The National Golf Invitational, the NIT of college golf, is returning for its third year next spring. Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, will host the event for the third straight year.
Next year, the NGI will again feature a men’s and women’s championship, each with a maximum of 18 teams playing 54 holes of stroke play. Women will play first, May 8-11, with the men the following week, May 15-18.
“I feel like there is real momentum and awareness for the NGI,” said Golfweek‘s Lance Ringler, the tournament director of the NGI. “This will be the third season of this postseason championship and the feedback from the first two have been very good.”
The NGI gives teams on the outside of the NCAA postseason a chance to have a season-ending championship of their own.
There will be a slight change to how teams are invited this year. The NGI will continue to invite teams based on ranking, but also invite teams that are under .500 in ranking order that are outside the number to earn an at-large bid into NCAA regionals.
“Our main focus is continuing to inform the coaches and administrators that this is happening and to prepare for it,” Ringler said.
Last year, the Washington State men and Rutgers women won the second NGI titles. Anthony Delisanti from Valparaiso won the men’s individual title, and Jacksonville State’s Jinger Heath took home the women’s individual crown.
The second edition of the National Golf Invitational is in the books.
Earlier this month, the National Golf Invitational continued to build on its growing tradition at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. It’s the new NIT of college golf. Every team’s goal is to make it to the NCAA Championship, but if they don’t find a ticket to regional play, there is now something to play in. And this year, the first team out on the men’s side took full advantage.
In the span of just a few weeks, the Cougars have run the gamut of emotions.
In the span of just a few weeks, Washington State has run the gamut of emotions. After the team found itself the first one out of an NCAA Regional berth, the call came for a spot in the National Golf Invitational.
And then, a hard-fought, runaway postseason victory.
“We went from real disappointment, obviously having the stinging feeling of not making it to regionals,” White said. “Now you come down here, and I think these guys, this is what they wanted to do. They wanted to come down and play some really good golf and make a statement. I wouldn’t say that was our prime motivation but they just did what they did all year, they put their heads down and got to work and they played awesome.”
White can’t pinpoint one thing that propelled the Cougars to a 19-shot victory at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. It was a combination of everything, he said, and it’s not that surprising considering that Washington State went a head-turning 22 under par in the final round.
TCU was second at 22 under for 54 holes and Butler was third at 18 under.
If the Cougars were in the desert to make a statement about what they’re capable of, they did it and then some.
“I felt like considering how we played in the second round, the guys kind of knew that it was out there but I think 22 under was a lot of fun to watch,” White said. “They all came out ready to go and just had one of those days where I guess we saved our best for last and it was a great time to do it.”
Washington State started the day one shot behind second-round leader TCU. They played the first four holes in 9 under par and were off. The Cougars counted a bogey-free 8-under 64 from Sam Renner and a 65 from Pono Yanagi, who missed this tournament last year because he made an individual start in an NCAA Regional.
White and assistant coach Kevin Tucker took a mostly hands-off approach to the final round, letting their players work their own magic.
The night before the final round, the team ate together at Texas Roadhouse. White isn’t sure how much superstition runs through the team, but that night-before meal might be repeated a few times next season.
Past Saturday night’s team dinner, there wasn’t much time for more celebrating. Four of the players White traveled to the NGI are graduating so Washington State will look very different next fall. An NGI win was a validating end for those men.
“Just to come down here and win and I suppose in a fashion like this, I’m just happy for those guys and just a little more validation for all the work they put in and kind of a cool way to go out,” White said.
In the individual race, Valparaiso junior Anthony Delisanti did the bulk of his work in the second round with a 10-under 62 that left him one shot away from the Ak-Chin Southern Dunes course record. That’s not an easy round to follow, but Delisanti posted a closing 68 on Sunday for a one-shot victory over Washington State’s Renner.
“It’s more of a mental test than anything. Just knowing it’s going to be really hard to match that score again the next day,” Delisanti said after the final round. “Obviously it is very difficult no matter what course or tournament or whoever you’re playing against, it’s really tough to do.”
Delisanti opened the tournament with a 1-under 71 before diving to 62 the next day. The biggest difference, he said, was in his putting. Once he learned the speed of the greens, he was on his way.
Delisanti eagled both par 5s on the back nine on the way to a second-round 62, and had a good look for eagle on the short par-4 14th. Posting a round of 59 entered his mind, especially after former Alabama player Nick Dunlap posted 60 at a tournament in the Hamptons in the fall.
“I gave myself a good chance to do it,” Delisanti said. “A lot of things needed to go my way on that back nine of that second round. Either way, it was a really good day.”
The NGI title is Delisanti’s sixth in college golf. The list includes two Missouri Valley Conference titles, which earned him an invitation to NCAA Regionals each of the last two seasons. When Valparaiso played the NGI last year, Delisanti wasn’t eligible considering he had already competed in the NCAA postseason.
Valparaiso head coach David Gring marvels at Delisanti’s body of work three years into his college career, especially when you add the NGI to the list.
“The amount of time that he spends in practice and his preparation, his preparation is meticulous, his work ethic is tremendous,” Gring said. “He’s just a model student-athlete.”
Delisanti credits Gring as well as assistant coach Ron Gring (he works more with the latter on his swing and short game) for moving him forward while at Valparaiso, but also notes he has learned a considerable amount from teammate Caleb VanArragon, who finished his career at NCAA Regionals this spring as the most successful player in program history.
“He’s taught me a ton about how to prepare,” he said. “When I came in as a freshman, I learned so much from him.”
From Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, Delisanti moves on to U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying next month and then a stout schedule of Elite Amateur Series events, including the Sunnehanna Amateur, North and South Amateur and Southern Amateur. He’ll also resume his job in the bag room at Niagara Falls Country Club (site of the Porter Cup), near his Sanborn, New York, home.
TCU players kept the bogeys to a minimum and lit up their scorecards in red at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes. Still, Washington State is only one back.
To motivate his four players competing in the National Golf Invitational this week, TCU head coach Bill Allcorn and assistant coach Cole Buck zeroed in on one detail. Every single shot that each player hits will count. Every birdie, every bogey.
And Allcorn came to like the idea.
“That’s the message we kind of relayed to the guys and they’re all in,” he said. “They’re pulling for each other just like they always do but knowing that every single shot that each person hits is important. I feel like we’re just a really tight group this week, and it’s fun to see that every birdie we make and every bogey we make is really affecting our overall score.”
On Saturday, TCU players kept the bogeys to a minimum and lit up their scorecards in red at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. The Horned Frogs will take a one-shot lead on Washington State into the final round. TCU is 20 under for 36 holes with two players, Jack Beauchamp and Andrew Petruzelli, in the top 5 individually.
TCU is without its leading scorer Gustav Frimodt at the NGI after the senior competed in an NCAA Regional in Austin, Texas, last week. Allcorn traveled with Frimodt to the tournament and Buck flew the team to Arizona to prepare for the NGI. Allcorn arrived Friday evening, and saw the course for the first time on Saturday.
“I just wanted to be around the guys and support them and just watch a lot of golf,” he said. “It’s been two weeks or so since I’ve been around this group just because of finals and being at regionals so it was good just to be around them again and watch them compete.”
Allcorn praised his men for capitalizing on the longer holes as well as on the par 4s, especially those where TCU players had wedges in their hands. After his first day on site, he likes the look of the place, particularly the greens.
“Greens are really, really good – perfect make speed, so to speak,” he said. “If you do hit one pretty hard, it will get away from you but for the most part, the greens feel really good to make some putts on.”
A postseason opportunity for TCU, which finished the regular season ranked No. 102, is particularly important given the make-up of Allcorn’s team. With three of four players being underclassmen, the NGI became an opportunity for a group of somewhat inexperienced players to get one more tournament under their belt before scattering for the summer.
Washington State, on the other hand, has a little bit different story. The Cougars are making their second consecutive NGI start, but this year four of the players head coach Dustin White traveled to the tournament are graduating.
There’s a little extra motivation attached to Washington State, too, because of the circumstances under which they arrived at the NGI. The Cougars, ranked No. 67 to end the regular season, were the first team out of NCAA regionals, a position that certainly stung an experienced squad. White knows it put a bit of a chip on their collective shoulders.
“They know the opportunity that’s in front of them and I think they obviously want to put an exclamation point on the season and have the seniors go out on a high note,” he said. “We all want that. We want to win but I think at the end of the day they’ve done a really nice job this year of going out and playing golf and sticking to the process and just letting all that stuff kind of take care of itself.”
In the individual race, Valparaiso’s Anthony Delisanti got it to double digits under par on Saturday with a 10-under 62. He’s now 11 under for the tournament, and three ahead of Butler’s Leo Zurovac in second place.
Delisanti, a junior from Sanborn, New York, started on the back nine and eagled both par 5s (Nos. 13 and 16) while adding birdies at Nos. 12 and 14. He made four more birdies on the front nine, which got him within a shot of the Ak-Chin Southern Dunes course record of 61. That number belongs to Steve Saunders, who posted 61 during a round of PGA Tour Q-School.
The 2024 Men’s National Golf Invitational is here.
The 2024 Men’s National Golf Invitational is here.
The NIT of college golf kicked off Friday at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, featuring 10 teams from across the country. The National Golf Invitational is in its second season and features some of the top teams who just missed out on an NCAA Regional berth.
Last year, Texas State won the inaugural NGI. In this year’s field, there are three returning teams: Valparaiso, Washington State and Wyoming
The event is comprised of 54 holes of stroke play before determining the NGI champion.
Here’s a look at the best photos from the 2024 Men’s National Golf Invitational:
It had been a long day in the desert, and Jinger Heath probably had more golf to play. Heath was hitting a few putts, in case a playoff was on the horizon for the individual trophy at the National Golf Invitational. Her Jacksonville State teammates suggested she have a seat in the shade instead.
Heath, the freshman from Hartselle, Alabama, who is famous for needing little (if any) time to warm up, suggested they worry about head coach Robbie Fields instead. Normally she only hits a few drives on the range before going to the first tee, but, “at this one I didn’t want Robbie to freak out on me,” Heath joked.
“So I made sure to get an hour in of warming up.”
Hence her decision to roll a few putts while she waited for her chasers.
Heath posted rounds of 70-72-71 at the National Golf Invitational at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, to reach 3 under. When she came off the golf course Sunday afternoon, Victoria Levy from North Carolina-Wilmington and Kelsey Kim from Santa Clara still had two or three holes to left, and both were hovering around 3 under, too.
Levy, a UNCW who transferred from Central Florida, had been even par through 13 holes before making three birdies and a bogey in her closing hole. Her final-round of 70 left her tied with Heath.
“After the round, Robbie was like, ‘OK, Jinger, if you’re going into a playoff, you need to be prepared,’” Heath said. “I’m like, I am prepared. What have I been doing all semester? He said you need to stay loose. I said I’ve hit 71 shots today, I think I’m loose enough.”
As Fields joked, “I think her lack of stress stressed me out more.”
Coach and player strode to the No. 18 together, the first playoff hole, where Heath drew honors off the tee. Heath aimed for a particular bunker in the background, just like she had all week, and hit the fairway. Her second shot landed a couple feet off the green and she lined up the birdie putt at the left edge.
“Every putt I get over, I tell myself to make it,” she said. “So I was like, make it.”
Remarkably, it hung on the edge before taking “one tumble” into the hole and giving Heath a postseason individual title in her first year of college golf. And in her mind, there’s no better way to win a tournament than with a playoff birdie.
Jacksonville State’s Jinger Heath won the NGI individual title. (Photo by Landon Ringler)
Heath proudly noted that she won the first tournament of her spring season, the North Carolina-Greensboro-hosted Advance Golf Partners Collegiate, and now the last. It’s just some of the middle that didn’t sit so well.
“I definitely didn’t play to my potential,” she said. “I wasn’t very happy.”
Heath had two other top-7 finishes in the spring, but at the Conference USA Championship, she felt like she put two good rounds together before struggling to finish it off. She finished 12th.
An NGI title will make the start of the summer much sweeter, and Heath will go on to play a full schedule of Alabama Golf Association events, a U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier, the Tennessee Women’s Open and maybe even a few more amateur events.
Heath knows she couldn’t have a better team around her, notably Fields and swing coach Colby Odom, who teaches out of Burningtree Country Club in Decatur, Alabama. When she called Odom before the playoff at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, he told her, “You’re ready, you just need to walk slow.”
As for Fields, he was walking, maybe not so slowly, right beside Heath for much of the day. He had to take a break after seven holes to bring his own stress levels down, but picked up Heath again on No. 13 and walked the rest of the way with her.
Fields spent three seasons as the women’s golf assistant at East Carolina University before taking over at Jacksonville State in the summer of 2022. He and Heath both attended Hartselle (Alabama) High School, and Heath had been playing out of the same club as a kid where Fields’ dad plays. Thus, Fields had an early scouting report on Heath.
Fields knew he wouldn’t have a spot for her at ECU, so he offered instead to help her get wherever she wanted to go. The summer before her senior year, Fields ended up watching Heath play a tournament at Pinehurst because she was right in the middle of two players he was recruiting. By that time, he had applied for the job at Jacksonville State. He had no interview, but rumors were already swirling.
“She spent about an hour after the round recruiting me,” he said. “She hadn’t committed yet, but she was recruiting hard.”
Fields was hired shortly after and Heath became his first commitment. She’s been a great one, racking up Conference USA Freshman of the Year honors and now an NGI title.
“Seeing her grow up from a little rugrat on the golf course being in everybody’s way to doing something like this and being there with her has been a little extra sentimental, I guess, for some of those reasons,” Fields said.
Heath led her Jacksonville State team to a seventh-place finish in the 10-team NGI field. At the top of the team leaderboard, Rutgers increased its one-shot second-round lead to a three-shot victory over UNCW. Rutgers, which finished the tournament at 13 over, became the second consecutive Big 10 team to win the NGI after Penn State won the inaugural tournament in 2023.
Rutgers head coach Kari Williams couldn’t think of a better way to cap a solid spring than with a postseason victory. Even better, she watched three freshmen fearlessly take the baton from three seniors who have played their last round in the block R.
“Only a couple of teams get to do that all year, get to finish with a win,” Williams said. “It’s really good for us.”
A certain kind of magic happens when the textbooks close at the end of the spring. Suddenly the calendar is open.
A certain kind of magic happens when the textbooks close at the end of the spring. Suddenly the calendar is open. Rutgers head coach Kari Williams didn’t realize what a gamechanger that would be, the postseason experience being something of a new thing for Rutgers.
“It wasn’t rushed, it wasn’t harried in any way, it was actually kind of a luxury to go to practice,” Williams said. “… It’s just been a ton of fun for two weeks.”
Rutgers is one off the lead after two rounds of the National Golf Invitational, having clearly done an effective job of bringing that relaxed vibe from the East Coast all the way to Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. Then again, every morning at the NGI, country music blares as the 10-team field warms up. There’s ice cream at the end of the day and to Williams, this week feels a little bit like the USGA events and national-team events that her players covet in that celebratory, no-detail-spared kind of way.
“They are playing hard and they’re competing, but I think there’s joy in it that we don’t necessarily see in the regular season when we’re all in the grind of trying to be as ranked as high as we can and do all of those things so we can get the next-best recruit and all of that,” Williams said. “This has been more about the playing of the golf and that’s fun.”
At 8 over for 36 holes, Rutgers trails University of North Carolina-Wilmington by a shot. A few errant swings have been costly, but the Scarlet Knights have figured out how to make some birdies when they need them to make up for mistakes.
A five-shot gap separates Rutgers from Santa Clara in third place at 13 over, with Arkansas State another three shots behind that. Three players are tied for the individual lead at 2 under: Santa Clara’s Kelsey Kim, Jacksonville State’s Jinger Heath, and UNCW’s Minouche Rooijmans.
UNCW head coach Cindy Ho liked how her team performed in the lead, so it won’t be easy for Rutgers to overtake them on Sunday. Ho thinks the potential is there for good theater.
“That back and forth tomorrow, this is why I came here,” she said. “Try to give people some experience but also find a way to reward our team, see if we can win a championship.”
Williams penciled in postseason dates early in the fall – NCAA Regionals and the National Golf Invitational. Rutgers could have been at the latter last season, before a nasty strain of the flu left them severely weakened right before the postseason.
Williams wasn’t sure she would even be able to field a team for last spring’s Big 10 Championship. The Scarlet Knights competed, but Williams ended it there, declining an invitation into the inaugural NGI.
“They’d been vomiting for 10 days and they were going to miss graduation so we did not accept last year,” Williams said. “I had really wanted to, but we just couldn’t get it done.”
To be at the NGI in early May takes commitment. Three players sacrificed commencement for the chance to play one last time with the team: Lucrezia Rossettin, Leigha Devine and Rikke Nordvik (who is Rutgers’ sub this week). Williams points to Devine as one of the most gratifying success stories on the team. Devine didn’t make the lineup as a freshman but has blossomed since. She qualified for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The rest of Williams’ team is made up of freshmen, and there’s a joy in coaching newcomers that Williams, 53, thinks she’s only fully embraced now that she’s in the back half of her coaching career. They think they know everything while simultaneously never wanting to ask a question because they’re afraid it will be a dumb one.
“They make me laugh,” she said. “They’re hilarious.”
There’s a joy, too, in watching her players tee it up with the best in the country – notably at the Big 10 Championship – with both fight and belief in their hearts. While acknowledging that golf tournaments are three rounds, it’s at the 36-hole mark that Williams often steps back and sees most clearly what her team is made of.
“I love it when they go play against some of the top players in the world and have some success,” Williams said.
Rutgers played a loaded schedule, including Big 10- and Pac-12-heavy fields. They won their own Rutgers Invitational at the beginning of April.
“The thing about winning tournaments – it doesn’t come as often as you think it will,” Williams said.
Regardless, winning helps a lot of things, and it felt especially helpful to Williams on Saturday night that Rutgers had that feeling so fresh in their mind. Ak-Chin Southern Dunes has some scoreable holes, but some stretches that can be costly. Above all, Williams hopes for a good fight on Sunday, from the whole team.
“I hope my seniors spend the day just reveling in the chance to compete as college athletes for one last day and that my freshmen are just out there playing their guts out to try to send these seniors off with a win.”
The 2024 Women’s National Golf Invitational is here.
The 2024 Women’s National Golf Invitational is here.
The NIT of college golf kicked off Friday at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, featuring 10 teams from across the country. The National Golf Invitational is in its second season and features some of the top teams who just missed out on an NCAA Regional berth.
Last year, Penn State won the inaugural NGI. In this year’s field, there are two returning teams: Mercer and Santa Clara.
The event is comprised of 54 holes of stroke play before determining the NGI champion.
Here’s a look at the best photos from the 2024 National Golf Invitational:
To say Todd Lawton was caught off guard would be saying it lightly.
The women’s golf coach at USC Upstate was sitting in an all-staff meeting the day after receiving an invite to the National Golf Invitational. He had spoken to his sports administrator about it, who then took the conversation to the athletic director, Matthew Martin.
In the middle of the meeting, Martin called out Lawton and said, “Congratulations to coach Lawton and women’s golf, they got their first postseason invite and are heading to Arizona here in about two days.”
“I looked over at my administrator, and he just gave me a thumbs up,” Lawton said. “It’s better than announcing women’s golf got an invite but is not going.”
USC Upstate met the criteria to be selected for NCAA Regionals but wasn’t. That’s when the team was invited to the second edition of the Women’s Golf Invitational, which begins Friday at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. The Spartans are one of 10 teams in the women’s field, but more importantly, they’re making their first postseason appearance in school history, and that wouldn’t have happened if not for the NGI.
In 2024, the field will play 54 holes of stroke play over three days to determine the second NGI champion. Penn State won the inaugural competition last spring. There are two returning teams from the 2023 field, Mercer and Santa Clara, with eight newcomers hoping for a chance to claim a postseason title.
For USC Upstate, it’s hoping to claim postseason glory in its first appearance.
“For it to be a national championship postseason backup to the NCAA, it’s just huge,” Lawton said. “Our players can be rewarded for staying at a mid-major and working their tails off.”
Two years ago, USC Upstate lost to Campbell on the fourth playoff hole of the conference championship to miss out on a national’s bid. It’s likely the Spartans would’ve participated in the NGI that season, but it hadn’t been created yet.
Fast forward two years and USC Upstate again placed second at its conference tournament, falling to Charleston Southern in match play. This time, the NGI was waiting, and it’s set to be a historic tournament for the Spartans.
USC Upstate had two victories this season and a 90-31-0 overall record. It placed second in the Big South Conference tournament in stroke play before the runner-up finish in match play. In addition to the two victories, USC Upstate had nine top-five finishes.
At the NGI, the Spartans have a chance to add a feather in their cap on one of the best seasons in school history.
“My wife is a school teacher, and she has been used to me being done May 1,” Lawton said. “She doesn’t know how to take it with me being gone at practices and such. She asked whether she was going to have to get used to it. I said I sure hope we have to get used to it.”
After a successful inaugural championship, the NIT of college golf is returning this May at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. Last year, the Texas State men and Penn State women won their respective tournaments.
The NCAA announced in May of 2022 it would allow teams to play in one season-ending event. Golfweek teamed up with Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, just south of Phoenix, to host the NGI.
This year, the NGI will again feature a men’s and women’s championship, each with a maximum of 18 teams playing 54 holes of stroke play. Women will play first, May 9-12, with the men the following week, May 16-19.
There were 13 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams who participated last year, and more teams are expected to play this May. The field is limited to 18 teams using rankings and committee picks.
The NGI gives teams on the outside of the NCAA postseason a chance to have a season-ending championship of their own.
