SUGAR GROVE, Illinois – The University of Alabama women’s golf team closed out the 2017 season with a strong round but couldn’t make up enough ground to advance to the match-play championship round of the NCAA Championships.
Alabama shot 1-under par 287 Monday at the par-72, 6,343-yard Rich Harvest Farms course. It was the only under-par round by any team in the tournament.
Even with the strong last round, UA finished 64-over par at 928 to tie California for 14th place.
Northwestern, Stanford, Arizona State, Ohio State, Florida, Southern Cal, Baylor and Kent State advanced to Tuesday’s match-play round. The quarterfinal and semifinal matches will take place Tuesday, with the final two teams advancing to play for the national title Wednesday.
Monica Vaughn of Arizona State shot 217 to win individual medalist honors.
“The conditions were softer, not as windy early and the set-up was a lot better today so you could get a wedge in your hand instead of a hybrid going into some of these greens,” UA coach Mic Potter said. “I don’t know if we hit the ball differently, but we managed it better.
“The takeaway from this season has to be that, at the end of the year, we’re going to have to play a golf course like this so we have to prepare for that. We’ve got to be able to stand out there and hit it exactly where we want to when we want to. Our goal is to win a championship and we didn’t give ourselves a chance to do that.”
Alabama sophomore Cheyenne Knight shot 78-76-69–223 to tie for 10th. Freshman Kristen Gillman tied for 17th at 10-over par. Their finishes marked the 10th consecutive year that Alabama has had at least one golfer finish in the top-25 at the NCAA Championships.
