ATLANTA, Ga. – One of the rewards for winning an NCAA Championship is earning an invite to an exclusive tournament.
That’s the case for the Stanford women’s golf team, who won the program’s first title in 2015 and will conclude the fall season at the East Lake Cup on Monday and Tuesday.
The men’s and women’s semifinalists from last year’s match play portion of the championship secured bids to historic East Lake Golf Club, home of the TOUR Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs.
Competing in separate divisions, each team is guaranteed two matches, with semifinal play on Monday and consolation and final matches set Tuesday. All will be televised live to a national audience by the Golf Channel, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT.
Every school’s mascot will be present, and school fight songs will be played on the first tee.
Stanford, ranked No. 3 in the country by Golfweek and No. 6 by Golfstat, meets six-time NCAA champion Duke (2/2) on Monday. The winner faces top-ranked USC or 2015 NCAA runner-up Baylor in the finals on Tuesday, with the losers vying in the consolation match.
“It is an honor,” said Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women’s Golf and 2015 WGCA National Coach of the Year. “This is a really unique tournament to have both men and women there. To have it be the semifinalists from the national championship … we all experienced the same feeling, energy, intensity and endured the same struggles. It’s kind of like you get to go and celebrate, look around and go, “Man, that was cool.’ ’’
Walker doesn’t give much credence to rankings.
“We always say they are more for the fans than what we’re trying to accomplish,” she said. “I never want that to be our ultimate goal because there are so many moving parts to that. What I want our goal to be is are we meeting our goals and getting better.”
Other than the national championship, it’s the only other time during the college season that players compete in match play.
“At the end of the day, it’s who hits the best shots,” Walker said. “So you can relax a little bit and just get after it.”
Stanford and Duke have played in three fall tournaments and have two wins. The Cardinal is coming off a seven-stroke victory over runner-up USC two weeks ago in the Stanford Intercollegiate hosted by Condoleezza Rice, and opened the season by capturing the Branch Law Invitational. Duke won the Landfall Tradition last week and also claimed the Tar Heel Invitational.
“Duke is a really strong team,” Walker said. “For me, I like them on paper for the (NCAA) championship this year … beyond us, of course. I’m excited because we didn’t get to play them last year at nationals and they’re kind of the hot team in the fall. It will be a good experience for our girls.”
The Blue Devils, whose roster does not include an American player, feature the No. 1-ranked player in the country by Golfstat in sophomore Leona Maguire from Ireland, who boasts an adjusted scoring average of 70.55 and was the 2014-15 National Player of the Year. Senior Celine Boutier from France ranks 18th at 74.52 and was the 2013-14 National Player of the Year.
“These guys are going to bring it,” said Walker. “They have two players of the year and pretty much the top freshman in the country in Virginia Elena Carta (Italy). For us, more than anything, we get to experience that level of competition against the best.”
Stanford counters with senior All-Americans Lauren Kim and Mariah Stackhouse, sophomore Shannon Aubert, and juniors Casey Danielson and Quirine Eijkenboom. Kim ranks 10th in the Golfstat rankings with a 71.03 average, while Aubert is No. 20 at 74.21 and Stackhouse is No. 30 at 72.03.
“I actually feel great about where we are,” Walker said. “We’re coming off one of the best weeks of practice we’ve ever had as a program. Just me observing them during the games and drills we’ve been doing and just watching the quality of shots and execution. We’ve done a lot of work with these younger players and some of those changes are really starting to come together for the girls.”
It will be a homecoming for Stackhouse, who grew up in Riverdale, Georgia. She was one of the stars of last year’s NCAA final against Baylor, rallying from 2-down in the deciding match with birdies at 17 and 18, then secured the title with a two-putt par on the first hole of sudden death.
The Golf Channel replayed the closing holes on Wednesday.
“We had it on in the office,” said Walker. “It was so cool to watch. It’s still so intense and I get all the same butterflies in my stomach. It brings back all the feelings I had that day.”
