Arizona survived the wind and rain on Scotland’s East Coast to win the St Andrews Links Collegiate, beating Northwestern 4.5-1.5 in the medal match play final on the Old Course. Victory gave new coach Giovana Maymon (below) a second tournament win in her first season in charge.

Arizona junior Nena Wongthanavimok got the ball rolling in the opening match, defeating Dianna Lee by five shots. In match two, Lilas Pinthier put a second point on the board for the Wildcats, winning by two over Hsin Tai Lin, who succumbed to the conditions by playing the last three holes in six over par.

The next two matches were tied before the head-to-head between the two best scorers in the field over the first two days. It produced fireworks amid the downpour with Arizona’s Charlotte Back (above), who finished runner-up to Northwestern’s Ashley Yun (below) in the individual tournament, carding a brilliant 66 to win by four shots.

Back made seven birdies in her round, including five in six holes from the 9th, a stretch of holes known as the Loop on the Old Course, which turns the course back towards the town. It proved to be the decisive move in the entire match, as the final game was also halved.

Team Leaderboard | Individual Leaderboard | Medal Match Play Final

Ranked No.1 in the first edition of the National Collegiate Golf Rankings, the Arkansas women’s golf team won for the second tournament in a row, taking the Dale McNamara Invitational in Oklahoma by 21 strokes over Oklahoma State. 

Coach Shauna Taylor’s team came into the event at Cedar Ridge Country Club fresh off a 29-shot victory in its home event, the Blessings Collegiate Invitational.

Junior Reagan Zibilski (above) made it a clean sweep for the Razorbacks, winning her first college title after finishing on five under par. Senior Kendall Todd (below) came in at two under and was runner-up for the fourth time in her college career. She did, however, record her third top-5 finishes in three events this fall season.

Zibilski separated herself from the field with a program-record 63 (-8) in the second round, a score embroidered with two eagles. She then sealed her maiden victory with a trio of birdies on the back nine of her final round.

Two other Arkansas players finished in the top 15 — freshman Clarisa Temelo completed the 54 holes in 3 over par (T7) while Blessings champion Maria José Marin finished 14th. Jensen Jalufka of Cal Poly, who made the most birdies in the tournament (13), was third in the individual standings after rounds of 73-70-70. 

The Razorbacks closed with a six-over-par 290, seven better than any other team in the field. Oklahoma finished in third place, 27 shots behind the winners.

Duke fired an even-par 280 in the final round at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill to win the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational for the 17th time in its history. The Blue Devils finished three shots clear of Michigan State and Wake Forest. 

As the goduke.com website reported, Head Coach Dan Brooks has now led Duke to at least one victory in 39 of his 41 seasons in charge and has clocked up a total of 144 team wins over the course of his career, the most of any women’s golf coach in DI history.

After watching his team close with a best-of-the-tournament team total of 280 (E), Coach Brooks spoke of how ‘calm golf wins’.

‘I'm very proud of this team,’ he said. ‘We didn't have a good first day [+12 in first round, eight shots back of the lead]. We had a lot of climbing out to get this done. We had to be really patient. We had to learn a lot about a golf course that's been made much more difficult in a recent renovation…. I was very impressed by how they learned the golf course as we went along and how they stayed solid. It wasn't a rollercoaster for them the last two days. It was very calm golf.’

Junior Andie Smith (above) made it a clean sweep for Duke after shooting rounds of 68, 66 and 69 for a career-best seven-under-par total and a first college win.

Smith followed her coach's advice, kept calm and prevailed by five shots from Carolina Chacarra (Wake Forest), who made five birdies in her third round, and by seven from Megan Streicher (North Carolina) and Marie Madsen (NC State).  

Smith made a mixed start to her final round, which began on hole No.5, but fired three birdies in a row when it mattered most, on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, which were her 15th, 16th and 17th holes.

‘I kind of came off a rough stretch after the turn,’ the winner explained. ‘I kind of had an idea of where it was close enough that it mattered, both individually and for the team, and if there was a time to get it together and play the way that I know how to play, it was then.’  

Team Leaderboard | Individual Leaderboard