NCAA Regional Championships
Monday-Wednesday, May 7-9
TPC Harding Park (Par-72 • 6,369 yards)
San Francisco, California
Live Results • GoStanford.com
Cardinal Lineup • Andrea Lee, Albane Valenzuela, Mika Liu, Ziyi Wang, Shannon Aubert
The Lowdown
• No. 5 Stanford will play host to the NCAA San Francisco Regional Championships (May 7-9) at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California.
• The NCAA Regional appearance will be the 26th consecutive for Stanford, which won the event in 2007, 2016 and 2017. The Cardinal has finished fifth or better in each of the past five seasons under head coach Anne Walker.
• Sophomore Albane Valenzuela won the 2017 NCAA Regional in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is the only Cardinal ever to earn medalist honors at the event.
• Senior Shannon Aubert will be making her fourth NCAA Regional appearance. Aubert's top finish (11th) came in 2015 as a freshman and again in 2017.
• Three Cardinal student-athletes are featured among GolfStat's top 25 individual rankings: Andrea Lee (4th -- 70.72 adjusted scoring average), Valenzuela (21st -- 72.21) and Mika Liu (24tht -- 72.63). Ziyi Wang (73.50) checked in at 101st.
• Lee, fifth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is seeking her seventh career collegiate win, and fourth on the season.
• Valenzuela is tabbed fourth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and is the list's top Swiss golfer.
• Stanford has finished at least third or better in each of its nine events on the season.
The Format
• Four 54-hole regional competitions will be conducted, each with 18 teams and six individuals not on those teams. From each NCAA Regional site, the low six teams -- and the low three individuals not on those teams -- will advance to the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships finals in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The Field
• Six of the 18 teams competing this week are ranked in GolfStat's top 25: No. 1 UCLA, No. 5 Stanford, No. 9 South Carolina, No. 16 Kent State, No. 17 Oklahoma State and No. 24 North Carolina.
The Course
• Named after U.S. President Warren G. Harding, Harding Park Golf Course was opened on July18, 1925, along the shores of Lake Merced, in San Francisco's southwest corner. The initial 18-hole, 163-acre course was designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting, who also designed the nearby Olympic Club Lake Course.
• Harding Park began hosting major amateur tournaments soon after opening most notably, the USGA National Public Links Championship, and the San Francisco City Championship, the oldest consecutively played competition in the world. The golf course quickly attracted national attention when it hosted a number of important tournaments, including the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 1937 and again in 1956. Future PGA Tour members such as George Archer, Ken Venturi, Tony Lema and Johnny Miller frequented the course during their junior years, developing their games in the challenging conditions. In the 1960s, Harding Park became a regular stop for the PGA Tour, and produced many big-name winners, including Venturi, Gary Player and Billy Casper.
• In 2002-03, a $16 million restoration featuring a complete re-design to the course began. The result was a highly acclaimed championship course that maintains the character and integrity of the original layout, but incorporates design elements and infrastructure to accommodate today's players. Harding is a picturesque layout adjacent to Lake Merced and is known for its majestic cypress trees that line both sides of almost every fairway.
• The 15-month project to expand the par-71 course from 6,743 yards to nearly 7,200 yards in length, enhancing the driving range, clubhouse and restaurant, upgrading the nine-hole layout of Fleming, and later establishing the First Tee of San Francisco in 2004, a unique youth development program that uses golf to teach students life skills and values. Harding Park Golf Course officially reopened Aug. 22, 2003.
• Since its recent renovations, TPC Harding Park is championship-worthy once again, hosting many important professional events, including the 2005 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship won by Tiger Woods in a sudden-playoff against John Daly; the 2009 President's Cup; the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2010 (John Cook), 2011 (Jay Don Blake) and 2013 (Fred Couples); and the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship won by Rory McIlroy. In 2020, Harding Park will host the PGA Championship, the last of the year's four major championships. And in 2025, the Presidents Cup will return.
The Coverage
• Live results will be available throughout the event at GoStanford.com, with updates available on Twitter (@StanfordWgolf), Facebook (StanfordWgolf) and Instagram (@StanfordWgolf).