Regional Roundup: 2024
NCAA D1 Women and Men
The college golf postseason passes all too quickly. There’s an incredibly slow buildup as Fall season gives way to Winter break gives way to the Spring season, and then all of a sudden it's time for Conference/Regional/National play. The end is painfully abrupt no matter where in that sequence you finish. It’s the Doppler effect in reverse, where the long frequency is experienced in the approach and, once passed, the short frequency dissipates almost immediately. The heartache lingers, of course, but there’s hardly any time to truly savor the moment.
Here in the library of college golf’s history, though, we take the time to reflect and savor. You’re invited to have a seat, pour a beverage, and peruse to your heart’s content.
This volume is the 2024 Women’s and Men’s D1 Regional Roundup and in it you'll find a wealth of links (underlined text) and results.
*Note: because of the many pictures and links, this is best viewed on the website or in the app
WOMEN’S REGIONALS [May 6-8, 2024]
**Read many great details from Brentley Romine [NBC Sports/Golf Channel] and Cameron Jourdan [Golfweek]
AUBURN
Auburn getting it done at home was no surprise, but having Anna Davis earn her first collegiate victory was a nice bonus. One of the biggest stories was South Carolina, the #1 seed and 2nd ranked team in the country, sitting on the outside looking in after 36 holes. They were still on the outside with only 6 holes left to play, but managed to play those final holes under par and finish in a tie for 4th place with Tulsa, just a single stroke over Georgia (#4 seed) and Houston (#7 seed). Isabella McCauley, the Big10 individual champ representing Minnesota, was the advancing individual.
Advancing:
[#1] South Carolina
[#2] Auburn
[#3] Oregon
[#5] UNC
[#8] Tulsa
Isabella McCauley [Minnesota]
EAST LANSING
USC not only advanced to the NCAAs for the 26th year in a row, they also picked up their 3rd regional victory under head coach Justin Silverstein (15th in program history). Notre Dame’s Lauren Beaudreau, playing as an individual, notched her 2nd medalist honors of the season and the first individual regional title in program history.
Advancing:
[#1] Southern California
[#2] Northwestern
[#4] Pepperdine
[#5] Michigan State
[#8] Oklahoma State
Lauren Beaudreau [Notre Dame]
BRYAN
Behind super senior Ingrid Lindblad’s incredible 15th collegiate win, LSU gained their first ever outright regional victory (shared honors in 2012). Kansas State’s Carla Bernat put together back-to-back rounds of 69 to be able to advance as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] LSU
[#2] Texas A&M
[#3] Clemson
[#4] Vanderbilt
[#5] SMU
Carla Bernat [Kansas State]
BERMUDA RUN
As a team, Ole Miss shot their lowest 18-hole postseason round (279/-9) to earn the program’s first regional title. The Rebels were led by Caitlyn Macnab who tied for medalist honors, her second victory of the season. The other player that earned medalist honors was Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn, her 8th victory of her career. Tennessee’s Bailey Davis was the 1st and 2nd round leader, but slipped back to 3rd after a final round 74; with Tennessee failing to advance, Davis moved on to nationals as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] Wake Forest
[#2] Texas
[#3] Ole Miss
[#4] Miss State
[#8] Oregon State
Bailey Davis [Tennessee]
CLE ELUM
The top ranked Stanford Cardinal team got it done, scoring the lowest team score in both the second and third rounds to run away with the team title. The story of the tournament, however, was star senior Rachel Heck earning her 9th career victory some 800 days after her previous win. Heck tied the course record (65) in the second round which helped her hold off teammates Kelly Xu and Megha Ganne. In all, Stanford had 4 players finish in the top 5 spots, only the 2nd time since at least 2005 that a team accomplished that feat in Regional play. Long Beach State failed to advance as a team, but Jasmine Leovao was able to advance as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] Stanford
[#2] Duke
[#3] Arizona State
[#4] Virginia
[#5] San Jose State
Jasmine Leovao [Long Beach State]
LAS VEGAS
Arkansas led from wire-to-wire and managed to hold on during a blustery final round to secure the program’s second regional title (2018). Despite a final round 75, Kajal Mistry earned co-medalist honors, the 2nd of her career. She shared those honors with UCLA’s Zoe Campos who earned her 4th victory this season and 6th of her career. Kent State made a nice push in the final round but was unable to advance, however their top finisher, Veronika Kedronova, did advance as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] UCLA
[#2] Arkansas
[#4] Florida State
[#6] Purdue
[#7] Baylor
Veronika Kedronova [Kent State]
MEN’S REGIONALS [May 13-15, 2024]
**Read many great details from Brentley Romine [NBC Sports/Golf Channel] and Cameron Jourdan [Golfweek]
BATON ROUGE
It’s not deja vu, Auburn men also ran away with a regional victory. The dual victory put them on a special list of only 17 programs since 1995 to see both their women’s and men’s teams win in the same season. It was Auburn’s 6th team title in a row, 9th overall for the season. LSU became just the third #7 seed host to advance to NCAAs in 7 tries. Texas Tech had two players finish in the top two spots, Baard Skogen gained a 2-stroke victory (his 3rd career title) which gave the Red Raiders back-to-back individual Regional titles (Ludvig Aberg, 2023 Normal Regional). As a team, Duke finished 7th, but Ethan Evans finished T2 to advance as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] Auburn
[#2] Virginia
[#3] Texas Tech
[#6] Ohio State
[#7] LSU
Ethan Evans [Duke]
CHAPEL HILL
By far the most incredible storyline of the men’s regionals was the #10 seeded Clemson team not only advancing, but actually winning the Chapel Hill Regional. It’s the first time that a double-digit seeded team won a regional. The #2 seeded Alabama team narrowly missed forcing a playoff for the final advancing spot. UNC’s Austin Greaser drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the 54th hole to win the individual title, the second of his career. This put him in rare company with 5 other players (Jon Rahm, Davis Thompson, Russell Henley, Brian Campbell, and Billy Horschel) with two regional titles, just behind Kevin Tway who captured three. NC State’s Nick Matthews tied a program record low 54-hole score with his 198/-12 score that earned him a T2 finish.
Advancing:
[#1] UNC
[#3] Georgia Tech
[#4] ETSU
[#6] Baylor
[#10] Clemson
Nick Mathews [NC State]
WEST LAFAYETTE
Vanderbilt won its third ever Regional title on the back of graduate William Moll who became the first player in program history to win an individual title. Although they didn’t finish in order, this was one of the rare occasions where all 5 of the top seeded teams advanced. This is the 10th time a Regional has finished “chalk”, the last time coming in 2021 (Kingston). Perhaps most interesting of the team finishes was #2 seed Arizona finishing 4th; the last three NCAA champions were #2 seeds who finished 4th in their respective Regionals. Wisconsin’s Cameron Huss came out on top of a 3-player playoff for the individual spot to advance to NCAAs.
Advancing:
[#1] Vanderbilt
[#2] Arizona
[#3] Florida
[#4] New Mexico
[#5] Purdue
Cameron Huss [Wisconsin] via 5 hole playoff over Garrett Endicott [Miss St] and Owen Stamper [MTSU]
AUSTIN
Texas shot the low score each round to ran away with the title and extend the longest current streak of advancing to the NCAA championship to 17 (dating back to 2008). Christian Maas shot the low score of the final round (66) which was earned him his first medalist honors of his young career. Wake Forest claimed the final spot after a one-hole 5-count-5 playoff victory over BYU. Notre Dame advanced to the NCAAs for the first time since 1966. Kelvin Hernandez finished T3 to propel him to the NCAA championship, becoming the first player to represent UNC-G in men’s championship history.
Advancing:
[#1] Tennessee
[#3] Texas
[#5] Wake Forest
[#6] Notre Dame
[#9] Utah
Kelvin Hernandez [UNC-G]
RANCHO SANTA FE
The top two seeds failed to advance for just the second time since Regionals began in 1989 (2018 Raleigh Regional). The Oklahoma Sooners erased a 5 stroke deficit on the final day to claim their 7th Regional title, 4th in the Coach Hybl era. Sooner senior Ben Lorenz captured the individual title with a final round bogey-free 64. West Virginia advanced to the NCAA championship for just the second time in program history, the only other time being 77 years ago (1947). San Diego’s Andi Xu shot the low round in the second round and followed that up with a 68 to finish T2 and advance as an individual as the team finished 7th.
Advancing:
[#3] Oklahoma
[#4] California
[#5] Oklahoma State
[#6] North Florida
[#10] West Virginia
Andi Xu [San Diego]
STANFORD
On the heels of losing the Big10 championship for the first time in 9 years, Illinois blitzed the field at Stanford. The title is their sixth since 2013. The #2 seeded Ole Miss Rebels were sitting in 4th through the second round, but ultimately finished just outside, making them one of four #2 seeds to fail to advance. Minnesota’s Ben Warian shot a final round 65 to post a sub200 score and finish T2, sending him to the NCAA championship as an individual.
Advancing:
[#1] Florida State
[#3] Illinois
[#4] Texas A&M
[#5] Stanford
[#7] SMU
Ben Warian [Minnesota]
PROGRAM SUCCESS
BOTH TEAMS ADVANCED
Here is the list of the 15 programs whose women’s and men’s teams both advanced to the 2024 NCAA championship (alphabetical):
Auburn
Baylor
Clemson
Florida State
LSU
North Carolina
Oklahoma State
Purdue
SMU
Stanford
Texas
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Wake Forest
BOTH TEAMS WON
As mentioned above, Auburn joined a short list of just 13 programs whose women’s and men’s teams both won a Regional title in the same year going back to 1993 (the start of women’s regional competition)
Thanks for reading!