Despite feeling confident about the prospect of continued success on its home course, the No. 11 Stanford women’s golf team struggled in Thursday’s opening round of the NCAA West Regional. After one round of play, the team is in a four-way tie for 12th place, four spots and four strokes behind No. 8 Cal. The top eight teams qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Mariko Tumangan and freshman Lauren Kim led the Cardinal on the day and ended as part of a large group of golfers tied for 36th at 3-over par 74. Tumangan recorded three birdies but posted double bogeys on the par-5 first hole and par-3 eighth hole. Kim also had three birdies to go along with four bogeys and a double bogey on the par-4 18th hole. Freshman Mariah Stackhouse—Stanford’s usual lowest scorer—had an inauspicious start to her first NCAA Regional, shooting 4-over through her first nine holes. She followed that with two birdies and two bogeys on the back nine.
The Cardinal certainly has its work cut out for itself to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship: In each of the past three seasons, the lowest Stanford has finished after the opening day of the Regional was ninth in 2010. All three teams ultimately advanced to the NCAA Championships.
No. 8 Vanderbilt leads the tournament by one stroke over heavily favored No. 1 USC. Trojan Annie Park (-4), the 2013 Pac-12 Champion and top-ranked collegiate golfer in the nation, has a one-stroke advantage over Georgia’s Emilie Burger (-3) atop the individual leaderboard.
Friday’s second round will start in two waves, the first at 7:30 a.m. and the second at 11:50 a.m.