CARLSBAD, Calif. — Texas junior Farrah O’Keefe posted a 2-under 70 on Monday after a wild again 9 that included birdies on her remaining two holes to win the primary NCAA girls’s golf title by a Texas participant in almost 30 years.
The ultimate spherical of particular person play lowered the sphere to eight groups that proceeded to match play. There was no greater shock than Jap Michigan’s NCAA Championship debut. Stanford, which has gained the crew title twice prior to now 4 years, gained by 13 strokes because the No. 1 seed.
O’Keefe, a low beginner who performed within the Chevron Championship, the primary LPGA main of the yr, final month, hit simply two pars on the again 9 at La Costa Resort. One in all her three bogeys was a shank on the 14th gap the place she needed to battle for a bogey.
However she by no means misplaced the lead or misplaced her composure. O’Keefe completed off his large day with a wedge to six ft on the par-4 seventeenth and a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th.
She completed with a 12-under 276, two strokes forward of U.S. Ladies’s Newbie champion Megha Ngannou (Stanford College). Ngannou additionally birdied the ultimate two holes, and O’Keefe closed out the title.
Farrah O’Keefe is a US Champion 🏆
congratulations @Texas W Golf Junior and US Elite Newbie Program Members 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FZerywHTaK
— U.S. Nationwide Growth Program (@usndpgolf) Could 26, 2026
The final Texas participant to win the NCAA girls’s golf title was Heather Bowie in 1997.
The Longhorns simply certified for match play, with the quarterfinals and semifinals scheduled for Tuesday and the championship sport on Wednesday.
Stanford led eight groups at 22 beneath par heading into match play. Just one different crew, Southern California, completed at 9 beneath.
Jap Michigan was ranked No. 226 in girls’s golf two years in the past when Josh Brewer was employed after being fired after 12 years as the ladies’s golf coach on the College of Georgia. The Eagles have been ranked 122nd a yr in the past, however this yr they completed the season in twenty seventh place.
However they made it to the NCAAs, posting the one crew rating beneath par on a blustery day in northern San Diego County. Belgium’s Savannah de Bock, who left Georgia with Brewer, took the lead with a 69, and Jap Michigan shot 4-under 284 as a crew, transferring from 14th to fifth place.
“The historical past of our program is right here,” Brewer mentioned. “Nobody needs to see us, as a result of we’re loopy sufficient to do something extra enjoyable than this.”
Jap Michigan would play Texas within the quarterfinals, and Stanford would tackle Pepperdine. Arkansas will play Oklahoma State, and Southern California will play Duke.
