The Oklahoma State Cowgirls wrapped up the stroke play portion of the NCAA Women’s Championships right where they wanted to be – making the final cut.
The Cowgirls finished among the Top 8 teams after 72 holes of stroke play wrapped up on Monday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. By doing so, Oklahoma State advanced into Tuesday’s match play, which decides the national champion. It’s the first time OSU has advanced to match play since 2021.
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Oklahoma State was well-positioned to be among the Top 8 going into the final round. The Cowgirls were 12 strokes ahead of eighth place going into the final round. Even though they backslid on the final day, they remained in position to advance to the championship matches that being on Tuesday.
Oklahoma State After Four Rounds
Here are the Cowgirls’ scores after four rounds at La Costa:
Ellie Bushnell: 68-73-68-73-282 (6-under)
Marta Silchenko: 70-70-69-74-283 (5-under)
Yu-Chu Chen: 73-68-77-76-294 (6-over)
Summer Lee: 72-77-72-78-299 (11-over)
Tarapath Panya: 74-75-76-82-307 (19-over)
Bushnell and Silchenko had been among the leaders for the entirety of stroke play since the tournament started on Friday. Bushnell put a sub-par NCAA Chapel Hill Regional behind her and shot a 68 in two of the first three rounds and was tied for fifth going into the final round, along with Silchenko. Both finish in the Top 10.
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Bushnell came in a tie for seventh with a final-round 73 that included a birdie on the final hole. She had four birdies and five bogeys on the day. She finished six shots behind individual medalist Farah O’Keefe of Texas.
Silchenko also birdied the final hole to finish with a 74. She had just two birdies for the round and had four bogeys.
Silchenko fell short of a couple of a milestone by finishing over par in her final stroke play round of the season. She was hoping to join Karin Sjodin (2004), Caroline Hedwall (2010) and Madison Tolchard (2023) as the only Cowgirls to shot under-par rounds in all four rounds of an NCAA Championship Tournament.
She will also be stuck on 20 rounds under par for the season, which is two short of the program record for a single season.
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Chen struggled on the front nine with four bogeys and a birdie before steadying herself a bit with two bogeys and a birdie on the back for a 4-over 76.
Lee struggled to a 78 as she finished the back nine with five bogeys and one birdie. She previously shot a pair of 70s during the tournament.
Panya had her worst round of the tournament as she had one birdie but suffered four double-bogeys, three of which were on the back nine. The Cowgirls threw her score out for the team score in the final round.
Stanford won the team stroke play competition and will be the No. 1 seed in match play. The Cardinal was followed by USC, Arkansas, Texas, Eastern Michigan, Oklahoma State, Duke and Pepperdine in making the final cut for Tuesday’s action.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oklahomastate as Oklahoma State Advance to Match Play in NCAA Women’s Golf Championship.
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