Tag: Caley McGinty

Women’s college golf notebook: Ohio State goes west and wins, Nebraska freshman sets records, SJSU keeps winning

Caley McGinty made her first appearance with the Buckeyes.

It was an impressive debut for Caley McGinty with the Ohio State women’s golf team.

In a reunion with coach Lisa Strom, who coached McGinty when she began her college career at Kent State, the Buckeyes captured the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational at the University of New Mexico’s Championship Course in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ohio State shot an 11-under 853 and finished 10 shots ahead of second-place SMU. McGinty tied for sixth, finishing at 2-under 214 for the week and tying with teammate Aneka Seumanutafa.

McGinty, who transferred to the Buckeyes from Oklahoma State, is ranked seventh in the Women’s Amateur Golf Ranking. She reconnected with Strom, and that bond could propel Ohio State to new heights this season. The team is off to a strong start.

Lauren Peter led the Buckeyes, shooting 3 under for the tournament and finishing tied for fourth. However, it was Kent State’s Mayka Hoogeboom coming away with the individual crown. She shot 8-under 208 and beat New Mexico’s Napat Lertsadwattana by one shot.

Speaking of starting a season strong, the Piedmont women’s golf team had a record-setting performance at the Transylvania Invitational. Piedmont set a program record for best 54-hole score as a team, and Erin Donovan set a program-best 54-hole record. The Lions bested the previous record by 41 shots with a 968 team score over the three rounds while Donovan’s 224 over three rounds was nine strokes better than the previous mark.

In New Orleans, it was quite the college debut for Nebraska’s Kelli Ann Strand. She was victorious in the Green Wave Fall Classic at Bayou Oaks at City Park South Course. She shot 14-under 202, beating LSU senior Latanna Stone by two shots.

En route to her victory, Strand set some records. She set a new 54-hole school record, and her 7-under 65 in the second round set a new Nebraska freshman record for best single-round score. Strand, from Challis, Idaho, shot rounds of 67-65-70 en route to the win.

On the west coast, San Jose State picked up right where it left off last season. The Spartans were victorious at the USF Intercollegiate at The Olympic Club’s Ocean Course and were the only team in the field to finish under par, carding a 4-under and winning by four shots over UCLA. San Jose State was 10 under in the final round to come from behind and claim its first victory of 2021.

In the individual competition, preseason third-team All-American Kajsa Arwefjall carded a school-record round of 7-under 64 in the final round to win by two shots at 11 under. Arwefjall birdied four straight holes to begin her back nine.

Kayja Arwefjall
San Jose State’s Kajsa Arwefjall won the USF Intercollegiate at Olympic Club. (Photo: San Jose State Athletics)

The win was the first of Arwefjall’s career. And if she can continue playing like she did in San Jose State’s first tournament, the Spartans will show last season wasn’t a flash in the pan.

Cameron Jourdan covers college and amateur golf for Golfweek. Got a college or amateur story? Email him at cjourdan@golfweek.com.

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College golf top transfers: Players with a chance to take a big step forward after a change of scenery in 2022

Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery.

The transfer portal is the hottest hangout spot for student athletes these days.

Established in October of 2018, the portal, which allows players to declare their intention to transfer and begin communication with prospective schools while still on campus at their current school, has been used by athletic programs across the country, especially in college golf.

Not only do some players still have an extra year of NCAA eligibility to use due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but don’t forget the NCAA also passed a new rule in 2021 that allows players to transfer penalty-free one time in their collegiate career.

As rosters turn over ahead of the 2022-23 season, a few transfers have stood out among the rest. Here are some players who may be well equipped to take advantage of a change of scenery this season.

Coaching carousel: Coaches in new positions with something to prove in ’22

Oklahoma State regroup: Individual titles keep rolling in even as leading scorer Caley McGinty departs

Caley McGinty was a big part of Oklahoma State’s fall success, but she leaves a fivesome of college golf winners in her wake.

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MELBOURNE, Fla. – Back home in Stillwater, Oklahoma, this week, Greg Robertson will talk to his Oklahoma State team about approaching a closing stretch of holes as a tour player would. Cowgirl alum Caroline Masson, an LPGA winner and Solheim Cup veteran, put that idea in his head.

Masson is based on the Central Florida coast and spent part of her Valentine’s Day watching her old team compete at the Columbia Classic at Duran Golf Club. Oklahoma State took the lead early in the day but ultimately finished third, four shots behind champion Virginia Tech, after going 8 over on No. 18, a long par 4 that doglegs left around water.

“We’ve got a lot that we’ll talk about when we get home,” Robertson said, “but a good learning experience with that pin placement, with the wind, everything about the hole. Probably didn’t play that how we should have. And that just comes with a little bit of discipline and patience.”

Robertson would rather give that lesson now than in another three months, when Oklahoma State, as the returning NCAA runners-up, will be looking to make another championship run. The team was undefeated in the fall and started the Columbia Classic as the No. 2-ranked team in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.

Just as Robertson hopes his team learns the hard lessons early, he also hopes that by the time the postseason rolls around, the players who are competing the best have revealed themselves. Oklahoma State’s morphing roster (the team already lost Maja Stark, last season’s leading scorer, to pro golf) is the biggest variable in the Cowgirls’ spring story.

The day after Oklahoma State’s spring opener, last month’s Rapsodo Match in the Desert, leading scorer Caley McGinty broke the news she’d be entering the transfer portal. McGinty, an Englishwoman who originally signed with Robertson in 2019 while he was at Kent State and this fall transferred to Oklahoma State, is now taking online classes and is no longer in Stillwater.

“We wish her nothing but the best moving forward,” Robertson said.

The Curtis Cupper and the No. 16-ranked amateur in the world won twice in the fall and carried a 68.6 scoring average, the lowest on the team by nearly a stroke. But Robertson is quick to point out that five of his remaining players have all won at least one college tournament.

“Losing Caley, she was a great player certainly, but we still have a group that can be competitive,” he said.

Upperclassmen Lianna Bailey, Hailey Jones and Han-Hsuan Yu  are all candidates to fill the open spot.

“Those are the three that were kind of on the outside in the fall looking in, but Lianna is a two-time college winner, Hailey won as an individual this fall so they’re good players,” Robertson said.

Sophomore Maddison Hinson-Tolchard just won the individual title at the Rapsodo event, and at the Columbia Classic, junior Isabella Fierro broke a two-year college golf winless drought with a two-shot victory at 2 under. Fierro won her first college title at the 2019 Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, her third start with the team. She hasn’t won since but posted seven top-10 finishes last season including two runner-up finishes. This time last year, she missed the first two starts of the spring battling a wrist injury.

“She’s been nothing but top 5s, top 10s the last two years so this was a long time coming,” Robertson said.

Fierro looked at the tough conditions on the closing day, felt thankful that at least the sun was out and buckled in. She credited a calm mental state, something that’s been a struggle lately. You can’t push harder to get into the winner’s circle, she reasoned, or change what you’re doing.

The same goes for filling the shoes of an absent teammate.

“It was sad for us but we have great leaders on the team,” Fierro said of watching both Stark and McGinty move on, “we have a lot of good perspective and a lot of good personalities on the team. It’s not just about one leader it’s about every person, even the ones that don’t make the lineup.”

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