October 26, 2025 • by David Tenneson / Photography: HNS Sports
Eight teams — four men’s and four women’s — return to the famed East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA for the 11th edition of the East Lake Cup.
This annual three-day event features teams that appeared in the match play portion of the previous season’s NCAA Championship. Fans can follow along with live scoring of both the men's and women's tournaments right here on Scoreboard.
Looking to further promote the talent in college golf, the Golf Channel and East Lake Foundation inaugurated the East Lake Cup in the fall of the 2015-16 season. The final four teams from each of the two championships accepted invites to the historic venue that had witnessed Jordan Spieth winning the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup just six weeks earlier.
The Southern California Lady Trojans captured the first East Lake Cup by defeating Duke in the match play final, while the Illinois men took down the Georgia Bulldogs. The event proved to be a great success, raising $475,000 for the East Lake Foundation to serve the surrounding community.
The second annual playing of the East Lake Cup in 2016 brought an additional day of competition, giving players an 18-hole stroke play qualifier followed by two rounds of team match play. This shortened version of the NCAA Championship format has been used in this event ever since.
On the men’s side, Scottie Scheffler took medalist honors for Texas with a six-under-par 66 that still stands as the tournament record low score. Scheffler's mark was equaled by last year's men's medalist, Jack Vojtko of Ohio State
It won’t come as a shock that it’s difficult to make the East Lake Cup field, but you may be surprised by the year-over-year turnover rate: 67% for the men and 75% for the women!
While rosters change every year, teams that do make it to East Lake earn their way back to NCAA match play at the end of the season at a 50% rate for the women and 42% for the men.
Only two teams have won the East Lake Cup and then won the NCAA Championship at the end of that season, and they both won in the fall of 2020.
Due to the premature end of the 2019-20 season, the 2020 East Lake Cup field was selected by going by the final spring team rankings. One of the teams benefiting from higher ranked teams not playing in the fall was the Ole Miss women, who took down Texas in the first round and then South Carolina just six months before earning their first NCAA championship.
Pepperdine’s men, who had been one of the top ranked teams the previous season, overcame a tough test against the Oklahoma Sooners. The two teams would rematch just a few months later for the 2021 NCAA championship, with the Waves again coming out on top.
Teams return to competition this year at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which has hosted every iteration of this event with the exception of 2023. Course renovations following the 2023 PGA Tour Championship forced the East Lake Cup to be played at nearby Atlanta Athletic Club, which was celebrating its 125th anniversary. The two clubs share significant history, primarily with their shared association with legendary amateur Bobby Jones.
Georgia Tech has a special connection with Jones’ home course, boasting a number of historic past members including Bobby Jones and Perry Adair, who essentially started the Georgia Tech golf program; Watts Gunn, who earned the school’s first championship medalist honors in 1927; and 1934 championship medalist Charlie Yates, who not only was the low amateur in the inaugural Masters tournament but also so important to the East Lake Club that their No. 2 course — designed by Donald Ross — was named in his honor. Yates was with Jones when the legend played his final round at East Lake in 1948.
Last year, the reigning NCAA champion Auburn beat Georgia Tech 3-2 in the match play final. The Tigers defeated Florida State in the semis, which included a match-up between college standouts Jackson Koivun and Luke Clanton, which the Seminole won 3&2. Auburn has fond memories of East Lake, winning in their only previous appearance in 2018.
Last year, Stanford Cardinal was the only team to make the 2024 NCAA Championship semi-finals to be absent from the East Lake Cup. Southern California took advantage, winning the stroke play tournament with Jasmine Koo (below) edging teammate Catherine Park for medalist honors. The Lady Trojans went on to beat UCLA and LSU to take the win.
In 2023, Wake Forest became the only team (men or women) to follow up an NCAA championship with an East Lake Cup title, claiming a narrow victory over Stanford in the final.
Virgina, the top-ranked team in the country, enters this year’s East Lake Cup in a rich vein of form. The Cavaliers were co-winners at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational in their last outing and senior Ben James (main image) is currently #1 in the National Collegiate Golf Rankings. Last year's NCAA Championship runners-up are joined at East Lake by Arizona State (#4), Florida (#10) and Ole Miss (#12).
On the women’s side, USC will be making a sixth appearance this year, and will be bidding to add to their record four team victories (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2024). In order to retain the trophy, Justin Silverstein's team, which is currently ranked #2 behind Stanford, will need to get past 2025 National Champion Northwestern (#23), the in-form Oregon (#3), including the WAGR #1 Kiara Romero, and Florida State (#30).