SAMMAMISH, Wash. – Stanford boat raced the 13-team field at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, cruising to its first win on the season by a resounding 27-stroke margin.
The Cardinal led wire-to-wire while signing its final scorecard of 863 (1-under). Host Washington was next in line at 890 (26-over), followed by UCF (34-over) and Oregon (39-over) during the three-round event at Sahalee Country Club.
The fourth win under second-year head coach Anne Walker was registered with 42 fewer strokes than last season’s third-place finish at the same event. The victory came in the same week the Stanford men's team won the Erin Hills Invitational.
"We were inspired by the men's team and its dominating victory at Erin Hills," Walker said. "It challenged us to raise the bar, and we did just that."
Paced by medalist Mariah Stackhouse (7-under), the women’s golf team placed four performers in the top 10, and each of the competing Cardinal finished in the top 25.
Stackhouse went 68-70-71 for a 209, claiming the top billing ahead of teammate Mariko Tumangan. Tumangan entered the final round at 7-under on the heels of a blistering tournament-low 66 on the par-72, 6,039-yard course. Tumangan (212) carded a 75 Wednesday to finish second.
Final round is underway at Sahalee CC. Beautiful, cold and clear morning #gocard pic.twitter.com/IMm2P8AT9l
— Stanford W Golf (@StanfordWGolf) October 9, 2013
"Mariah and Mariko carried us to the 27-shot victory," Walker said. "We received very solid play from tee to green, and that was the key to our win. Washington was ranked ahead of us coming into this week -- they're a strong team -- and we wanted to make them work for a victory at home. Luckily, we came out with the win."
Lauren Kim (74-73-76, 223, +7) tied with Quirine Eijkenboom (75-74-74, 223, +7) for seventh and Casey Danielson (72-79-75, 226, +10) tied for 22nd.
Stackhouse opened her first round with a bogey on the opening hole, but recovered with birdies on four of the next five holes and never looked back. Stackhouse made the turn at 3-under, and birdied a pair on the back nine to register an opening-round 68.
The sophomore followed her 4-under with a 2-under second round, featuring four birdies and her lone double bogey of the tournament on the par-3 ninth.
Tumangan turned pars on her first 17 holes and closed the opening round with a birdie on the par-5, 455-yard 18th. Her career-low 66 came behind the strength of six birdies and a bogey-free second round.
Tumangan bogeyed the first hole of her final round – the first in her last 42 holes played – but neutralized things with a birdie on the par-5 second.
Hail on #11 at Sahalee CC!! Green covered in ice! #collegegolfproblem #gostanford pic.twitter.com/K6fdt70Nkv
— Stanford W Golf (@StanfordWGolf) October 8, 2013
-- #GoStanford --