Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek captures NCAA individual title at La Costa

Antibes is a breathtaking spot on the French Riviera with roots dating to antiquity, a medieval old town perched precipitously on a rocky outcrop jutting into the azure Mediterranean Sea.

This is where Adela Cernousek left three years ago to play golf at … Texas A&M?

She admits it. She arrived in College Station for a recruiting visit and thought, “Wow, what is this?”

“But then,” she said, “I started visiting and saw they have really good facilities and realized how big athletics are at A&M and everything about A&M and the 12th Man. I went to a football game and realized what this craziness was. I loved it there, yeah.”

A few months after her commitment, there was a coaching change on the women’s golf team. Didn’t matter. She came anyway, overcame homesickness her freshman year, battled through the frustrations of never winning a college tournament and finally won one Monday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course: The NCAA championship.

“I’m pretty happy with my season this year,” Cernousek said. “I’m happy with how I played. I just could never get a win. It’s pretty crazy to think I got my first college win here, at the national championships. I don’t think it’s hit me yet. I don’t know, it’s crazy.

“I’m sure people didn’t expect me to win. I don’t think I expected myself to win.”

Not only win but win the way she did — shooting 12-under for the four-round individual tournament despite bogeying 18 and still outpacing England’s Lottie Woad of Florida State, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last month, by three strokes. Only nine of the 156 golfers finished under par, and no one else was better than 6-under.

Cernousek shot 68 in each of the first three rounds to take a six-stroke lead entering Monday, birdied her opening hole to get to 13-under, then played the remainder of the 6,297, par-72 North Course in even par until 18.

“I looked at the leaderboard at 13,” she said. “I stopped looking after that. I didn’t want to look any more. I think it was better to not know. I think I was too scared to know.”

Aggies coach Gerrod Chadwell didn’t tell her she had a four-shot lead until she crossed the bridge from the 18th fairway to 18th green. A few minutes later, both had tears brimming in their eyes.

“I remember picking her up at the airport the first time,” Chadwell said. “Just getting her off the plane and trying to get her comfortable in new surroundings and a new environment as a freshman. That’s just a different young lady right now. Now she’s a junior and a national champion.

“A lot of hard conversations have gone into that, a lot of growing. But she’s just a relentless worker and truly cares about the team more than herself.”

Cernousek had led a couple tournaments this season entering the final round but couldn’t close. The turning point came last Tuesday, winning a qualifier to secure a spot in the U.S. Women’s tournament next week in Lancaster, Pa.

“I really think that gave her the confidence that she belongs on this stage,” Chadwell said. “We can say as much as we want, but ultimately you just have to believe in yourself. I think that gave her that.”

The day’s biggest drama was on the other side of the course in the team competition, which ran concurrently with the individual tournament over 72 holes of stroke play. The top eight (out of 30 that qualified) advance to a single-elimination match play bracket, and a half-dozen teams battling for the final few spots were separated by a mere five strokes entering the final round.

Auburn edged defending champion Wake Forest for the eighth spot thanks to a birdie at the par-4 ninth, the team’s final hole, by freshman Anna Davis. The Steele Canyon High School alum, like Cernousek, doesn’t like looking at leaderboards and had no idea the Tigers were perilously close to elimination after two teammates bogeyed the ninth.

Davis found the fairway with her drive, then hit a 9-iron to 6 feet, drained the putt and everyone started cheering.

“I didn’t know if it was really close,” said Davis, who would have finished higher than 19th place at 4-over had it not been for an 80 in Sunday’s third round. “The first thing they told me when I got off the green was, ‘OK, we needed that.’ It felt good to secure that for the team.”

Auburn will face top-seeded (and No. 1-ranked) Stanford in the match play quarterfinals Tuesday morning. The other matchups: 2 LSU vs. 7 Oregon, 3 Texas A&M vs. 6 UCLA and 4 USC vs. 5 Clemson.

Each team sends out five golfers, with one point at stake. The semis are Tuesday afternoon and the final Wednesday. Golf Channel will televise both days.

Five of the eight quarterfinalists feature golfers with local ties: Auburn’s Davis, LSU sophomore Taylor Riley (Point Loma), USC senior Brianna Navarrosa (Mater Dei Catholic), UCLA sophomore Meghan Royal (Carlsbad) and Oregon freshman Karen Tsuru (Carlsbad).