October 21, 2024 • by Dan Davies / Photography: Go Cardinal Athletics / USC Trojans Athletics / Ronnie Archer for Purdue Athletics
Stanford Intercollegiate... White Sands Invitational... Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship
On a dramatic final day at Stanford Golf Course, the hosts, ranked #3 in the first National Collegiate Golf Ranking, were first caught and then overtaken by defending champions USC before finally drawing level again at 18 under par and claiming a share of the team title.
USC (above) came out firing on day three, making a ton of birdies in the first half of the round, chipping away at Stanford’s five-shot overnight lead and eventually hitting the front. The Trojans’ 271 final round was the third lowest team score in program history and contained 21 birdies and an eagle from the four counting players.
It would have been good enough had Stanford freshman Andrea Revuelta not showed real grit by turning around an up and down round to make four successive birdies in her last five holes to draw Cardinal level. The only Cardinal player to finish outside the top-25, the Spaniard’s gutsy 68 (-3) proved to be decisive.
The scoring throughout was impressive, with four of the leading players in women’s collegiate golf rising to the top of the leaderboard. Stanford’s Megha Ganne, a star of last season’s National Championship-winning team, was playing in her first stroke play event of the fall and led after two rounds before finishing T3 on -8.
Also on eight under was Farah O’Keefe of Texas. The 2024 Big 12 Player and Freshman of the Year was co-medalist at last season’s Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. She carded a third-round 64 (-7) to record her second top-3 finish of the fall.
The battle for medalist honors, however, boiled down to two teammates, both in the recent Curtis Cup at Sunningdale and now for USC: Catherine Park, who was joint medalist at the season-opening tournament in Seattle, and Jasmine Koo, who took her maiden collegiate title a week later in Illinois.
Park (above) finished last season at #10 in the National Collegiate Golf Rankings after clocking up three wins. She bogeyed her first hole of the round but then went on a tear, going nine under par for her next 14.
A bogey on her 16th hole briefly curbed the momentum before she finished her round with another birdie, her eighth of the day, to card a 63 (-8) and get to 10 under for the tournament. It tied the USC record for lowest 18-hole score.
It proved to be one shot too many because Jasmine Koo (above) birdied seven of her last 13 holes, sealing the deal with a clinching birdie on the 422-yard par-4 18th. After signing for a 65 (-6), the freshman became the first Trojan since Amari Avery to win back to back solo titles.
‘We believe that we have a great plan to attack this golf course, and it was admirable how well the team committed to that,’ Trojans coach Justin Silverstein told the USC website. ‘Jasmine and Catherine put up amazing performances, but this was a complete one to five team win.’
The freshman’s victory means that USC has won three individual titles in a row for the first time since Annie Park’s three-peat in 2012-13.
Team Leaderboard | Individual Leaderboard
Kansas (below) came from behind to win the weather-shortened White Sands Invitational in the Bahamas and establish a new program record with a third consecutive tournament victory.
‘Winning three in a row and three out of four in the fall is incredible and I am so happy for these ladies who wanted this so badly and work so hard,’ Head Coach Lindsay Kuhle told the kuathletics.com website.
Three Jayhawks players — Lily Hirst, Lyla Louderbaugh and Lauren Clark — finished inside the top 10 as the team overturned an 11-shot deficit with a three-under-par 285 in Sunday's final round. It was the only sub-par team score of the tournament and 10 better than any other round total.
It gave Coach Kuhle the fourth team win of her tenure as she targets building on back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances. Her team finished two shots clear of Purdue, which provided the co-individual medalist in Natasha Kiel (above).
Ranked 330 at the end of last season, the senior was #22 in the first National Collegiate Golf Ranking of the season after winning in her first start this fall and finishing runner-up at the Windy City Collegiate. On this occasion, Kiel birdied her final hole to get alongside Chantal El Chaib of Georgia, who shot 73-68 (-2).
Team Leaderboard | Individual Leaderboard
The University of Miami’s solid fall form finally bore fruit with a wire-to-wire victory in the Mercedes Benz Collegiate at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville.
Top-five finishes in each of its first three events laid the foundations for a 10-over-par winning total that saw the Hurricanes end five clear of Campbell and tournament hosts Tennessee.
Three UM players finished inside the top-20, including freshman Cloe Amion Villarino who scored a hole-in-one on the par-3 2nd hole in round two.
Campbell’s two Swedish sophomores, Mira Berglund and Alicia Olsson, duked it out for individual honors. Berglund came through to score her first individual win on six under par, three better than her teammate.