NCAA Championship: Four Storylines for the Women's Title Race

15 May 2024
by Sean Melia of AmateurGolf.com
see also: NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship, La Costa Resort and Spa - Champions Course, Ingrid Lindblad Rankings
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Wake Forest will defend its title on a new course (NCAA Photo)

Wake Forest will defend its National Championship title at La Costa starting on May 17. The 2021-2023 events were all held at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Arizona. With the 2020 championship canceled due to COVID-19, this is the first time since 2019 that the National Championship will be held somewhere other than Grayhawk.

After a riveting set of Regional Championships, which included close calls for top seeds and three eight seeds reaching La Costa, it seems that the first edition at La Costa will be entertaining.

Here are some storylines that are worth watching.

Senior Swan Songs

There’s a cadre of well-decorate players this week at La Costa who will tee it up for their school for the last time.

Ingrid Lindblad and Latanna Stone stuck around for a fifth year at LSU for a couple of reasons. Playing the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was one reason, and making a run at the National Championship one last time was another.

Lindblad, the No. 1 ranked player in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Women's Rankings, has won 16 times while competing for LSU. A staggering number. A 17th win would put a nice bow on her college legacy. Her teammate, Stone, has had a bunch of close calls in major events. She finished runner-up in the 2022 ANWA and lost to Auburn’s Megan Schofill in the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2023.

Those two should be in the hunt for the individual title, and after winning their NCAA Regional, the Tigers could make some noise for a team title. Aine Donegan, who played exceptionally in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, will be a key piece if they do have a strong week as a team.

It always seems like Schofill is the overlooked member of this group of seniors, and she shouldn’t be. She’s the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and the leader of one of the best programs in the country. She’s won three times for Auburn and recorded the second-lowest scoring average in school history this year (71.67).

Rachel Heck has already won individual and team National Championships. The senior conquered college golf in her rookie year at Stanford, but injuries and illness waylaid her success. She won the NCAA Regional this year, her first win in two years and her ninth career win for the Cardinal.

Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn has joked that she replaced Emilia Miggliacio as the “grandma” on this edition of the Demon Deacons. She’s a fifth-year senior who has tasted victory as a National Champion in 2023 with her team. She also won the individual title in her Regional and is playing good golf.

One enigmatic senior is Andrea Lignell, who did not play for Ole Miss in the Regional because she did not qualify when coach Kory Henkes held a team qualifier. Lignell was on the ANNIKA Final Watch List last year and had an excellent showing at ANWA, playing in the final group with Rose Zhang. It’s been a different senior year for the Swede, and it will be interesting to see if she makes the trip to La Costa with her Ole Miss team. If she does, she should be someone to keep an eye on both as an individual and as a leader for the Rebels.

Which South Carolina team will show up?

Over the course of their entire season, South Carolina lost to 14 teams and never finished outside the top four. They reached match play in the SEC Championship as the No. 1 seed, but LSU bounced them in the quarterfinals.

Then the Lady Gamecocks arrived at the Auburn Regional and were caught flat footed. It looked like they might miss qualifying for the national championship, which would have been disastrous given they were the top seed in the region. After 36 holes they were in seventh place, but they pulled it together and played their way into the top 5 by a single shot.

South Carolina will certainly have a lot of people watching them, not only because they should be a favorite to win the title but because of their close-call in the regional. Louise Rydqvist and Hannah Darling are a formidable 1-2 combo at the top of their line-up.

Can Woad complete the Zhang Double?

Lottie Woad arrived at Augusta National without much attention and left with the trophy after a stunning finish, making birdies on the three of the last four holes to catch, and then pass, Bailey Shoemaker to win the 2024 ANWA. Next, she made the cut in the Chevron Championship. She won once for Florida State this year and notched five top-three finishes, including third place in the Las Vegas Regional.

Last year, Rose Zhang backed up her ANWA title with a NCAA Individual title. The sophomore Woad certainly has the game to do the same thing this year that Zhang did last year as a sophomore.

La Costa's ready for its close-up

With Grayhawk in the rearview mirror, this year's champion might be tougher to pick. Wake Forest used two years of experience in Scottsdale to help them claim the title last year. Now, everyone is on equal footing. La Costa should provide a very different challenge for the best college golfers in the country. Gil Hanse was brought in to bring the course, which was once a staple on the PGA Tour, back into the limelight.

“The fact that this place is going to be at the forefront of the golf world’s mind again is exciting to us,” Hanse told Golf Digest at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Champions Course.

This will be the first time since 2012 that California will host the NCAA Championships, and the goal is that it becomes the regular site. The idea of generating history and legacy at one course is appealing. John Fields, the Texas coach, was a big reason the event ended up here, along with golf writer and course designer Geoff Shackelford.

Hanse promised the men's and women's coaches a golf course that would compare to Los Angeles CC and Riveria.

A major piece of having La Costa host the event is that it eliminates a home course advantage. Texas is the host school for the event, but obviously, this isn't a course that Texas plays regularly. It puts everyone on an even playing field, and teams that qualify consistently start to build familiarity with the course. However, no one is practicing at La Costa every day.

Fields sees it as an even bigger opportunity.

“You think about junior golf right now ... if I’m a dad with a couple of kids, I’m going to come out here and watch this,” Fields said. “You start to establish some records. You’re in people’s homes [on TV] twice a year. Maybe someday they’ll be 10,000 people out here watching men’s and women’s college golf. And you get to enjoy San Diego … take them to the zoo and SeaWorld.”