Tag: 2022 NCAA Championship

No. 1 for a reason: Stanford freshman phenom Rose Zhang holds on to win individual title wire-to-wire at 2022 NCAA Championship

Zhang is the second Cardinal to win the individual title following teammate Rachel Heck last year.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Rose Zhang is going to need a separate dorm room at Stanford for all her trophies.

The freshman phenom and No. 1 player in the nation proved worthy of her ranking by claiming medalist honors at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship by three shots at 6 under at Grayhawk Golf Club on Monday. Zhang shot a final-round 75 to finish as the second consecutive Cardinal to win the title following her teammate Rachel Heck’s win in 2021. Heck and Zhang are the only two Stanford women to win the individual national championship, and each did so as freshmen.

The national championship is Zhang’s fourth win of the season after she earned medalist honors in her first three collegiate starts at the Molly Intercollegiate, Windy City Collegiate and Stanford Intercollegiate. In addition to her quartet of wins, Zhang finished runner-up on four different occasions and had her worst finish of the year nearby in Phoenix at the Ping/ASU Invitational, a T-10.

Zhang has been No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking since September 2020, earning the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the top-ranked amateur in both 2020 and 2021 and will likely win again in 2022 after her lights-out performance this week. Just how good was she? Her first bogey on the back nine was in Monday’s final round of stroke play.

Before Stanford the native of Irvine, California, had a distinguished junior career that featured wins at the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior and 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She’s helped lead the United States to victory as a member of the Junior Solheim Cup team (2017, 2019), the Junior Ryder Cup team (2018) and Curtis Cup team (2021). She’ll tee it up for the Red, White and Blue at the 2022 Curtis Cup at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, June 10-12.

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Two playoffs, one round: Wild finishes highlights third round of the women’s NCAA Championship

The PGA Championship wasn’t the only golf tournament to end in dramatic fashion on Sunday.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The three-hole playoff that earned Justin Thomas his second PGA Championship win was entertaining, but did you know there was another golf tournament happening on Sunday that featured not one, but two playoffs?

Welcome to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship.

After the completion of Sunday’s third round at Grayhawk Golf Club, Wake Forest and South Carolina were tied for the 15th and final spot in Monday’s final round of stroke play, setting up a five-player playoff to decide who advances. Each player played a different hole, and it was Louise Rydqvist’s birdie that was the deciding factor in the Gamecocks’ one-shot playoff victory. Following Monday’s final round, the top eight teams will advance to match play, starting Tuesday.

But that’s not all. The top nine players not on an advancing team get a shot at the final round, and after 54 holes a 5-for-2 playoff was needed to decide the advancing individuals, as well. Michigan’s Hailey Borja was the first to punch her final round ticket with a par on the tricky 10th hole – the most-difficult hole of the day and second most-challenging of the week – leaving a 4-for-1 playoff for the final spot. Oklahoma State’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard then made birdie on the 18th hole to end the long day in the desert.

Leaderboards: Team | Individual

At the top of the leaderboard, Stanford increased its lead to nine shots after shooting the low round of the day a tournament, a 5-under 283.

“I think we’re just really patient. I mean most of the birdies came right there in the last couple of holes,” said head coach Anne Walker, who praised the way her star players Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck have played this week. Zhang leads in the race for individual medalist honors at 9 under following a 3-under 69 aided by birdies on her final three holes.

“And then Sadie Engelmann, that’s probably one of the best rounds of golf I’ve since at play in her time here at Stanford,” Walker continued. “She looked like a total boss lady out there and no matter what her outcome was going to be, the fact that she handled herself like an absolute boss lady was so cool.”

Cool indeed, seeing as its rare when the player in the fifth spot ties for the second-best team score of the day, a 2 under 70 to tie Heck.

“I don’t consider any of them fifth-spot players, quite frankly. We don’t look at any of them from a fifth spot, third spot, first spot situation,” explained Walker. “We just look at everyone like everyone’s going out there with the same golf course. These are all super experienced players, so it doesn’t surprise me that when I see a Sadie Engelmann pop up with a 2 under.”

The performance of the day came from Georgia’s Jenny Bae, who fired the low round of the tournament thus far with a 5-under 67. Bae was bogey-free the entire round before her lone blemish came on her final hole of the day.

“My confidence is definitely up there,” said Bae, who after starting 6-over through six holes on Friday is 8 under over her last 48 at Grayhawk. “I think I’m just gonna use whatever I felt today and the momentum and carry it on to tomorrow.”

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New coach, key transfers propel Texas A&M women into national title contention at NCAA Championship

After a difficult last season, the new-look Aggies are rolling at the national championship.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — This time last year, the Texas A&M women were at home watching the national championship. Twelve months later the Aggies are in third place, well inside the first cut at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship.

Head coach Gerrod Chadwell joked with his team on Saturday that they hadn’t put three good rounds together yet this season. All kidding aside, he was right. Until Sunday.

The Aggies shot even-par as a team in the third round at Grayhawk Golf Club, putting them at 13 over for the championship, four shots back from current runner-up Oregon and 13 back from leading Stanford.

Leaderboards: Team | Individual

“We’re still growing and maturing. But you know, our bad round yesterday wasn’t as bad as they have been in the year where we haven’t won too many tournaments,” explained Chadwell, who’s in his first year at the helm in Aggieland. “But we’ve had a couple of runner-ups, top-three, top-five finishes, so we’ve got the horses, they just got to put it together and finish off rounds.”

Chadwell replaced a legend in the game in Andrea Gaston, who won three national titles with USC before shockingly joining A&M in 2018. Gaston was relieved of her duties as the Aggies’ head coach last April and Chadwell was announced as the fifth head coach in program history on June 8, 2021.

The El Reno, Oklahoma, native spent the last eight seasons as the head coach at Houston, where he was the first head coach in program history. Chadwell led the Cougars to six consecutive NCAA regional berths, earning three American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors after claiming conference titles in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

In 10 regular-season events this year, A&M finished in the top five in nine. The team’s worst finish of the year came at the SEC Championship, where the Aggies finished ninth.

Chadwell’s team was on pace to be only the second team under par from Sunday’s morning wave alongside Stanford, but two late bogeys dropped the squad back to even on the day, a great round considering the scoring averages over the first two days were 76.23 and 75.46.

“If you told me we’d be even par this morning teeing off I’d have taken it,” said Chadwell of his team’s performance. “Probably feel like we gained ground on the field. So any shot today gives you cushion for the top eight. So they’re all important.”

A&M is led by a pair of transfers in junior Jennie Park (TCU) and sophomore Zoe Slaughter (Houston), as well as Hailee Cooper, a former All-American at Texas.

“Our transfers really helped us out, and they like to compete,” said Chadwell on how the team has transformed into a national-title contender after ranking 90th last season. “That’s a good thing.”

But the success in College Station isn’t solely due to the transfer portal. The lineup also includes freshman Adela Cernousek and junior Blanca Fernández García-Poggio, who earned first-team All-SEC honors and leads the squad with a 71.85 average.

As Chadwell said, the Aggies have the horses, and they’re starting to run wild in the desert.

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Georgia rides historic individual round into women’s NCAA Championship top 10

“She shows up at the right time,” said Georgia head coach Josh Brewer of his big-time performer.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Every team wants a player who steps up and delivers in the biggest moments. For the Georgia women, that’d be Candice Mahé.

Sure, the native of Gourin, France, only has a pair of top-five finishes for the Bulldogs, but both have been in the postseason. Mahé finished T-5 at last year’s Columbus regional, T-3 at this year’s Albuquerque regional and currently sits T-6 at the  2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship following a second-round 3-under 69, one shot off the low round of the day.

“It just shows her teammates it’s out there. Be patient, you can make it. You can do this,” said head coach Josh Brewer of the importance of Mahé’s round. Georgia climbed seven spots into 10th place, five positions inside Sunday’s 54-hole cut to the top 15 teams. “She shows up at the right time.”

Leaderboards: Team | Individual

“That’s the reason why I play golf. I really like pressure and when there’s people watching,” said Mahé. “Everybody remembers the name of the national champion and not the regular season and I feel like this tournament is way more important. I might be able to focus way more and I’m gonna have to work on this to find the same thing for regular season, but I’m sure it’s gonna come.”

Mahé became just the fourth Bulldog to shoot a sub-70 round at the NCAA Championship, joining the likes of 1992 national champion Vicki Goetze, 2002 runner-up Summer Sirmons and Shauna Estes, who finished third in 1999. After a 6 under start through her first 11 holes, Mahé made her first two bogeys of the day on Nos. 12 and 13, bounced back with a birdie on the 14th and then made double bogey on the par-4 17th.

“Obviously right now I’m still frustrated from my round because I was 6 under after 11 and I feel like when you have that good of a start you should be able to go super low,” said Mahé, who credited her consecutive bogeys to her adrenaline which impacted her distance control. “I finished with a double so definitely not what I expected but we have tomorrow. We did a good job as a team and we’re really here to make it into much play and then it’s a new tournament. I guess everything can happen.”

After shooting an 81 at the SEC Championship in April, her worst score in college, these last two weeks in the southwest have been great for Mahé’s confidence.

“I feel like I needed that to actually work from this and coaches helped me a lot to work on my golf swing and on my confidence because you can lose their confidence really quick,” she explained. “When I have a round like this I’m really proud of myself because it’s been tough for everybody.”

“We finished well yesterday, played our last five holes four under and the momentum carried over,” said Brewer. “I get it, people are gonna say, ‘You’re finished stunk today,’ but the thing is, if you told me I could be in 10th place heading into Sunday, how we got there I don’t care, so now we know we have the firepower to go out because we had a special round.”

Brewer noted how playing in the Albuquerque regional not only helped with handling the 20-mph winds this week, but also the poise it gave his group.

“It gave us confidence,” said Brewer of the Bulldogs’ third-place finish two weeks ago in New Mexico. “We’ve been playing well all year, we’ve been waiting and finally we did it.”

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Hosts Arizona State use ‘birdie goal’ to climb into contention at women’s NCAA Championship

“When you feel that you can make birdies, you don’t worry about a bogey here or a bad shot.”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Coaches have different tactics to motivate their players.

After the Arizona State women made just nine birdies in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship – well off the mark of their usual 18-20 – Missy Farr-Kaye decided to pull out the big guns for Saturday’s second round: dessert. The Sun Devils had a “birdie goal” of 20 they had to meet, which they achieved on the last hole of the day.

The reward? Ice cream.

“It gets them in that mode of being aggressive and assertive,” explained Farr-Kaye. “When you feel that you can make birdies, you don’t worry about a bogey here or a bad shot. It changed our whole tone.”

Leaderboards: Team | Individual

That it did. ASU was in 16th place out of 24 teams after the first round and now sit T-8 with USC at 16 over following Saturday’s round of 2 over as a team. The Sun Devils were led by sophomore Ashley Menne, who shot a 4-under 68, which tied Texas’ Bohyun Park, Oklahoma State’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and San Jose State’s Natasha Andrea Oon and Kajsa Arwefjall for the low round of the day.

“Everything just felt better today, my driver and putting was really good. The weather really made a difference,” said Menne. “Yesterday was gusting like 20-mph winds and it was hot and pace of play was just not it. Just everything today was awesome. I think my team also played really great. We had good energy throughout the entire round.”

Despite playing for the host school, the Surprise, Arizona, native doesn’t feel any pressure as Grayhawk hosts for the second of three years.

“Honestly, this year feels almost more relaxed than last year. I think everything’s kind of settled in a bit and people are used to having it in Arizona,” explained Menne. “I don’t know, it feels like home for me, too. I’m not really honestly phased. It almost doesn’t feel like a tournament, that sounds crazy, but it’s true.”

Stanford leads at 5 over, followed by Oregon at 9 over. On Sunday the field gets whittled from 24 to 15 teams.

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Arizona State, Alabama players commit costly, rare mistake on same hole at women’s NCAA Championship

Mistakes happen in golf, but this one is rare.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Any player who’s teed it up in high-level competition has been involved in a gaffe with the Rules of Golf. Incorrect scorecards are signed, bad drops are taken, you forget to move your ball back if a mark has to be moved on the green. Stuff happens.

But have you ever heard of two players hitting each other’s ball on the same hole? You have now.

The rare and unfortunate incident occurred during Saturday’s second round of the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship with Arizona State’s Calynne Rosholt and Alabama’s Isabella van der Biest. Both players found the fairway off the tee on the par-4 17th, but the way the hole is set up, you can’t see the balls land.

“When you walk up and don’t see the logo immediately, you have to really pay attention. I was standing there, (Alabama assistant coach Susan Rosenstiel) was with her player, so four of us missed it. It happens,” said Arizona State head coach Missy Farr-Kaye, who’s never seen this sort of incident happen. “We got up there and then she had this look on her face, and I was like, ‘Oh God, what happened.’ It didn’t even cross my mind.”

The players realized their mistakes when they got near the green and saw the logos on their balls. With Rosholt still in shock about what had just happened, Farr-Kaye tried to settle her down by talking her through the next shot, a chip that she almost holed out that ran about 10 feet past the hole.

“She made it and it was the best double bogey I’ve seen all day,” said Farr-Kaye. Rosholt then hit a great drive on the 18th hole and got one of the shots back with a clutch birdie.

“When we were done, I said, ‘I’m super proud how you’ve kept your composure together and birdied 18,’” explained Farr-Kaye. “It could have gone a lot of different ways than double, birdie.”

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Gusting winds leave scorecards bruised with black and blue aplenty after first round of women’s NCAA Championship

Only two schools finished the first round without making double bogey (or worse) in the field of 24 teams.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Gusting winds north of 20 mph left black and blue bruises all over the first-round scorecards at the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Championship.

Par was at a premium while bogeys, double bogeys and a fair share of triples were being handed out like free samples at Costco on Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club. Nobody rode the wind better than Stanford, the nation’s No. 1 team who sit atop the leaderboard at 1 over, three shots clear of second-place Texas A&M and six clear of TCU in third.

The Cardinal were led by the freshman phenom and No. 1 amateur Rose Zhang, who fired a 4-under 68 to take a one shot lead over Texas A&M’s Zoe Slaughter, who remains in solid form after previously signing for a 7-under 65 to help the Aggies punch their ticket in the final round of regionals. TCU’s Sabrina Iqbal, UCLA’s Ty Akabane and Stanford’s Sadie Englemann are the only other players under par after the opening round, T-3 at 1 under.

Scores: Team | Individual

“We were prepared for that. We had seen the weather forecast and knew that was coming in,” said Stanford head coach Anne Walker. “We talked about having to take advantage of the opportunities when we had them because we knew we were going to be really challenged by the wind. It was even more challenging than I think we thought.”

Just how difficult was it on Friday? Florida State and Oregon were the only schools to not make double bogey (or worse) in the field of 24 teams. The Seminoles sit T-4 at 8 over alongside LSU and Auburn with the Ducks one shot back in seventh. If the match play cut were today, Alabama and USC would duel in a playoff to decide the No. 8 seed.

Play continues on Saturday with the second round of stroke play at 9:30 a.m. ET.

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Meet the 30 teams and six individuals to advance to the 2022 NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf National Championship

Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, will host the national championship, May 27-June 1.

College golf’s championship season is off and running, with all eyes on the Arizona desert.

After three rounds of play across six regionals, a total of 30 teams and six individuals not on a qualifying team have punched their tickets to the 2022 NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf National Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 27-June 1.

Just 17 of the top 25 teams in the nation advanced to the national championship, with four top-20 teams missing out. The ranked teams who got bounced are Washington (9), Notre Dame (15), Illinois (17), LSU (19), Tennessee (22), Clemson (23), New Mexico (24) and Purdue (25).

The lowest-ranked teams to advance? That’d be Georgia Southern (47) and BYU (49).

Check out all 30 teams and six individuals who will be competing for a national title (in alphabetical order with Golfweek/Sagarin ranking in parentheses).

Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual

Teams

  • Arizona (34)
  • Arizona State (5)
  • Arkansas (14)
  • Auburn (16)
  • BYU (49)
  • College of Charleston (48)
  • East Tennessee State (27)
  • Florida (10)
  • Florida State (21)
  • Georgia (12)
  • Georgia Southern (47)
  • Georgia Tech (11)
  • Kansas (30)
  • Liberty (36)
  • North Carolina (7)
  • North Florida (32)
  • Ohio State (33)
  • Oklahoma (1)
  • Oklahoma State (2)
  • Ole Miss (28)
  • Oregon (35)
  • Pepperdine (4)
  • South Florida (39)
  • Stanford (20)
  • Texas (6)
  • Texas A&M (13)
  • Texas Tech (8)
  • Utah (53)
  • Vanderbilt (3)
  • Wake Forest (18)

Individuals

  • Carson Barry, Oregon State
  • Zack Byers, Gardner-Webb
  • Thomas Giroux, Oakland
  • Evans Lewis, South Carolina
  • RJ Manke, Washington
  • Adrian Vagberg, VCU

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Meet the 24 teams and 12 individuals to advance to the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf National Championship

Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, will host the national championship, May 20-25.

College golf’s championship season is off and running, with all eyes on the Arizona desert.

After three rounds of play across six regionals, a total of 24 teams and 12 individuals not on a qualifying team have punched their tickets to the 2022 NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf National Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 20-25.

USC set a national record for regional titles with its 14th on Wednesday, claiming the Stanford regional by eight shots over hosts Stanford and LSU. On the flip side, Oregon claimed its first regional title by sweeping the Albuquerque regional, while junior Briana Chacon earned the program’s first individual title by four shots.

Check out all 24 teams and 12 individuals who will be competing for a national title.

Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Women’s team | Women’s individual

Teams

  • Alabama
  • Arizona State
  • Arkansas
  • Auburn
  • Baylor
  • Florida State
  • Georgia
  • LSU
  • Michigan
  • Mississippi State
  • Oklahoma State
  • Oregon
  • Purdue
  • San Jose State
  • South Carolina
  • Stanford
  • TCU
  • Texas
  • Texas A&M
  • UCLA
  • USC
  • Vanderbilt
  • Virginia
  • Wake Forest

Individuals

  • Letizia Bagnoli, Florida Atlantic
  • Camryn Carreon, UTSA
  • Ruby Chou, Iowa State
  • Marina Escobar Domingo, Florida
  • Taglao Jeeravivitaporn, Iowa State
  • Emily Mahar, Virginia Tech
  • Jana Melichova, Old Dominion
  • Anna Morgan, Furman
  • Leila Raines, Michigan State
  • Viera Permata Rosada, Sam Houston
  • Chiara Tamburlini, Ole Miss
  • Natalia Yoko, Augusta

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