Stanford to face UCLA for NCAA women’s golf title at La Costa; ‘Conference of Champions’ will crown one more

The Pac-12’s parting shot was a bunch of really good ones on a golf course in Carlsbad.

The conference in its final days of existence secured all four spots in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s golf team championships at Omni’s La Costa Resort & Spa on Tuesday morning, the first time any conference has done that in the men’s or women’s events.

Top-ranked Stanford beat USC and UCLA beat Oregon in the afternoon semis to set up an all-California final Wednesday afternoon on a North Course that showed its teeth as the sun and wind hardened already hard greens.

“It was a grind, I’m sure everyone saw that,” Stanford coach Anne Walker, whose team avenged a loss to USC and Mater Dei Catholic High School alum Brianna Navarrosa in the semis last year, told Golf Channel. “It took a lot of patience and some unbelievable play coming down the stretch.

“We made some big putts. We missed some early, and I was curious if that was going to linger and it didn’t.”

Each team sends out five golfers for head-to-head match play, with the first to three points advancing. Stanford and USC each scored an early point, then sweated out the final three matches, all close as they headed to the final holes.

Megha Ganne, who was in third place entering the final round at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, had won only one of the opening 14 holes against Navarrosa, then won 15, 16 and 17. Moments later, Kelly Xu made a par putt at 16 to close out Catherine Park and give the Cardinal their clinching third point.

Fifth-ranked UCLA took a big step toward the final on an even longer putt, a 50-foot bomb over a ridge by Carlsbad High School alum Meghan Royal on the 15^th hole for a 4-and-3 win (four-hole lead with three to play) against Ching-Tzu Chen. It came on a day when star Zoe Campos, a finalist for player of the year who was 9-0-1 in match play in a Bruins uniform, lost for the first time in her college career.

“I wasn’t expecting to make that putt,” said Royal, who clinched UCLA’s morning quarterfinal win against Texas A&M. “It was a difficult putt. I knew if I just cozied it up there a make par, I could bring it to the next hole. But I’m very happy to make it.”

Royal is the only local golfer still playing. Auburn freshman Anna Davis (Steele Canyon High School) lost her quarterfinal match against Stanford’s Sadie Englemann on the first playoff hole after taking a one-up lead into 18. Oregon freshman Karen Tsuru of Carlsbad lost both her matches Tuesday, and LSU sophomore Taylor Riley (Point Loma High School), the daughter of USD men’s coach and former PGA Tour pro Chris Riley, lost in the quarters against Oregon. Navarrosa won her quarterfinal match against Clemson before falling to Stanford.

Wednesday’s final begins at 2:15 p.m. to accommodate prime-time East Coast television on the Golf Channel.

This is the first of a three-year run for the NCAA championships at La Costa. The men’s tournament begins Friday using the same format, four rounds of stroke play followed by an eight-team match play bracket.