Stanford’s run of regular-season dominance came to an end Tuesday at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup.
The Cardinal, the reigning NCAA women’s golf champions and winners of three of the past five national championships, finished outside the top five in a tournament for the first time in over six years.
Stanford, ranked as Golf Channel’s preseason No. 1 team, finished sixth out of six teams in the 54-hole stroke-play portion of the Stephens Cup, held this year at PGA Frisco in Texas. It was the program’s worst finish since it placed seventh out of 16 teams at the 2020 Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge. That week Stanford had to count a first-round from Brooke Seay after Calista Reyes was DQ’d for signing for an incorrect score.
This time, only Meja Ortengren (T-3) finished in the top 20, while world Nos. 1 and 2 amateurs, Andrea Revuelta and Paula Martin Sampedro, finished T-24 and T-27, respectively.
The Cardinal’s five head-to-head losses this week (five) matches their total in the previous two seasons combined.
Stanford did not advance to Wednesday’s match-play portion. Wake Forest, fresh off a season-opening victory at the Annika Intercollegiate, finished first and will face South Carolina in the final, while Oregon and Texas will meet for third place. Florida State joins Stanford in heading home early.
Reigning Annika Award recipient Farah O’Keefe of Texas shared the individual title with Wake Forest’s Macy Pate, who also recently received an invite to compete in this fall’s Annika event on the LPGA.