1. Southern State of Mind

Puggy Blackmon (below left) is a legend in college golf. The long-time Georgia Tech and South Carolina men’s golf coach moved into the Director of Golf role for the Gamecocks in 2007. After bringing on Kalen Anderson to coach the women’s team in 2008, Blackmon rekindled his coaching career, this time in an assistant role.

His dream of hosting an elite women’s golf tournament came to life in 2012 thanks to a collaboration with Bob Patton, head golf pro at the prestigious Long Cove Club (below) and Darius Rucker, country music star who first gained fame as the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish.

Coach Blackmon, Coach Anderson, Rucker and the folks at Long Cove have elevated that dream well beyond what they might have imagined, and today the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate is widely recognized as one of the best events in all of college golf.

2.You, Me & My Guitar

It may seem strange for a music icon like Darius Rucker to be involved in a college golf tournament, however the University of South Carolina alum is a Gamecock above all else. Working around his touring schedule, Rucker makes a point to be in town for his namesake tournament each year, putting on a concert for the teams, sponsors, and Long Cove members the night before the first round.

He’s also there for the award ceremony to hand out one of the most coveted trophies in college golf: a signed guitar and miniature glass replicas. 

3. Rock Me [Bama] Like a Wagon Wheel

The first tournament in 2012 was cut short by the weather, but that didn’t dampen the spirit of the event. Nor did it drown out the Alabama Crimson Tide who managed an 11-stroke victory in just 36 holes as Stephanie Meadow captured medalist honors.

Coach Potter’s team enjoyed themselves so much, they came back and did it again in 2013, with Meadows taking third place individually. After a couple of years of struggling, Alabama went on a run from 2016-18, winning the team titles in three consecutive years by a combined 17 strokes. Cheyenne Knight captured medalist honors in both 2016 and 2017 (by a tournament record seven strokes, gaining 21 strokes over the field average), and Lauren Stephenson was runner-up in 2018.

4. Let Her Cry

The Duke Blue Devils parted the red sea in 2014 and 2015, taking home team titles by 10 strokes and nine strokes respectively. Perhaps more intriguing is the fact that both years a Duke freshman was able to beat out an LSU player in a playoff for the individual title.

In 2014, Duke’s Yu Liu defeated LSU’s Caroline Nistrup in a one-hole playoff to earn her guitar. The next year, budding superstar Leona Maguire repeated history when she took down LSU’s Madelene Sagstrom on the first extra hole.

The 2015 Darius Rucker was Maguire’s first collegiate win in a season that culminated in winning the ANNIKA Award, recognizing her as the top collegiate golfer. Liu didn’t win that award, but the Duke team as a whole earned some nice hardware when they took home the NCAA championship in 2014. 

5. Twenty Something

Wake Forest put on a show all their own in the 2020 tournament, taking the team title by a stunning 26 strokes. Three of the Demon Deacons finished inside the top five, led by Emilia Migliaccio who finished one stroke ahead of eventual ANNIKA Award winner Natalie Srinivisan (Furman). Sadly this was the final tournament of the COVID-shortened season for everyone in the field.

6. For The First Time

In 2022, the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate not only reached a milestone year with their 10th edition of the tournament, but also celebrated the milestone of becoming the first full women’s regular season college tournament to air on the Golf Channel network. Viewers were treated to another Wake Forest sweep (above) as Carolina Lopez-Chacarra collected five front-nine birdies on her way to a two-shot individual win and a nine-shot team victory. The tournament is now in its fourth broadcast year.

7. Wild One

Last year’s Darius Rucker Intercollegiate was one of the wildest yet. Northwestern held a slim lead going into the final round with Arizona State and Auburn in the mix. All three teams stumbled in the closing holes, but in the end Arizona State pulled off the win with three players finishing in the top 12.

The individual side was even more intense as four players shared co-medalist honors: Julia Lopez Ramirez (Mississippi State), Jennifer Cai (Northwestern), Hannah Darling (South Carolina), and Farah O’Keefe (Texas). Ramirez, who owns the tournament 18-hole record with her final round 64 (-7), won’t be back to defend her title as she turned pro this past November. Neither will Cai, who graduated. Both Darling and O’Keefe will return to the site of their first collegiate victories with the Texas sophomore riding a hot streak of five straight top-10 finishes.  

8. Only Wanna Be With You

A near universal message from competitors and fans alike is that it is the people who make this event special. According to Scoreboard’s own Marcus El: “What sets it apart is the staff. They make you feel welcome and like it’s home. It’s an event I’ll always have on my schedule. From Lindsay Finger to Christy Cohen to Bob Patton to the pro shop staff, they are simply the best. I’ve always felt taken care of and I know the teams feel the same way.”

Coach Anderson agrees, telling Coach Mike McGraw on the Better Than I Found It podcast: “It’s really the Long Cove community that makes it so special, we get a ton of fans out there, a ton of the community at Long Cove, the membership comes out, there’s crowds out there and I think that’s what makes it so special…it’s just so different, everything from the food to the volunteers is just top notch.”

9. History In The Making

The 2025 edition is shaping up to be one of the strongest yet. The entire 17-team field is in the mix for Regional berths with 15 teams currently ranked inside the top 50. Six of the top 10 ranked teams in the country will be in attendance, including #2 ranked Arkansas. the Razorbacks are led by #1 ranked Maria Jose Marin (below), who opened the Spring with team and individual victories in Puerto Rico.

Host South Carolina is currently ranked #5 and looking for their first victory of the Spring.  Three other top ranked teams — Texas, Wake Forest, and Northwestern — will be squaring off again coming off recent play in the Moon Golf Invitational. A strong performance here in one of the biggest shows of the year could prove to be the catalyst towards a championship run.

Check out the special 5 Count 4 dashboard of historic results from the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. Follow live scoring from the 2025 tournament (March 3-5) on ScoreboardLive