CARLSBAD, Calif. — Don’t look back. If there was an unsaid motto for the Stanford women’s golf team this season, it was to focus on what needed to be done, not what didn’t happen. As in, the Cardinal’s shocking match-play final loss to Northwestern last May in the NCAA Championships.
“We’re certainly not a team to ever have to feel like we have to avenge something. That’s just not how we operate,” head coach Anne Walker said.
Advertisement
With all five starting players returning from last year’s phenomenal season that ended in defeat, this is a team of deep skill, motivation and maturity, and the women showed that six weeks ago when the players called a meeting to talk about what they needed to do to prepare for nationals.
Walker was stunned by the gesture and what came of it. She’d never experienced anything like it in two decades of coaching, and she fully believes it fed into how Stanford performed over the past week in its return to the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
Stanford dominated in 72 holes of stroke play, winning by 22 shots—and earning the No. 1 seed in match play for a sixth straight sesaon. Then the Cardinal never let anyone sniff an upset in rolling through three matches by a cumulative total of 14-1 to win their third national championship in five years and fourth overall.
On Wednesday, in the final against No. 2-ranked USC—an eight-win team that rivaled Stanford’s success this season—the Cardinal produced as much of a team swarm as can happened in golf. Four of the five players raced to early leads, and when the first pairing made the North Course’s turn, every match on the board was owned by Stanford.
Advertisement
What had been a highly anticipated matchup between two longtime California rivals ended up being a slow-burning 4-1 rout, with the Cardinal earning three of five points they needed for victory without any of the winning matches going past the 16th hole.
Sophomore Meja Ortengren routed a four-time winner this season, Jasmine Koo, 6 and 5. Minutes later, junior Paula Martin Sampedro wrapped up a 3-and-2 win over Catherine Park. And then it was a race between two seniors, Megha Ganne and Kelly Xu. for whom would notch the clinching point.
That honor went to the most Cardinal of Cardinals, Ganne—the popular New Jersey native who hadn’t lost in her previous two match-play finals and had become Stanford’s clear leader on and off the course in this her senior season. Ganne made a birdie at 14 to go 4 up, and when USC senior Bailey Shoemaker missed a birdie putt at 15, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion was a 4-and-3 winner, with the Stanford players rushing the green in celebration.
“When Megha made her birdie putt on 14, which was a little bit of surprise I think even to her, I was thinking in my head, ‘gosh, this would be really special for Megha if she could have this moment,”’ Walker said. “After all she’s done for Stanford golf, but also for amateur golf and college golf, she’s just a great person.”
Advertisement
Xu did get her point with a 1-up win over Elise Lee that ran her NCAA record for match-play wins to 10. The Clairemont, Calif., native was also celebrating her birthday, and as the team gathered in a tight circle, it was Ganne who led everyone around the green in singing “Happy Birthday.”
2278536264
From left, Paula Martin Sampedro, Megha Ganne, Kelly Xu, Meja Ortengren, Kelly Xu and Andrea Ruvuelta pose with the NCAA championship trophy.
Luke Hales
There is a palpable closeness to the Stanford team, and Ganne noted that about her teammates in the immediate aftermath.
“I think they embed every part of the game that I love and value,” she said. “They have so much integrity, so much hard work, so much compassion. That environment is so rare, and I’m so happy to be a part of it. I think it really shows what teamwork can do when we come out on top like this.”
Advertisement
Said Walker, “They inspire each other. There’s no sort of holding each other back. They’re just very positive people. They have a ton of respect for each other, and they truly, genuinely want to make each other better. And I think that type of motivation helped push them forward to this moment.”
Indicative of a team in which everyone has a voice, it was not the seniors, but the pair of young Spaniards, Martin Sampedro and Andrea Revuelta—each a two-time season winner—who broached the idea of a team meeting in mid-April. As Walker recalled on Wednesday, the players said: “Coach, we’ve really been reflecting on the national championship last year, what we can do better this year, and we want to have a player meeting.”
“I was thrilled, of course,” Walker said. “… So we just had this amazing meeting. … It truly made me emotional because it was so impressive; it was so heartfelt.”
Stanford’s season will be remembered for eight consecutive stroke-play tournament wins and six individual victories. It will be recalled for its utter dominance once it reached La Costa. And, finally, for an extraordinary group of people and athletes who earned the highest of praise from their revered head coach.
“There is a strong possibility,” Walker said, “that this is the greatest team I’ve ever coached.”
And with another NCAA title in hand, possibly the greatest college team of all time.
Read the full article here
