CARLSBAD, Calif. – LSU barely missed a morning tee time on Sunday at the NCAA Women’s Championship, finishing 36 holes one shot behind Florida and UCLA, which were tied for 15th, though the Gators won the tiebreaker (more on those two squads later).
For the Tigers, it was nothing new. Last week they were a shot out of the top five at NCAA regionals before rallying on the final day.
“We’ve done hard things like that before,” said LSU head coach Garrett Runion, whose team also won arguably the toughest event of the spring, the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, back in late February.
Sunday’s task would easily be the most difficult, though. The afternoon wave played about 11 strokes harder on Saturday – and to fast forward, that difference was nearly nine shots on Sunday.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” Runion added. “We knew most all the teams that went out there this morning would play well, but thankfully, there were a few teams that helped us out. But we knew it was going to be posted, and it would be us against us.”
LSU rallied again, shooting 2 over to climb to 13th at 16 over, four shots ahead of 16th-place Vanderbilt, which went from first-round leader to missing the 54-hole cut. Senior Elsa Svensson led the Tigers for a third straight day, carding 2-under 70 to move into a tie for fourth at 6 under, three back of individual leader Maria Jose Marin of Arkansas.
Now, the Tigers must make up eight shots, which has been done only once in the match-play era, which began in 2015 (Auburn, 11 shots, in 2021).
UCLA was the only other afternoon-wave team to move on to Monday, as the Bruins got off to a hot start (5 under through six holes) before posting 5 over. UCLA, which lost its two best players Zoe Campos and Caroline Canales midseason, sits T-14 with Mississippi State at 18 over.
The second team dropping out of the top 15 was Florida, which was competing in nationals for the first time since 2019, a skid that included two years where the Gators missed out on advancing through regionals by a shot. Florida recorded just three birdies on its final nine to shoot 8 over and fall to 21 over, three shots out of forcing a playoff to get into Monday’s final round.
The three-shot final deficit was likely easier to stomach than had the margin been two or fewer. That’s because a day earlier, sophomore Paula Francisco, the Gators’ best player this season and a recent runner-up at the NCAA Charlottesville Regional, was penalized two shots after she was late to her second-round tee time on Saturday morning. Francisco avoided disqualification because she arrived within five minutes of her 9:04 a.m. starting time.
The mishap occurred after Francisco accidentally boarded the shuttle to the 10th tee, which is a 10-minute drive from the range. The shuttle route takes players off property and out onto public roads. Once they are dropped off, the players then must cross the seventh hole to get to the starting tee. Once Francisco arrived at the 10th tee, she was shuttled back by golf cart through the course to the first tee, which is a few hundred yards from the range.
With her par turned into a double on the opening hole, Francisco shot 77, which counted as part of Florida’s 13-over second round.
Among the current top eight teams are no surprises – all ranked 11th or better. Arizona State is ninth and three shots behind eighth-place South Carolina. Of the six teams since 2015 that have rallied from outside the top eight after 54 holes to inside the number, only three have erased more than a two-shot gap (Auburn in 2021, plus Texas Tech, 6 shots, 2015, and Georgia, 4 shots, 2022).
At least some history will likely be broken on Monday. Stanford, which opened in 5 over, has gone 28 under over its last 36 holes and is 23 under for the championship, 15 shots clear of second-place Northwestern. The current NCAA record for 72-hole score in relation to par is 19 under, set by USC in 2013 at UGA Golf Course in Athens, Georgia.
As one coach said Sunday evening of Stanford: “They are going to SHATTER that.”
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