In its only home tournament of the fall season, the Stanford women’s golf squad did not disappoint the home crowd, rallying on Sunday to tie NCAA runners-up USC for the team title at the Stanford Intercollegiate. Hosted by current Hoover Institution Fellow, College Football Playoff Selection Committee member and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the three-day, 54-hole event certainly lived up to its billing as one of collegiate golf’s most competitive contests.
The seventeen-team field was headlined by three Pac-12 schools — the Cardinal, Trojans and 2013 Stanford Intercollegiate runners-up UCLA — who almost immediately asserted themselves to the top of the leaderboard. The Bruins held the 18-hole team led by virtue of their solid 5-under 279 on Friday; Stanford, led by sophomore Mariah Stackhouse’s 4-under 67 sat tied for second at 282, with the Trojans well within striking range at 284.
Stackhouse, whose 10-under 61 Stanford Golf Course record was recently eclipsed by Stanford men’s golfer Viraat Badhwar’s 59, scored well on Friday despite a rather inauspicious start. Her double-bogey seven on the par-5 first hole was certainly not the beginning she envisaged, but, true to her gritty character, she rallied back very nicely.
The Riverdale, Georgia native birdied holes 2 and 3 to get back to even par, and went on to eagle the par-5 seventh hole before adding two more birdies on the back-nine to reach 4-under. That score put her in a tie for second in the individual race, trailing eventual medalist Bronte Law of UCLA, who posted a scorching 6-under 65.
Sophomore Casey Danielson also turned in an under-par round for coach Anne Walker on Friday, tallying three birdies and a bogey en-route to a 2-under 69.
Saturday’s second frame saw the Card cement their position at the top of the team leaderboard. Their 4-under 280 cumulative score left them alone in second, two ticks behind the Bruins and with a single-stroke advantage over the Trojans. At that point, the three California schools had put major distance between themselves and the rest of their competitors; it was a gap that would hold throughout the remainder of the event.
Stanford’s day two leader was junior and 2014 NCAA bronze medalist Lauren Kim, whose 3-under 68 paced the Cardinal on Saturday. Not far behind Kim was Quirine Eijkenboom—the sophomore’s 2-under 69 was just the type of support her squad needed on a day in which Stackhouse struggled by her standards, shooting 3-over 74.
Seven birdies for a bogey-free 64. What a way for @ShannonAubert1 to end her home debut. #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/IOijOPqUDG
— Stanford W Golf (@StanfordWGolf) October 19, 2014
Still, the young squad, which featured a freshman — Shannon Aubert — two sophomores and two juniors was in prime position for a strong finish on Sunday. After their dramatic come-from-behind win at the Pac-12’s in May, strong finishes had eluded the Cardinal at the NCAA Regionals and national championship events last season; yesterday was an entirely different story.
Aubert crushed her back nine on Sunday, going 4-under in the final half of her round en-route to a tournament-low 7-under 64. Her stretch of play was particularly notable, given that the Frenchwoman hadn’t broken par on either of her Friday (3-over 74) and Saturday (even-par 71) rounds. Aubert’s sizzling third round vaulted her up the individual leaderboard into a tie for seventh, four strokes behind Law.
“[Aubert] is a great player,” Kim said of her teammate, the 23rd-ranked female amateur golfer in the world. “I’ve known her since we were really young — we met at our very first national tournament…but it’s been awesome to reconnect in college. She’s a great addition to our team; she adds that fourth solid score that we’re looking for. She’s contributed beyond what I can even put into words — she’s always right there.
“She’s just a really strong player, a really mature player for just being a freshman.”
Aubert’s fantastic finale was only part of the excitement for Stanford on Sunday: the team race was incredibly tight down the stretch, with the lead yo-yoing between the Cardinal, Trojans and Bruins. Down by a single stroke with the round waning away, Stackhouse came through in the clutch, holing a 33-foot birdie putt on the 18th with her teammates watching greenside to secure a tie for Stanford — the program’s first win at its home invitational since 1997.
“Being in contention as a team going into today was great, with USC and UCLA, who are both incredibly strong teams,” Kim said. “It’s such a blessing, because we know how we stack up against them, and we know how exactly what we need to work on to come out strong in the spring.”
Contact Cameron Miller at cmiller6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.