Ladies’s golf swings into the brand new season

Stanford girls’s golf had a powerful begin to the autumn season and 2023-24 marketing campaign. The group, which held the highest spot within the Golfweek preseason rankings, is predicted to compete once more for the nationwide championship this spring.

On the seven-women roster, seniors Rachel Heck and Sadie Englemann, juniors Caroline Sturdza and Yu Wen Lu, sophomores Megha Ganne and Kelly Xu and graduate pupil Brooke Seay are all coming back from final season’s NCAA semifinal unit.

Heck, the 2021 particular person NCAA champion, is coming off a semifinal end on this summer time’s U.S. Ladies’s Novice Championship. Englemann was awarded 2023 All-Pac-12 honors, whereas Ganne was named 2023 Pac-12 Freshman of the 12 months. Heck, Englemann and Seay have been all members of the Cardinal 2021 NCAA championship group. The only freshman group member, Paula Martin Sampedro already has proven immense promise in her nascent school profession, with top-10 finishes within the group’s first two tournaments. 

In September’s Carmel Cup, performed on the iconic Pebble Seashore Golf Hyperlinks in Monterey, Calif., the Cardinal girls gained the event for the second consecutive season. The group’s 22-under par rating bested Arkansas by eight strokes and Texas A&M by 12 strokes within the eight-team discipline. Ganne gained the person competitors, marking her first collegiate event win. She was the second straight Stanford lady to win this occasion, after former world No. 1 beginner Rose Zhang took final yr’s particular person title. Ganne shot a powerful 5-under-par 67 remaining spherical to complete at 15-under par, 4 strokes forward of the 48-woman discipline. Her complete rating of 201 tied for the fifth-lowest 54-hole rating in Stanford historical past. In her collegiate debut, Sampedro additionally lodged a top-10 end, tying for sixth place at 11-under par. 

In final week’s Stephens Cup, performed at Trinity Forest Golf Membership in Dallas, Texas, Stanford held the lead within the seven-team occasion because the second and remaining spherical unfolded, however fell into third place after each Wake Forest and Texas surged forward and into the championship spherical. Within the third place match, the Cardinal bested South Carolina 4-1 with Sturdza, Xu, Ganne and Sampedro successful their matches. Sturdza by no means trailed in her match with world No. 15 ranked beginner, Hannah Darling, successful 2&1. Xu was in a position to pull forward late in her match to win handily, 4&3. Ganne got here from behind to win on the 18th gap, 1up and Sampedro birdied the seventeenth gap to win 2&1. The only South Carolina level got here when Englemann fell behind early and by no means recovered, dropping her match 6&4. 

The day past, Sampedro starred within the particular person competitors, taking fourth place within the 39-player discipline. Within the remaining spherical, Sampedro charged right into a tie for the lead coming into the again 9. Displaying her constant recreation and strong placing, she scored 5 front-nine birdies for an outward rating of 31. However her hopes have been dashed by three bogeys on the again 9, yielding a nonetheless spectacular fourth place end, 4 strokes behind Texas’s Lauren Kim.

Sampedro mentioned that she was happy with the end result in solely her second collegiate occasion: “I’m very proud of that and getting some expertise being on the highest of the leaderboard.”

“I proved to myself that I might be there competing towards the perfect school golfers within the nation, despite the fact that I’m a freshman, so I’m excited for what’s to return,” Sampedro mentioned.

The tournaments up to now have proven that the strengths of this yr’s group are its depth and steadiness, and that it has tailored after Zhang’s departure.

“Like all group when you will have one a part of the group depart — and definitely, in our case, Rose performed numerous nice golf so she was a really integral a part of our championship groups — it creates a chance for another person to fill that spot or for the all of the items of the group to take a bit of little bit of a shift and discover new roles” mentioned girls’s golf head coach Anne Waler.

“With Rose’s departure, that’s what we’ve seen. We’ve seen gamers take the chance with Megha Ganne successful her first event, Paula Sampedro, our freshman, this week stepping up and ending fourth,” Waler added. “We’re seeing all of our gamers transfer right into a place the place they’re keen to take that management spot … We’ve a deep roster, however each child on that roster could be the star of our group on any given day. And that’s a very enjoyable tradition to be part of.”

This week, Friday by way of Sunday, the Cardinal will host the Stanford Intercollegiate, a event the group has gained the final two seasons. The Stanford girls are eagerly awaiting this occasion for a number of causes. “We love enjoying at dwelling,” Walker mentioned. “We’ve a stupendous golf course right here, among the best within the nation. And so to welcome 20 groups to campus and host them right here, we’re very excited.”

Because it did ultimately yr’s Stanford Intercollegiate, the group will spotlight breast most cancers consciousness and Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month. “We simply need individuals to know that as a lot as we’re out right here competing for our personal selves, we’re additionally competing for all the ladies on the market that we all know have fought breast most cancers, are combating breast most cancers [and] who will battle breast most cancers,” Walker mentioned. “It’s vital that we use our platform — to make use of it as a car for good and for us, on condition that we’re internet hosting right here within the month of October and we have now 120 girls who’re going to be on web site, that we may help them advocate for their very own well being. And sure, we’re attempting to do extra with our spot right here at Stanford.” 

Stanford will tee off on Friday at roughly 11:30 a.m. and on Saturday at about 8 a.m.