NCAA Women's Golf Championships 2015: Dates, Format, Tee Times, Field, Preview
The college school year is over for some institutions and very nearly over for others, but there is still plenty of work to be done for the nation's student-athletes. The best Division I female golfers still have a title to play for in the 2015 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship.
Regionals wrapped up earlier in May, leaving the remaining field to descend upon The Concession Golf Course in Bradenton, Florida, for six days of competition, from May 22-27. The women get first crack at the course, as the men's championship tournament doesn't start until May 29.
"It's the first time it's been done back-to-back tournaments for the men and ladies," The Concession membership director Alan Pope said, via the Bradenton Herald's Jason Dill. "It's never been done in any other tournament other than last year's U.S. Open. To follow that format, it's just very exciting."
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For those unable to watch the action live in Florida, Golf Channel will be broadcasting much of the tournament. A press release and TV times can be found at NCAAGolfChampionships.com.
The Duke Blue Devils are the defending team champion in this tournament and will be hoping to come away with their seventh overall title. There are new wrinkles to the format this year, however, ones that could prove to be very compelling from a competitive standpoint.
Format
This year, the NCAA tournament features both stroke and match play. Twenty-four teams and 12 individuals are invited to Manatee County, and NCAA.com's Denise Maloof explains the format:
"The top six teams from the four regionals played May 7-9, plus the top 12 individuals not on an NCAA finals-qualifying team, form the lineup for Friday's opening round. Those 24 teams and 12 individual competitors will play 54 holes of stroke play.
Following the final of those four rounds, on Monday the top 15 teams plus the top-nine individuals all advance to another day of stroke play on Tuesday. The results of Tuesday's round will determine the individual 72-hole champion. It also will cull the final 15 teams for Wednesday's seeded match-play round that will determine the team champion.
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Tee Times
A full list of tee times can be found at NCAA.org.
Field
| Teams | Individuals |
| South Carolina | Lena Shaeffner, Coastal Carolina |
| Northwestern | Taylor Totland, Furman |
| NC State | Karolina Vlckova, University of Florida |
| Alabama | |
| LSU | |
| Campbell | |
| Teams | Individuals |
| Duke | Michaela Fletcher, Memphis |
| Wake Forest | Leilanie Kim, Idaho |
| UC Davis | Isabelle Johansson, Kentucky |
| Arizona | |
| Tulane | |
| Purdue | |
| Teams | Individuals |
| Baylor | Monica Vaughn, ASU |
| UCLA | Anica Yoo, Oregon State |
| Tennessee | Bertine Strauss, Texas |
| Texas A&M | |
| Washington | |
| Texas Tech | |
| Teams | Individuals |
| USC | Alivia Brown, Washington State |
| Stanford | Meghan MacLaren, Florida International |
| Arkansas | Emily Williams, Middle Tennessee State |
| UNLV | |
| Virginia | |
| California |
Preview
As far as conferences go in women's college golf, none can be prouder than the Pac-12, which is sending six schools to Bradenton. Four of those schools are in the Top Five of the NCAA rankings heading into the championship: No. 1 Washington, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 USC and No. 5 Arizona.
If there is going to be a team that wrenches the trophy away from powerhouse Duke—ranked sixth in the nation—this year, it seems highly likely it will come from way out West.
Scott Hanson of the Seattle Times notes that the Huskies have held up well despite losing some star power to the professional ranks this season:
"The Huskies began the season as the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and played up to that ranking in the fall. But the Huskies lost senior SooBin Kim, the No. 1 player in the country, and star freshman Jing Yan to the LPGA before the spring season.
That left the Huskies with just five players: seniors Jennifer Yang and Cyd Okino, juniors Ying Luo and Charlotte Thomas, and sophomore Eimi Koga.
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The Trojans won the St. George regional and will be looking to take things one step further as they finished in second place last year.
As if overwhelming representation in the team tournament wasn't enough, the Pac-12 will feature three players fighting for the individual trophy in Washington State's Alivia Brown, Oregon State's Anica Yoo and Arizona State's Monica Vaughn.
Duke will likely be involved well into match play. The Blue Devils are coming off a win in the South Bend regional, and two stellar players lead them in freshman Leona Maguire and junior Celine Boutier.
Maguire won the individual prize at the South Bend regional, and Boutier is one of two players returning from last year's championship-winning squad and was the 2014 Player of the Year, per Maloof. The delightful play of Maguire and experience of Boutier will be key to coach Dan Brooks' squad repeating as champions.
Outside of Duke and the Pac-12, keep an eye on No. 4 South Carolina and No. 19 Baylor, as they come into the championships having won their respective regionals.
As far as the course goes, Dill provided info from Pope on how the course might play out in this tournament:
"The course, Pope said, is a second-shot golf course. Without high rough, the emphasis is on precise irons into the greens that typically play firm and fast.
Pope said greenskeepers will slow the greens to about 10.5 on the stimpmeter, while speeding them back up around 12.5-13 for the men's event.
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Duke, Washington and USC may all seem like very trendy picks, but golf is nothing if not fickle, and the concentration of talent in Bradenton is incredibly impressive. Of the Top 25-ranked teams, per the NCAA, 18 will be out on the links at The Concession Golf Course, and Karolina Vlckova will represent another in Florida in the individual championship.
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