Cardinal live up to top billing with title
Freshman Zhang wins clincher; championship is No. 2 for school
Stanford’s quest for the NCAA championship in women’s golf, which looked likely to produce a victory for most of Wednesday’s title match against Oregon, suddenly became tenuous down the stretch.
It ultimately fell to freshman Rose Zhang to earn the deciding point — and that was a good thing for the Cardinal.
Zhang, two days removed from winning the NCAA individual title, closed out Oregon’s Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen on the 17th hole at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Zhang sank her par putt, sealing her 3-and-1 victory and bringing her teammates streaming onto the green in exuberant celebration.
Stanford’s 3-2 victory punctuated a season of great expectations. The Cardinal, with Zhang joining a strong team led by Rachel Heck, last year’s NCAA individual champion, were ranked No. 1 all year. Just as they envisioned, the season ended with head coach Anne Walker cradling the trophy and passing it to her players.
“They were incredible,” Walker said in a Golf Channel interview during the ceremony. “I was so impressed with how poised and loose they were today.”
The Cardinal were in control throughout Wednesday’s match. Brooke Seay cruised to a 4-and-3 win in the leadoff spot, followed by teammate Aline Krauter rolling to a 5and-3 victory. That put Stanford ahead 2-0, needing one more point to clinch — with Heck and Zhang still on the course.
Oregon mounted a spirited rally. The Ducks’ Tze-Han Lin beat Heck, and then Briana Chacon won three of the final four holes to knock off Stanford’s Sadie Englemann.
So the outcome hinged on the final match, in which Zhang held a 2-up lead going to No. 17. That’s when she got an awkward assist from Nielsen.
Both players smacked their tee shots into the rough on the short par-4. Nielsen, after hitting her second shot, inadvertently rolled her push cart over Zhang’s ball — resulting in a one-stroke penalty. That eased the pressure on Zhang, who made par (she needed bogey or better) to cement Stanford’s victory.
“I’m just so proud of my team,” said Zhang, the topranked women’s amateur in the world. “We’ve had so many expectations on us. So for us to actually do it, it’s insane.”
This was Stanford’s second national championship in women’s golf; the Cardinal also won in 2015 and reached the title match in ’16.