Baylor women’s golf earned one of eight berths in the 2017 NCAA Championships match play by finishing in seventh place in the stroke play portion of the Championships at Rich Harvest Farms.
BU shot 18-over 306 in Monday’s final round and finished at 53-over 917, three stokes in front of the cut. As the No. 7 seed, Baylor will face No. 1-ranked Stanford in Tuesday’s 7 a.m. CT quarterfinal match, a rematch of the 2015 title match that Stanford won in a 19th hole playoff. Stanford placed second in stroke play at 41-over 905.
Baylor and Stanford join Duke, Southern California and Washington as the nation’s only programs to earn multiple match play berths in the last three seasons. BU returns only one player from the 2015 national runner-up squad in Dylan Kim, but junior Amy Lee competed for USC in that same match play.
Lee finished in seventh place in the stroke play portion, carding a final round of 2-under 70 to finish at 5-over 221, four shots behind medalist Monica Vaughn of Arizona State. Lee needed a par on the 18th hole to clinch Baylor’s spot in match play, and she nearly chipped in for eagle from 20 yards out before tapping in with a birdie.
Maria Vesga tied for 17th place at 10-over 226 after shooting 2-over 74 in the final round. She took the turn at 1-under before making three bogeys over the final eight holes as wind picked up later in the round. Kim tied for 32nd place at 14-over 230 after a final round of 9-over 81. She was seven over through her first eight holes, then recovered to shoot 2-over across the final 10 holes.
Fiona Liddell carded BU’s final counting score in the third round with a 9-over 81, and she tied for 102nd place individually at 26-over 242. Maggie Beth Byers shot 10-over 82 and tied for 126th place at 34-over 250.
Additional teams advancing to match play are No. 12 Northwestern (+33) as the No. 1 seed, No. 7 Arizona State (+45) as the No. 3 seed, No. 25 Ohio State (+49) as the No. 4 seed, No. 6 USC (+50) as the No. 5 seed, No. 3 Florida (+50) as the No. 6 seed and No. 14 Kent State (+55) as the No. 8 seed. No. 35 North Carolina (+56) missed the cut by one stroke, followed by No. 11 South Carolina (+59) in 10th place.
Baylor was joined in the field by two fellow Big 12 teams – No. 16 Texas (+63), which finished in 13th place, and No. 30 Texas Tech (+87), which finished in 22nd place.
HIGHLIGHTS
Baylor advanced to NCAA Championships match play for the second time in the last three years.
Baylor’s seventh place finish in NCAA Championships stroke play was the second-best in program history, trailing only the third place finish in 2015.
Baylor finished fifth in the 24-team field in par-4 scoring at 49-over 4.33, tied for 19th in par-5 scoring at 13-over 5.22 and 22nd in par-3 scoring at 27-over 3.45.
Baylor’s 156 pars were fourth-most in the field.
Amy Lee tied for second in the 132-player field in par-4 scoring at 3-over 4.10 and tied for 17th in par-5 scoring at 2-under 4.83.
Maria Vesga tied for fourth in par-4 scoring at 4-over 4.13.
Vesga’s 38 pars over 54 holes tied for second-most in the field, while Lee tied for sixth with 36 pars.
Dylan Kim tied for 17th in par-4 scoring at 8-over 4.27.
Lee tied for 20th in the field with seven birdies.
Lee made birdie on the 407-yard, par-3 fourth hole in the final round. It was one of only 11 birdies made on the hole out of 396 times it was played during the tournament.
STAT OF THE DAY
5 – the number of teams to earn multiple match play berths at the NCAA Championships in the last three seasons. Baylor, Duke, Stanford, USC and Washington are the only teams to advance to match play at least two times since 2015.
WHAT'S NEXT
Tuesday’s quarterfinal match between Baylor and Stanford tees off at 7 a.m. CT from the first hole. Golf Channel’s coverage begins with a pregame show at 9:30 a.m. and live coverage at 10:30 a.m. Matchups are as follows: 7 a.m. – Maggie Beth Byers vs. Shannon Aubert, 7:10 a.m. – Dylan Kim vs. Albane Valenzuela, 7:20 a.m. – Maria Vesga vs. Andrea Lee, 7:30 a.m. – Fiona Liddell vs. Casey Danielson and 7:40 a.m. – Amy Lee vs. Madeline Chou. Live scoring is available at www.GolfStat.com. Follow @BaylorWGolf on Twitter and Facebook for updates throughout the season.
BAYLOR’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS STROKE PLAY RESULTS
2004 – t-19th place
2012 – t-16th place
2015 – 3rd place
2017 – 7th place
