After a dominant performance in the NCAA Regional Tournament, the Vanderbilt women’s golf team will advance to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the first time since 2019. Alabama, Wake Forest and Texas A&M, the three other teams that made it out of the region, will join the team in the desert.
The regional Tournament took place from May 9-11 at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee. After a third place finish on Day 1, the Commodores, backed by their home crowd, finished in first on both May 10 and 11. The team boasted a tournament-low score of 9-under 27 on Day 3, propelling them to 16-under through all three days. These scores earned them a first-place victory in their region.
This tournament will be the Commodores’ 11th NCAA Championship appearance. Their 16-under par score through 54 holes is the ninth lowest score in program history.
The Commodores were led by senior Auston Kim, who posted a score of 5-under par on Day 3. She played a nearly perfect round, firing five birdies and just one bogey en-route to a fourth place finish. Fifth-year senior Louise Yu also performed well, finishing 3-under with a bogey-free outing.
Head coach Greg Allen had high praise for the team.
“We knew coming into [yesterday] that it wouldn’t be easy,” Allen said. “It’s never easy in the final round of a regional, but the girls felt comfortable with our game plan, and they went out there and executed it really well.”
Despite the team battling through a rough stretch in March, Allen credited the players with remaining confident, particularly Kim and Yu.
“Auston Kim and Louise Yu have won two regionals in their career at Vanderbilt and, in my opinion, there’s no more pressure in a golf tournament than playing in a regional,” said Allen.
The Commodores are entering the tournament with this same confidence, and Allen expressed that he feels that they are capable of winning the championship.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our young ladies and with what we did at Auburn in 2019. I think we kind of got content by just qualifying, but this group is still hungry and they want to go make some noise in Scottsdale,” Allen said.
The Championship will take place from May 20-25, with the opening rounds taking place from May 20-23, the quarterfinals and semifinals on May 24 and the championship match on May 25.
