Wake Forest wins the 2023 DI women's golf championship
By beating No. 5 Southern California, No. 3 Wake Forest wins the 2023 NCAA DI women's golf national title.
In the match play portion of the tournament, five players from each team competed in the national championship matches. Emilia Migliaccio, Rachel Kuehn and Lauren Walsh won their respective matches to clinch the first national title in program history for the Demon Deacons. Walsh took down USC's Brianna Navarossa in the day's anchor match a day after Navarrossa beat Rose Zhang, the individual national champion from Stanford.
Wake Forest finished third in the stroke play portion of this week's competition to qualify for the match play segment. On Tuesday, the Demon Deacons downed No. 6 Florida State and No. 7 Texas A&M to reach the national championship match, where they beat USC 3-1-0.
Here are the final scores from Wednesday's national championship match.
What you need to know for the match play national championship
Wake Forest and Southern California will battle today for the 2023 DI women's golf national championship from Grayhawk Golf Club ;in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Trojans are searching for their first title in a decade while the Demon Deacons have never won the national championship.
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Here's Wednesday TV schedule:
- GOLF Channel – 4:30 p.m. ET
Wake Forest and Southern California advance to national title match
With semifinal match wins on Tuesday, Wake Forest and Stanford advance to a head-to-head championship match Wednesday afternoon.
No. 3 Wake Forest dominated their semifinal contest against No. 7 Texas A&M. The Demon Deacons got individual wins from Emilia Migliaccio, Mimi Rhodes and Rachel Kuehn to cruise into the finals. Wake Forest will compete for the first national championship in program history when they take the first tee at Grayhawk Golf Club on Wednesday.
A BIG TIME PUTT FROM A BIG TIME PLAYER
— USC Women’s Golf (@USCWomensGolf)
Navarrosa stays ⬆️2 with a crucial putt on the 16th green
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In Tuesday's second match, No. 5 Southern California upset top-seeded Stanford on the back of Brianna Navarrosa. The California native stunned individual champion Rose Zhang with some clutch putting late in the round. In addition to Navarrosa, USC got wins from Christine Wang and Xin (Cindy) Kou. The Trojans will compete for the fourth national title in program history.
Here are the final scores from each of the semifinal matches.
Wake Forest-Texas A&M (3-0-0 WFU wins)
Southern California-Stanford (3-1-0 USC wins)
Four teams advance to semifinal match play at 2023 NCAA DI women's golf championships
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Stanford, Wake Forest, Southern California and Texas A&M each won morning quarterfinal matches to advance to the afternoon semifinal matches at the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club (6,386 yards/par 72). All four teams advanced with identical 3-1 wins over Pepperdine, Florida State, South Carolina and Texas, respectively.
In the semifinal matches taking place this afternoon, No. 1 seed and defending national champion, Stanford will face-off against No. 5 seed Southern California, while No. 3 seed Wake Forest will play against No. 7 seed Texas A&M. The Wake Forest-Texas A&M match tees off at 12:45 p.m. MT, followed by Stanford-Southern California at 1:35 p.m. MT.
Winners of the two matches will advance to the national championship match to be played Wednesday, May 24 at 1:35 p.m. MT.
MATCH PLAY SCHEDULE (Times Local - MST)
Quarterfinals – Tuesday, May 23
- Match #1 - #7 Texas A&M def. #2 Texas, 3-1
- Match #2 - #3 Wake Forest def. #6 Florida State, 3-1
- Match #3 - #1 Stanford def. #8 Pepperdine, 3-1
- Match #4 - #5 Southern California def. #4 South Carolina, 3-1
Semifinals – Tuesday, May 23
- 12:45 p.m. – #3 Wake Forest def. #7 Texas A&M, 3-0-0
- 1:35 p.m. – #1 Stanford vs. #5 Southern California
- GOLF Channel – 2 to 6 p.m. MT
Championship – Wednesday, May 24
- 1:35 p.m. – Match #7 (winners of match #5 and #6)
- GOLF Channel – 2 to 6 p.m. MT
Team match play continues today
The top eight teams were determined yesterday to continue on to match play. Below is the schedule for the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship on May 23-24.
➡️ Click or tap here for the full pairings list
MATCH PLAY SCHEDULE (Eastern)
Quarterfinals - Tuesday, May 23
- Match #1: #7 Texas A&M def. #2 Texas, 3-1
- Match #2: #3 Wake Forest def. #6 Florida State, 3-1
- Match #3: #1 Stanford 3-1 def. #8 Pepperdine, 3-1
- Match #4: #5 Southern California def. #4 South Carolina, 3-1
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👉🏼 Click or tap here for the semifinal match pairings
Semifinals - Tuesday, May 23
- 2:45 p.m.
- Match #5: #3 Wake Forest vs. #7 Texas A&M
- 3:35 p.m.
- Match #6: #1 Stanford vs. #5 Southern California
- GOLF Channel – 4 to 8 p.m. ET
Championship - Wednesday, May 24
- 3:35 p.m.
- Match #7 (winners of match #5 and #6)
- GOLF Channel – 4 to 8 p.m. ET
Rose Zhang wins back-to-back individual national championships
With a 10-under 278 in the NCAA DI women's golf championship, Stanford's Rose Zhang becomes the individual 2023 national champion.
Zhang defends her title from the 2022 tournament to become the first ever back-to-back NCAA champion. Zhang has been the number one ranked golfer in the nation throughout the majority of her two years at Stanford, and has backed it up as a two-time national champion. This tournament win was her eighth of the year, tying the most in a single season in NCAA history.
The greatest collegiate golfer ever. 🌹
— Stanford Women's Golf (@StanfordWGolf)
12 wins in 20 tries. 8 wins this season. Back-to-back National Champion!
In this year's tournament, Zhang's best round came on day two, where she posted a 5-under 67 to jump into contention. Zhang trailed by two shots entering Monday's final round, but her 4-under 68 helped her surpass Lucia Lopez-Ortega, who started at 8-under par, and Catherine Park, who opened at 10-under par. Zhang beat both players by one stroke.
Click or tap here to read more about Zhang's path to a second individual title.
Stanford, Texas, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Southern California, Florida State, Texas A&M and Pepperdine advance to Tuesday match play.
Individual champ, match-play teams to be decided Monday
An individual champion will be decided today Monday, May 22, the final day of stroke play in NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club. In addition to an individual champion, Monday will also determine the top-eight teams that get seed for match-play held on Tuesday and Wednesday
Click or tap here to see the tee times for round four.
Where things stand
Southern California's Catherine Park leads all individuals, shooting -10 so far through the tournament. Park has a two-stroke lead over San Jose State's Lucia Lopez-Ortega in second place. If Park holds on to win, she'll become the sixth USC player to win a NCAA Women’s Individual Golf Championship and the first since Doris Chen in 2014.
Entering the final round, the individual championship on Monday will include nine additional players who are not on the top 15 teams that qualified for the final day of stroke play competition.
Defending champion Stanford leads all teams on the team leaderboard at 13-under (851 total). That's a seven-shot lead over Wake Forest and Texas who are both at 6-under (858 total) for the championship. Today, the field gets cuts to 15 teams for the final round of stroke play.
The nation's top 30 women's golf teams descend on Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona for the national finals. In addition to the 30 teams, six individuals will compete for the individual national title this week in Arizona.
Here's what you need to know for this week's action.
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Format:
All 30 teams, as well as the six individuals, will play 54 holes of stroke play from Friday, May 19-Sunday, May 21. From there, the top individuals and teams will compete on a fourth day of stroke play on Monday, May 22. This additional day will determine the individual national champion and the top eight teams, which will move to the match play competition.
The match play format will last two days. Over the course of those two days, the first team to win three matches will be crowned the national champion, and all scores will be finalized at this moment.
Competing teams
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- San Jose State
- Ole Miss
- Augusta
- Michigan State
- Duke
- Texas
- Northwestern
- LSU
- Stanford
- Clemson
- Southern California
- Baylor
- Texas Tech
- Arizona
- NC State
- Wake Forest
- TCU
- Florida State
- Pepperdine
- SMU
- Oklahoma State
- Texas A&M
- New Mexico
- Mississippi State
- Oregon State
- Vanderbilt
- Virginia
- Tulsa
Competing individuals
- Leon Takagi – Kent State
- Sara Byrne – Miami (FL)
- Tiffany Le – UC Riverside
- Dorota Zalewska – Chattanooga
- Camryn Carreon – UTSA
- Isabella McCauley – Minnesota
Golf Channel broadcast schedule (all times ET)
- 5 p.m. on May 22: Final round/individual stroke play
- Noon and 5 p.m. on May 23: Quarterfinals team matches; semifinal team matches
- 5 p.m. on May 24: National championship team match
