Friday, May 18
Stillwater, Okla.
All Day
University of Colorado
vs
First Round
Gillian Vance, Kirsty Hodgkins, Robyn Choi, Alisha Lau, Brittany Fan and coach Anne Kelly at the Karsten Creek Golf Course.
Buffaloes Loose, Excited, To Play In NCAA Championship
May 17, 2018 | Women's Golf
Round One Begins Friday In Stillwater, Okla.
Colorado made its first NCAA Women's Golf Championship appearance in 2012 and the goal ever since then was to get back.
The road hasn't been easy and the previous two years were the most gut wrenching of all, missing that elusive goal by a single stroke each time.
However that all changed last week in San Francisco. Colorado had big-time performances up and down its lineup and thus six years later, the Buffaloes return to the NCAA Championship, which tees off Friday at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
"They are excited to be here," Colorado head coach Anne Kelly said. "They've worked so hard to get here and like Robyn (Choi) said the other day 'I can't believe we're here!' All the work they put in to that goal and then with the last two years being like a punch in the gut. But now we're very excited and happy to be here."
The two things that went really well for the Buffaloes last week will be key again this week. One, Colorado had five under par rounds including a pair in the 60s. Brittany Fan shot a CU NCAA Regional record 66 in the first round while Robyn Choi followed up with a 69 on the final day.
Colorado's top three golfers accounted for the top three 54-hole NCAA Region round scores in program history: Fan at 5-under, 211, Choi at 1-under, 215, and Kirsty Hodgkins at even, 216.
Secondly, Colorado's fourth and fifth golfers played very well. Junior Gillian Vance's 74 in the first round as the fourth scorer allowed the Buffaloes to set the tone early with an under par team round. The highest score thrown out of any of the three rounds was 5-over, 77.
"To play at this level we have to have four scorers every day," Kelly said. "We can't depend on two or three people. It definitely has to be a team effort. That 74 Gillian shot on the first day was huge. She stepped up and did her part. Alisha (Lau) is so close to playing well. She just needs to eliminate some 3-putts, and she worked hard on that this week. By eliminating some of those bogeys, we'll be right in the mix."
Kelly said there are some comparisons with this team to the 2012 squad although "they're certainly different people." Fan is the energetic senior, heart of the team that the Buffaloes had in Emily Talley. Choi and Hodgkins are the hard-nosed competitors similar to the Coleman sisters, Jenny and Kristin, with a nod to Jess Wallace and Alex Stewart in that same realm.
The program is well removed from the Big 12 Conference days, now in its seventh year in the Pac-12 Conference, but Kelly and assistant coach Brent Franklin have been with the Buffaloes long enough to know the Karsten Creek Course. More recently, the Buffaloes played the 2014 NCAA Regional at Karsten Creek.
The Buffaloes were able to walk the course on Wednesday and played a practice round Thursday morning.
"The course is in great shape," Kelly said "The rough is up there and it's going to get longer as they grow it out for the men's championship. It's one of the toughest courses for college golf, but it's fair. It will test every part of your game for sure."
This will be the fourth year the NCAA team champion is determined in match play. All 24 teams will play three rounds of stroke play, May 18-20. The top 15 teams, plus top nine individuals not on an advancing team, will play an additional 18-holes of stroke play on Monday, May 21, to determine the top eight teams for match play and the 72-hole stroke play individual champion.
The top eight teams, seeded after the 72-hole stroke play rounds, will meet up in match play to determine the team champion. Quarterfinals and semifinal matches will take place Tuesday, May 22, with the final on Wednesday, May 23
Colorado will pair with Ohio State and Mississippi for the first two rounds. The grouping will tee off from No. 1 in Friday's first round at 7:36 a.m. MT and will have a later start Saturday, as the same trio will begin at No. 10 with a 12:21 p.m. tee time. Round three on Sunday will be reshuffled after the second round.
"Our goal is to play as best we can and then see where that lands us," Kelly said. "Golf is a funny sport; it's hard to predict. You just shoot the best you can and add it up when you get done and at the end hopefully you're right in it.
"Coming into every tournament you want to win. We have a team of competitors that will do as well as they can. It's a tough field. Everyone that qualified is a good team so we have a challenge ahead of us. We're really looking forward to playing and see how we do."
The road hasn't been easy and the previous two years were the most gut wrenching of all, missing that elusive goal by a single stroke each time.
However that all changed last week in San Francisco. Colorado had big-time performances up and down its lineup and thus six years later, the Buffaloes return to the NCAA Championship, which tees off Friday at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
"They are excited to be here," Colorado head coach Anne Kelly said. "They've worked so hard to get here and like Robyn (Choi) said the other day 'I can't believe we're here!' All the work they put in to that goal and then with the last two years being like a punch in the gut. But now we're very excited and happy to be here."
The two things that went really well for the Buffaloes last week will be key again this week. One, Colorado had five under par rounds including a pair in the 60s. Brittany Fan shot a CU NCAA Regional record 66 in the first round while Robyn Choi followed up with a 69 on the final day.
Colorado's top three golfers accounted for the top three 54-hole NCAA Region round scores in program history: Fan at 5-under, 211, Choi at 1-under, 215, and Kirsty Hodgkins at even, 216.
Secondly, Colorado's fourth and fifth golfers played very well. Junior Gillian Vance's 74 in the first round as the fourth scorer allowed the Buffaloes to set the tone early with an under par team round. The highest score thrown out of any of the three rounds was 5-over, 77.
"To play at this level we have to have four scorers every day," Kelly said. "We can't depend on two or three people. It definitely has to be a team effort. That 74 Gillian shot on the first day was huge. She stepped up and did her part. Alisha (Lau) is so close to playing well. She just needs to eliminate some 3-putts, and she worked hard on that this week. By eliminating some of those bogeys, we'll be right in the mix."
Kelly said there are some comparisons with this team to the 2012 squad although "they're certainly different people." Fan is the energetic senior, heart of the team that the Buffaloes had in Emily Talley. Choi and Hodgkins are the hard-nosed competitors similar to the Coleman sisters, Jenny and Kristin, with a nod to Jess Wallace and Alex Stewart in that same realm.
The program is well removed from the Big 12 Conference days, now in its seventh year in the Pac-12 Conference, but Kelly and assistant coach Brent Franklin have been with the Buffaloes long enough to know the Karsten Creek Course. More recently, the Buffaloes played the 2014 NCAA Regional at Karsten Creek.
The Buffaloes were able to walk the course on Wednesday and played a practice round Thursday morning.
"The course is in great shape," Kelly said "The rough is up there and it's going to get longer as they grow it out for the men's championship. It's one of the toughest courses for college golf, but it's fair. It will test every part of your game for sure."
This will be the fourth year the NCAA team champion is determined in match play. All 24 teams will play three rounds of stroke play, May 18-20. The top 15 teams, plus top nine individuals not on an advancing team, will play an additional 18-holes of stroke play on Monday, May 21, to determine the top eight teams for match play and the 72-hole stroke play individual champion.
The top eight teams, seeded after the 72-hole stroke play rounds, will meet up in match play to determine the team champion. Quarterfinals and semifinal matches will take place Tuesday, May 22, with the final on Wednesday, May 23
Colorado will pair with Ohio State and Mississippi for the first two rounds. The grouping will tee off from No. 1 in Friday's first round at 7:36 a.m. MT and will have a later start Saturday, as the same trio will begin at No. 10 with a 12:21 p.m. tee time. Round three on Sunday will be reshuffled after the second round.
"Our goal is to play as best we can and then see where that lands us," Kelly said. "Golf is a funny sport; it's hard to predict. You just shoot the best you can and add it up when you get done and at the end hopefully you're right in it.
"Coming into every tournament you want to win. We have a team of competitors that will do as well as they can. It's a tough field. Everyone that qualified is a good team so we have a challenge ahead of us. We're really looking forward to playing and see how we do."