There’s never a bad time to make an ace, especially when it’s an albatross.

There’s never a bad time to make an ace.

On a par 4, however? It’s almost unheard of. Almost.

Max Lyons, a junior on the Marquette men’s golf team, made a shot he will never forget Monday during the first round of the 2024 The Johnnie-O at Sea Island. Lyons made a hole-in-one on the par-4 10th hole from 324 yards out at Sea Island’s Plantation Course. It’s the first 1 of his college career.

The albatross was part of a psycho scorecard Lyons, from Phoenix, had on Monday. In addition to the ace, he had five birdies, four bogeys and a double, signing for a 2-under 70 in the opening round in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

Lyons was T-10 after the opening round with the second 18 scheduled for Monday afternoon.

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College golfer signs not one, but two incorrect scorecards on same day at Pinehurst No. 2

Hopefully down the road, it will be a funny story to tell.ย 

File this under something you don’t see every day.

SMU’s Areen Aggarwal was in the lineup earlier this week at the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2, site of the 2024 U.S. Open. The freshman played 36 holes on the opening day of play Monday before finishing up the tournament with an 18-hole final round on Tuesday.

However, neither of his scores counted toward the team score on the first day.

Aggarwal signed not one, but two incorrect scorecards on the first day of play, disqualifying both of his scores. It costย SMU 10 shots in the team competition over the first two rounds.

In the final round, Aggarwal shot even-par 70, the second-best score of the day for the Mustangs, which finished at 30 over and solo 10th of 12 teams. Without the incorrect scorecards, SMU would’ve placed sixth.

A tough situation, for sure, but Aggarwal bounced back strong on Tuesday. Hopefully down the road, it will be a funny story to tell.

Arizona State wins Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, Julia Lopez Ramirez shoots tournament record

Julia Lopez Ramirez had a tournament-record score Wednesday.

It came down to the final hole, but Arizona State held on.

Grace Summerhays sank her bogey putt on the final hole at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, helping the Sun Devils capture the 2024 Darius Rucker Intercollegiate title. It’s the first win of the year for Arizona State, and it came at an event that featured six top-10 teams.

The Sun Devils finished at 3 over for the tournament, topping No. 11 Northwestern by a shot and No. 12 Auburn by two. Host South Carolina finished fourth at 6 over.

Summerhays led heading into the day but shot 4 over in the final round. Nevertheless, she finished T-7 at 2 under. Patience Rhodes and Beth Coulter each placed T-12 finishes at even.

Missy Farr-Kaye said her teams has worked hard the past couple months on being more positive. Even as the Sun Devils trailed for a majority of the day, she is proud of her team’s resilience and how they battled even after taking the lead.

The ASU women earned the win a day after the ASU men won in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In the individual competition at the Darius Rucker, there was a four-way tie for medalist honors, and how each player got there was unique.

First, Mississippi State’s Julia Lopez Ramirez picked up her first win of the season and did so in record-setting fashion, shooting a tournament-record 7-under 64 to finish at 5 under. Her birdie putt on the last hole for a 63 came up inches short.

Then, Texas freshman Farah O’Keefe rolled in a lengthy birdie putt on her final hole to get to 5 under early and set the clubhouse lead that would hold on for the remainder of the day.

South Carolina’s Hannah Darling, a two-time first-team All-American, birdied two of her final five holes to get into the share of the lead.

Then Northwestern’s Jennifer Cai, who said in a post-round interview she had no idea where she should, was long on her final hole in two shots needing a par to join the group in the clubhouse. Her chip shot ran long and on to the fringe, but she buried the roughly 15-foot par putt to earn the win.

LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad, the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished a shot out of first, solo fifth at 4 under.

College golf facilities: Arkansas Razorbacks and Blessings Golf Club

Take a look at Blessings Golf Club.

The home of Arkansas golf is feared among many for the incredible challenge it presents golfers, but it’s one of the best facilities in the country.

Blessings Golf Club, located in Johnson, Arkansas, about four miles from campus, was the site of the 2019 NCAA Championships. The course stretches to more than 7,900 yards from the back tees and plays through two distinct landforms: the Clear Creek floodplain and a plateau that rises to 65 feet above the floodplain, where itโ€™s bisected by a series of ravines. Both the outward and inward nines climb up and down between the two topographies, creating drama and variety on each hole. The course was originally designed by architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr. with a redesign recently completed by noted architect Kyle Phillips.

The outdoor practice areas feature a range with multiple teeing areas and numerous range targets to allow realistic practice sessions. The short game facilities include several bentgrass putting and short game greens as well as a bermudagrass green. A separate three-acre short game practice area has also been added which features practice greens that are 4,500 and 16,000 square feet in size, practice bunkers and a putting green.

The indoor short-game practice and fitness facility includes a 9,000-square-foot, short-game practice area with a 3,000-square-foot putting and chipping green designed by Dave Pelz. The facility also provides a state-of-the-art 2,000-square-foot fitness facility. The Razorback Center houses five indoor hitting bays and one private teaching bay with video analysis equipment, Trackman, Sam Putt Lab and Putt View.

Here’s a look at more college golf practice facilities.

Photos: Blessings Golf Club

Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen wins Cabo Collegiate, earns PGA Tour exemption

Thor is back.

Michael Thorbjornsen missed almost half a year because of a back injury, including not being able to compete in the U.S. Amateur and the Walker Cup last summer.

He returned this spring for Stanford, and it was a struggle in his first start, a T-71 at the Amer Ari. Then he looked more like the Thor college golf fans have come to know with a T-17 finish at The Prestige.

It’s his latest victory that’s proves he’s back.

Thorbjornsen won the Cabo Collegiate on Tuesday at Twin Dolphin Club in Mexico. He shot 10-under 203 for the victory, beating Ole Miss’ Michael La Sasso by a shot for the title. La Sasso shot 7 under in the final round, including a 5-under mark over his last five holes, to finish runner-up.

Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen at the 2024 Cabo Collegiate. (Photo: Stanford Athletics)

Meanwhile, for Thorbjornsen, the victory earned him a sponsor exemption into the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship, set for Nov. 7-10 at El Cardonal at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

It’s also an important win in terms of the PGA Tour University standings. Last week, for the first time since the Class of 2024 rankings were released, Thorbjornsen lost his top position to Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht. Now, it’s likely Thorbjornsen slides back into the top spot with only a couple of months left in the season.

The player atop the PGA Tour U standings at the end of the year will earn a PGA Tour card. Nos. 2-5 in the standings will get Korn Ferry Tour status.

Arizona State (19 under) won the team competition by nine shots, bouncing back from its 14th-place finish last week. Texas Tech (10 under) and Arkansas (2 under) were the only other teams to finish under par. Defending champion Vanderbilt placed fourth at 1 over.

ASU’s Preston Summerhays finished third at 8 under while Wenyi Ding and Josele Ballester tied for 10th at 3 under.

Haskins Award: First spring watch list for 2023-24 men’s college golf Player of the Year

Check out who’s in the running for men’s college golfer of the year.

With every passing week, the men’s college golf season creeps closer to the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

The Haskins Award presented by Stifel announced Monday its first spring watch list, featuring 15 of the best men’s college golfers this season. Christo Lamprecht, a senior at Georgia Tech who has risen to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is having a great season, but there are plenty of other big names in contention.

The Haskins Award honors the player of the year in menโ€™s college golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media. The players are listed alphabetically. Players on the Haskins Award Watch List were selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel reporters.

More: College golf practice facilities

Vanderbilt and Auburn each have two players on the watch list. Just because a player isn’t on this watch list doesn’t mean he can’t play his way on to it later in the season.

Check out the 15 players on the first spring watch list for the Haskins Award:

Annika Award: First spring watch list for 2023-24 women’s college golf Player of the Year

Check out who’s in the running for women’s college golfer of the year.

With every passing week, the women’s college golf season creeps closer to the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

The Annika Award presented by Stifel announced Monday its first spring watch list, featuring 15 of the best women’s college golfers this season. Maisie Filler, a senior at Florida who has risen to No. 1 in the NCAA college golf rankings, is having a great season, but there are plenty of other big names in contention.

The Annika Award honors the player of the year in menโ€™s college golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media. The players are listed alphabetically. Players on the Annika Award Watch List were selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel reporters.

More: College golf practice facilities

Stanford is the only school with two players on the watch list. Just because a player isn’t on this watch list doesn’t mean she can’t play her way on to it later in the season.

Check out the 15 players on the first spring watch list for the Annika Award: