October 17, 2024 • by David Tenneson
The reigning NCAA champion Stanford Cardinal is back on campus for the Stanford Intercollegiate on October 18-20, which features a stacked field of top-ranked teams. College golf historian David Tenneson unearths nine nuggets about one of the highlights of the fall calendar.
The 1995-96 season marked the end of Tiger’s career playing at the Stanford Golf Club, but also the beginning of this wonderful tournament. Or was it?
Most of the news releases from the last two decades list the Fall 1995 Stanford Intercollegiate as the beginning for record keeping purposes but newspaper accounts reveal that the first women’s Stanford Intercollegiate tournament was held in 1964 and celebrated its 30th playing in the fall of 1993.
The Stanford Golf Course went through a series of renovations on its bunkers and greens in 1994, which seems to have prevented the tournament from being played that fall. Instead, the Stanford women hosted an event in March 1995 and the tournament was (re)started the following October.
This is the 11th time the former Stanford University provost, National Security Advisor to President George W Bush, Secretary of State of the United States, and now Director of the Hoover Institution has been named as tournament host. Since 2009, Denver has often been in the field. The school not only has a great golf program, it also has ties to the tournament host who earned her undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the University of Denver.
The home team currently owns all of the 36- and 54-hole tournament records, which were all set in 2021 when a freshman sensation named Rose Zhang (below) burst onto the scene.
At that year’s Stanford Intercollegiate, Rose concluded her perfect fall with a four-stroke victory and a third win in as many career collegiate starts. She also matched previous program records when she improved from 12-under through 36 holes to finish at 16 under par (197).
Both these program records have since been eclipsed but they remain tournament records. Stanford was 21-under-par through 36-holes and 28-under through 54 holes in 2021, both program records at the time.
Stanford hasn’t had all of the fun at its home course. UCLA’s Mariel Galdiano shot a second round 62 (-9) in 2018 on her way to tournament medalist honors. The next lowest individual 18-hole score is 64 (-7) by Annie Park (USC) in 2013, which was matched the next year by Shannon Aubert (Stanford).
UCLA also owns the team 18-hole scoring record with 268 (-16) in the second round of the 2013 edition.
Since 2015, when the NCAA championship format changed to match play to decide the team title, the winners of the Stanford Intercollegiate have gone on to make match play all but twice (one of which was due to no championship taking place in 2020).
In 2014-15, the Stanford and USC teams shared the Stanford Intercollegiate title in October before meeting again in the semi-finals the following May, where the Cardinal won on the way to a first NCAA championship.
UCLA and USC made it to the quarter-finals in consecutive years after their victories in this event, only to both be put out by Arizona. That incredible 2021-22 Stanford team became the first #1 seed in NCAA matchplay to go the distance and take home the NCAA title.
Last year, all four NCAA semi-finalists were from the Pac-12 and had cut their teeth in the fall Stanford Intercollegiate.
Having traditionally been a Pac-10/12 heavy event, the Stanford Intercollegiate is now an extremely strong (and confusing) ACC/Big10/Big12/SEC matchup thanks to recent conference realignment. It doesn’t mean much for the regular season tournaments like this one, but come conference championship season next April, it will make for a very interesting conversation. Stanford, Cal and SMU join Virginia in the ACC. The Big Ten now includes the likes of USC, UCLA, and Washington, while the Big XII added Arizona State and Colorado. The Texas two-step will now consist of first the Stanford Intercollegiate then the SEC Championship.
Last year, the USC Trojans team’s seven-stroke victory put them alongside UCLA and Stanford on five wins in this event going back to 1995. All five have come in the last 12 editions of the tournament.
This season, USC opened with a win at the Leadership and Golf Invitational with junior Catherine Park taking medalist honors for the fourth time in her college career. Her first win? The 2023 Stanford Intercollegiate.
Fourteen players from the 2024-25 ANNIKA AWARD preseason watchlist will be in the field this year. Stanford (above) leads the way with four players: returning All-Americans Paula Martin Sampedro and Kelly Xu, and star freshmen Meja Örtengren and Andrea Revuelta. USC has the second most with their triple threat of Jasmine Koo (below), Bailey Shoemaker and defending Stanford Intercollegiate champ Catherine Park. Texas and UCLA each have two players on the watchlist, while LSU, Pepperdine, and Virginia all have a player each.
Two years ago, Stanford made the conscious decision to use the platform of this tournament to help draw attention and funds for research during Breast Cancer Awareness month. The Play For Her fundraiser initiative gives fans an opportunity to make a donation or pledge for each birdie their favorite team (or the field) makes during the tournament.
This year’s event is dedicated to Arizona State Head Coach Missy Farr-Kaye, who is a two-time survivor of breast cancer. Missy’s late sister, Heather Farr, lost her battle five years after being first diagnosed at just 23 years old. Those interested in participating can find out more and make pledges here.