It’s hard to put into context what Wenyi Ding did in Hawaii.
The freshman at Arizona State was a mid-year enrollee for the Sun Devils. And in his first two tournaments, he has bested some ASU records set by former players such as Jon Rahm. In fact, Ding has set new NCAA benchmarks because of his stellar play.
It’s like he’s playing basketball on a five-foot hoop against a bunch of preschoolers, but instead he’s playing golf against some of the best amateurs in the world in stellar college tournaments across the United States.
However, Ding wasn’t the only great story last week. Here’s what you need to know from the past week in college golf.
Four golfers shared medalist honors after a crazy finish in Minnesota.
LAKE ELMO, Minn. — Kiara Romero stood next to her coach, Derek Radley, on the side of the 18th green.
The freshman at Oregon just walked in a birdie putt on the final hole of her first college tournament. She had no idea where it put her on the leaderboard, but everyone else did.
It gave her a share of the lead.
Radley whispered to Romero that she had won. She threw her hands over her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
Romero was one of four who shared medalists honors Wednesday after the final round of the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate at Royal Golf Club. She, along with South Carolina’s Louise Rydqvist, Duke’s Phoebe Brinker and Florida State’s Lottie Woad all finished at 8-under 208 for the tournament, a grand start to the year at one of the deepest events in women’s college golf.
Oregon freshman Kiara Romero birdies her final hole to move to 8 under, which will give her a tie for medalist honors in her first tournament. South Carolina will win the team title #ANNIKAInterpic.twitter.com/jgDbjgQgxh
“I thought I was going to have to make an eagle on the last hole to get the win,” Romero said. “I just wanted to make birdie so I could be in the top three or something.”
However, the birdie was good enough to earn Romero, the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, a college win in her first start.
It was also the first win for Rydqvist, a junior who had a 4-foot putt for birdie on 18 to win outright, but it slid by. Nevertheless, she’s not going home empty handed, as South Carolina won the team title at 26 under, beating Oregon by three strokes and defending event champion and national champion Wake Forest by four.
Rydqvist also earned a coveted exemption into the inaugural The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican taking place Nov. 6-12 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. One player from the winning team earned a spot in the field, and Gamecocks’ coach Kalen Anderson chose Rydqvist, from Sweden, for the honor.
South Carolina’s Louise Rydqvist earned an exemption to the 2023 The Annika after her team won the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate. (Photo: Ben Adelberg/The Back of the Range)
“I think I need a minute because it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Rydqvist said. “It feels absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to get down there.”
The Annika, an official LPGA event, will offer a $3.25 million purse, one of the largest outside of the majors. Proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Annika Foundation.
Each of the four medalists shot 2-under 70s in the final round. Wake Forest’s Mimi Rhodes and South Carolina’s Maylis Lamoure, who were the 36-hole leaders, both missed birdie putts on the final hole to join the winners and finished at even-par 72.
For Woad, a sophomore, it’s the third win of her collegiate career. Brinker, a senior, won for the second time, including a win at the 2022 ACC Championship. She finished fourth last year at the Annika Intercollegiate and lost in a playoff at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invite in the spring.
The four co-medalists of the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate, from L-R: South Carolina’s Louise Rydqvist, Duke’s Phoebe Brinker, Florida State’s Lottie Woad and Oregon’s Kiara Romero. (Photo: Ben Adelberg/The Back of the Range)
Meanwhile, South Carolina had a lead as big as 10 shots early in the final round, but it also shrunk to as small as one on the back nine. Two-time first-team All-American Hannah Darling and freshman Vairana Heck each made pivotal birdies down the stretch, as well as Rydqvist and Lamoure, to help South Carolina pull back away.
It’s the third time South Carolina has won the Annika Intercollegiate.
“It was awesome, what a great way to start the season,” Anderson said. “We had a really great qualifier, and it’s nice to see them come out and play great golf.”
Heck shot 4-under 68 on Wednesday, which tied the low round of the day, and finished T-9. Darling finished 17th at 3 under.
Thanks to a pair of 18th-hole eagles from Briana Chacon and Minori Nagano, Oregon moved into second place past defending champ Wake Forest. Freshman Macy Pate finished T-9 at 6 under for the Demon Deacons while Carol Chacarra tied for 15th at 5 under.
Chacon, Lamoure, Rhodes and Texas freshman Farah O’Keefe finished runner-up at 7 under.
Kiara Romero had a stellar start to her college career
LAKE ELMO, Minn. — On Sunday, Oregon women’s golf coach Derek Radley had a conversation with Kiara Romero before the start of her collegiate career.
Romero, who won the U.S. Girls’ Junior this summer in Colorado and advanced to match play at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in California, has had success at numerous stages in her junior career. Radley told her she didn’t need to do anything different to replicate that at the college level.
Safe to say the talk paid off.
The freshman shot 5-under 67 on Monday at Royal Golf Club in the opening round of the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate and is tied for second. The tournament is one of the best in the country all season long, but in her first collegiate round, Romero stood out and finished strong, making birdies on three of her final four holes.
“I think when players move to the next level, they feel like they have to do something extra special,” Radley said. “I told her to just go be an athlete because she’s just so gifted.”
Oregon’s Kiara Romero at the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate. (Photo: Ben Adelberg/The Back of the Range)
Romero posted five birdies and no bogeys on a course that numerous players took advantage of. She is tied with San Jose State junior Lucia Lopez Ortega and South Carolina freshman Maylis Lamoure. South Carolina junior Louise Rydqvist birdied her final three holes to shoot 6-under 66. She holds the solo lead.
“(The U.S. Girls’ Junior) showed me I can compete and win against these girls,” Romero said. “Everything was pretty smooth out there today.”
Lopez Ortega’s round started incredibly with a hole-out eagle on the par-4 11th, her second hole of the round. She had 133 yards, to the hole and hit from the rough, up over trees, the ball landing on the right side of the green before funneling into the cup.
“I didn’t see it go in,” she said while laughing, “but it’s pretty nice.”
Last year’s individual champion, Virginia junior Amanda Sambach, shot 2-under 70 in her title defense.
However, it’s South Carolina in front in the team competition and with the leading individual. The Gamecocks shot 15 under and lead Wake Forest and San Jose State by four shots after the opening round.
South Carolina’s Hannah Darling at the 2023 Annika Intercollegiate. (Photo: Ben Adelberg/The Back of the Range)
“It’s definitely gettable out here,” South Carolina coach Kalen Anderson said. “We’ve got some long hitters, and the par 5s are pretty gettable for us.”
Lamoure shot 5-under 67 and Vairana Heck added a 3-under 69. Two-time first-team All-American Hannah Darling was the other counting score at 1 under for Anderson’s squad.
Wake Forest, the defending national champions and last year’s Annika Intercollegiate winners, is in great position after the first round. The Demon Deacons shot 9 under in the opening round, with Mimi Rhodes and Brooke Rivers each shooting 4 under.
It’s time for one of the premier women’s amateur championships.
The 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur begins Monday at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, as the field of 156 players will vie for their chance to capture the oldest trophy in women’s amateur golf, the Robert Cox Trophy.
This will be the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur, which began in 1895. There were a record 1,679 entries accepted for the championship.
Although the top three players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking aren’t in the field, including defending champion Saki Baba, there’s no shortage of star power who will be teeing it up near Beverly Hills.
Here’s a look at 10 players to watch at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club.
She was lining up a putt on the 18th hole of Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A make, she would win the U.S. Girls’ Junior. A miss, her opponent, Rianne Malixi, could force extra holes.
Romero didn’t give Malixi the chance.
She drained the putt, halving the hole and winning the match 1 up to capture the 74th U.S. Girls’ Junior title. The 17-year-old incoming freshman at Oregon made only one birdie in the afternoon session of the 36-hole final, but she also had only one bogey, shooting even-par to outlast Malixi, 16, to win the title and raise the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy.
“I don’t think it has really sunk in yet,” Romero said. “I kept coming up a little short, but I continued to grind and I’m glad to get it done this time.”
With the victory, Romero also gets exemptions into the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open and 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Rianne Mikhaela Malixi, left, and Kiara Romero pose with the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy before the final match of the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior at United States Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club (Blue Course) in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Romero finished third in the stroke-play portion and knocked out 2022 runner-up Gianna Clemente in the semifinals. Last year, Clemente topped Romero in the Round of 16.
Malixi, from the Philippines, won the first hole and maintained her lead until the 22nd when she made a bogey. She was stellar on par 3s all week, but a bogey on the par-3 13th, the 31st hole, gave Romero a 1 up lead with five to play, and the duo halved the remaining holes.
The championship was the first in USGA history to be contested on a military base.
Seeing Yana Wilson and Anna Davis on top of the leaderboard should be no surprise to those who follow junior golf.
Wilson is the defending champion at the U.S. Girls’ Junior, and she earned medalist honors this year at Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course in Colorado Springs, Colorado, following a second-round 4-under 68 to finish at 6-under 138, one shot ahead of Davis. The winner of the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Davis is the highest-ranked player in the field and shot a second-round 1-under 71.
The two have battled plenty in recent tournaments, including Wilson holing a shot for eagle to beat Davis in a playoff at the 2022 Annika Invitational.
Yana Wilson plays with a golf ball while waiting to hit her drive off the hole 17 tee box during the second round of the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior at United States Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club (Blue Course) in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Wilson, an Oregon commit, and Davis, who’s headed to Auburn, are two of the top prospects in the Class of 2024. Kiara Romero, who finished third after 36 holes of stroke play, is an incoming freshman at Oregon.
Wilson will try to become the sixth medalist to hoist the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy since 2002. She also has an opportunity to become the fourth player to repeat as U.S. Girls’ Junior champion and first since Eun Jeong Seong in 2015-16.
The cut for match play was 7 over, and exactly 64 players were inside the line. It’s the first time no playoff was needed for the final spots since 2007 at Tacoma Golf and Country Club in Lakewood, Washington.
Additionally, there was another ace Tuesday, marking the fourth of the tournament. Sophie Stevens used a 9-iron from 132 yards on the seventh hole.
The four aces surpassed the 2004 U.S. Girls’ Junior for the most in a single championship. It also matches the USGA mark for a single event with the 1989 U.S. Open at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.
History was made at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball as seven teams shared medalist honors at stroke-play qualifying. That’s the most for any USGA championship, surpassing the six players who medaled at the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bandon Dunes.
During an unseasonably warm and windy day at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington, the seven sides finished at 11-under 133 to top a crowded leaderboard. A total of 32 teams advanced to match play, with an 8-for-5 playoff moving into a Monday finish.
Defending champs Thienna Huynh, 19, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Sara Im, 18, of Duluth, Georgia, carried their momentum into 2023 as they shared medalist honors thanks to a nine-hole record of 30 on the front nine.
Thienna Huynh and Sara Im at the medalist ceremony during the the second round of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. on Sunday, May 14, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Match play begins on Monday with the Round of 32. With the NCAA Championship being held this week in Arizona, few college players were able to qualify for the event due to scheduling. That leaves a number of hotshot teen tandems in the field. In fact, there were 18 players in the field this week between the ages of 12 and 15.
Two teams of 14-year-olds advanced.
Here are five more teams to watch heading into match play:
