Purdue head coach Zack Byrd called it the purest 3-iron he’d ever seen.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Boilermakers held a one-shot advantage through the first of two fivesomes in a sudden-death playoff with Texas A&M on Tuesday at the NCAA Division I women’s golf regional in Lubbock, Texas. Hitting last among her group after pumping a drive 25 yards longer than she’d just done in regulation, Purdue’s embattled star, Natasha Kiel, faced a 225-yard second shot on the Rawls Course’s par-5 ninth hole.
A storm front had recently rolled through, dropping temperatures by about 15 degrees and turning the fan on, so Kiel was nearly set on hitting 5-wood. Byrd, though, knew Kiel couldn’t go long, and after some back and forth, he talked her into the long iron.
“It took off like an absolute missile,” Byrd said of Kiel’s shot, which ended up 12 feet from the hole, setting up an eagle putt that, if Kiel converted, would likely send Purdue through to a second straight NCAA Championship.
Kiel played about 2½ feet of break and dripped in the putt on the high side. Moments later, Purdue had eliminated the fourth-seeded Aggies by two shots, 2 under to even par, with Kiel’s eagle being the difference as the Boilermakers join regional champion Wake Forest, top seed Texas, Iowa State and Tennessee in qualifying for nationals, which begin next Friday at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California.
“What a wild, last few hours,” Byrd said an hour or so later, his heart still racing.
After a Sunday start because of dicey forecasts and two brutal days in damp, cold and windy conditions, Purdue began Tuesday’s final round in seemingly perfect weather somehow just a shot out of the top five. But after three of five Boilermakers bogeyed the par-3 third hole, their 12th of the day, Byrd’s hopes were dwindling fast. Purdue, playing a wave ahead of Texas A&M, trailed by as much as six shots with just a few holes remaining.
“I thought we were out, to be honest,” Byrd said.
It’s not like the Boilermakers had much momentum to tap into, entering regionals on the heels of an eighth at their home event and T-11 at the Big Ten Championship. Kiel won twice in the fall and added a runner-up to end the semester ranked 19th in the country. She triumphed for a third time early in the spring but otherwise struggled mightily with her swing and a nagging wrist injury, posting three finishes outside the top 60 before being subbed out after an opening 80 at conference.
“It’s just been a hard, hard spring,” Byrd said of Kiel. “But for her to do what she did today was just 100% grit and absolute fight.”
That’d been the plea all week. For as frustrating as this squad has been this season with two wins but also five finishes in double-digits and plenty of tough conversations, Byrd begged his players to give it everything they had and fight like heck.
“I don’t know,” Byrd answered when asked how he got his players to finally buy in. “But this was the hardest this team has fought all season.”
Kiel and fellow senior Jocelyn Bruch birdied each of their last two holes, Nos. 8 and 9, to get the Boilermakers in the clubhouse at 25 over, tied with the Aggies for fifth. But Texas A&M answered with birdies at the par-5 17th hole from Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Kynadie Adams to pull two shots clear with another par-5 to go.
That’s when things started to get crazy.
Adams yanked her second shot at the finishing hole into a greenside bunker, then thinned her third through the green and into the penalty area. She opted to play from there but chunked her pitch and watched as her ball rolled back into the hazard. She tried again, this time hitting it to 3 feet and completing the up-and-down double bogey, which dropped the Aggies back level with the Boilermakers. Behind Adams, Fernandez couldn’t finish with birdie, and neither could freshman Vanessa Borovilos, who left herself 2 feet for par when the horn blew for lightning.
Play was suspended for nearly two hours while the storm passed. During the delay, Byrd, knowing that Borovilos would likely sink the putt, sent his players to player dining to refuel. And when Borovilos returned and rolled in the shortie to force overtime, Byrd quickly huddled his players to remind them that they had nothing to lose.
“We’re playing with house money,” Byrd said to his team. “We were out of it with six holes to go. We should be back at the hotel packing up right now. But we’re not; we’re back in it.”
Then senior Momo Sugiyama, who tied for fifth individually eight shots behind medalist Carolina Chacarra of Wake, took over: “We’ve had a really rough season, a really rough semester, and yet we’re standing here with an opportunity to go to the national championship. Let’s go!”
Byrd sent his two freshmen, Samantha Brown and the long-hitting Lauren Timpf, out in the first group opposite Borovilos, Adams and Lauren Nguyen, who chipped her third shot through the green and eventually carded bogey for Texas A&M, which lost its best player, reigning NCAA individual champion Adela Cernousek, to the LPGA midseason. Timpf hit 5-iron from 215 yards just over the green to set up an easy birdie.
Then in the second fivesome, Fernandez and Sky Sudberry each had 12-foot birdie looks after Kiel drained her eagle, but both players missed.
The remaining five regionals will wrap Wednesday, including the final handful of holes in Norman, Oklahoma, where Stanford has already clinched another regional title after teams there played 36 holes on Monday to get ahead of weather.
Later that night, the Boilermakers were celebrating at a local pizzeria under a neon sign that read, “Feed me pizza and tell me I’m pretty.” When it came time to take a photo, Byrd grabbed their large, cardboard ticket to nationals and held it over part of the saying.
Feed me pizza and tell me ticket punched.
“I am pumped for these girls, and I’m glad we’re going to be able to go play next week,” said Byrd, whose Purdue team last year finished 29th at La Costa. “We’ve been through a lot this semester, but everything’s back to zero now. Nobody cares what we did at Big Tens. Nobody cares what we did at our home event where we played terrible. Nobody cares anymore.
“We’re back to zero, and it’s time to get back to work and give it another run.”
Here is a glance at where things stand at the other five regional sites:
Norman Regional
Jimmie Austin OU GC, Norman, Oklahoma, Par 72
(Final round suspended for darkness)
In position: 1. Stanford (-23), 2. Northwestern (-14), 3. Michigan State (-1), 4. Oklahoma (E*), 5. Baylor (+3)
Still alive: 6. Tulsa (+15), 7. Oregon State (+16*)
Individual leaders: Andrea Revuelta, Stanford (-8)
*Still with holes to play
Lexington Regional
Keene Trace GC (Champion), Nicholasville, Kentucky, Par 72
In position: 1. Florida State (-14), 2. Georgia Southern (-5), 3. Kansas State (E), 4. USC (+2), 5. TCU (+6)
Work to do: 6. Vanderbilt (+7), 7. Miami (+9), 8. Pepperdine (+13), 9. Louisville (+15), 10. Morehead State (+19)
Individual leader: Mirabel Ting, Florida State (-8)
Charlottesville Regional
Birdwood GC, Charlottesville, Virginia, Par 71
In position: 1. South Carolina (-5), 2. UCLA (+1), 3. Florida (+3), 4. Ole Miss (+4), 5. Virginia (+6)
Work to do: 6. North Carolina State (+11), 7. BYU (+21), 8. UCF (+23), 8. Princeton (+23)
Individual leader: Paula Francisco, Florida (-5)
Columbus Regional
Ohio State University GC (Scarlet), Columbus, Ohio, Par 72
In position: 1. Arkansas (+4), 2. UNLV (+5), 3. Kansas (+6), 3. Ohio State (+6), 5. SMU (+16)
Work to do: 6. LSU (+17), 6. Kent State (+17), 8. Houston (+20), 9. Xavier (+23), 10. Illinois (+24)
Individual leader: Lyla Louderbaugh, Kansas (-5)
Gold Canyon Regional
Superstition Mountain GC, Apache Junction, Arizona, Par 72
In position: 1. Oregon (-5), 2. Oklahoma State (-1), 3. Arizona State (E), 4. Mississippi State (+9), 5. Auburn (+18)
Work to do: 6. Cal State-Fullerton, 7. San Jose State, 8. Cal, 9. Sacramento State
Individual leaders: Kiara Romero, Oregon (-12)
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