It seems as if national champions were crowned just yesterday, but instead we’re at the end of the fall college golf season in one of the craziest starts to the year in the sport’s history.
Sure, the top teams have claimed tournament titles and new stars have burst onto the scene, but that doesn’t mean the season has been short on drama and storylines and events that have altered the sport.
College golf is entering a quiet time until February, when it will quickly ramp back up as teams begin the pursuit to make it to Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California, site of the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Here are some of the biggest stories from women’s college golf this fall.
Wake Forest strong in title defense
It’s hard to picture a better start for the defending national champions.
Six months ago, Wake Forest was hoisting a trophy at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the end of the fall season, the Demon Deacons again look like championship contenders.
Wake Forest has won three times in five events this fall, two of those coming via match-play victories. Its first win came at the Schooner Classic in September in Norman, Oklahoma. Then in October, a pair of victories came at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Trinity Forest in Dallas and the East Lake Cup at Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia. Both the Stephens Cup and East Lake Cup wins were via match play, beating Texas in Dallas and Stanford (more on the Cardinal later) in Atlanta.
Wake Forest returned four-time All-American Rachel Kuehn to this season’s team but lost stalwarts Emilia Migliaccio and Lauren Walsh.
However, junior Carolina Lopez-Chacarra has been phenomenal to start the season. She hasn’t finished worse than 15th and was on the final fall watch list for the Annika Award.
Also playing strong is freshman Macy Pate, who has a pair of top-10 finishes and a T-2 finish in stroke play at the East Lake Cup.
The Demon Deacons are title contenders again, and they proved that with a stellar start.
Top players showing out
The top-ranked female amateur in the world is also off to about as good of a start as you can imagine.
LSU fifth-year Ingrid Lindblad has played in only three events this fall, thanks to her representing Sweden last month at the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi, but when she has repped the purple and gold, she collected two wins and a T-5.
Lindblad’s wins came at the Cougar Classic and Illini Women’s Invitational at Medinah. Her T-5 was at the Mason Rudolph, one of the strongest events of the fall slate.
Of her nine rounds, six have been in the 60s, and her worst 18-hole score is an even-par 72.
Numerous other players have collected two wins this fall, including Florida’s Maisie Filler, Furman’s Anna Morgan and Miami’s Sara Byrne. Boston University’s Christy Chen has three wins in four starts.
And who can forget when N.C. State’s Lauren Olivares Leon became the first female college golfer to shoot 60?
Stanford reloads after Rose's departure
Rose Zhang dominated college golf the past two seasons, and her departure left a void in Stanford’s roster. How can a team replace the best female amateur of all time?
Paula Martin Sampedro is a great answer. The freshman hasn’t finished worse than T-7 in her first four college events, which includes starts at Pebble Beach in the Carmel Cup (T-6), Trinity Forest in the Stephens Cup (T-4) and the East Lake Cup (T-6).
Sophomore Megha Ganne also earned her first collegiate victory at the Carmel Cup. Same with senior Sadie Englemann at the East Lake Cup.
In four events this fall, the Cardinal have a win and a runner-up finish against Wake Forest at the East Lake Cup.
Stanford has won the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championship the past three years. And it looks set up again to make another deep run come May after its fall performance.
How good is UCF?
One of the surprise teams this fall has been UCF, which has two wins in four events with its worst finish being a fourth place at the Cougar Classic.
The Golden Knights’ victories have come at the Mercedes Benz Collegiate and Evie Odom Invitational. At the Mercedes Benz, UCF ran away from the field which included 2021 NCAA champion Ole Miss, Pepperdine and Clemson, winning by 12 shots. Freshman Molly Smith earned her first college win, shooting 12 under.
At the Landfall Tradition, UCF finished a shot behind Clemson and Duke, which tied for first.
In addition to Smith, Tunrada Piddon and Pimpisa Sisutham have each been pivotal contributors to the Golden Knights’ stellar start.
Ranked 13th in the NCAA Golf Rankings, UCF is the second-highest-ranked Big 12 team behind only Texas. And if the strong play continues into the spring, UCF be one of the teams fighting for a spot in match play at Omni La Costa in May.
Rankings debacle
The biggest story of the fall has been the live scoring and ranking debacle. Last week, the first NCAA Golf Rankings were released.
On Tuesday, Mark Broadie, who’s in charge of publishing the new rankings, held a webinar for coaches to ask questions and discuss how the new rankings, which is a points-based system, work.
As expected with a new system, there’s plenty of confusion and questions on the formulas and how teams are awarded points. Plenty of coaches expressed frustration with the system during the webinar, some even saying they’re more frustrated after.
Ultimately, the rankings are going to have some bumps to sort through as coaches and players get used to the new formulas. As more data comes in, it will be interesting to see how the rankings evolve and whether the college golf community comes to understand the new system more.
