NCAA Championships
Friday-Wednesday, May 18-23
Karsten Creek Golf Club (Par-72 • 6,328 yards)
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Live Results • GoStanford.com
Cardinal Lineup • Andrea Lee, Mika Liu, Albane Valenzuela, Ziyi Wang, Shannon Aubert
The Lowdown
• Stanford begins its quest for a second national title on Friday at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It marks the ninth consecutive year the Cardinal has been selected to participate in the NCAA Championships.
• Stanford has advanced to the match-play portion of the NCAA Championships since the format's inception in 2015.
• Last week, the Cardinal won the NCAA San Francisco Regional at TPC Harding Park by six strokes over top-ranked UCLA. It was the third straight -- and fourth overall-- regional title in school history.
• The 30th postseason appearance proved to be charm for Stanford as it captured the program's first-ever NCAA title with a dramatic, nationally-televised victory against Baylor in 2015. Competing in match play for the first time, the Cardinal beat Arizona and top-ranked USC to reach the final televised by the Golf Channel at the Concession Golf Club in steamy Bradenton, Florida. Stanford trailed 2-1 and was on the ropes until sophomore Casey Danielson birdied the final two holes to win her match and even the score. The final deciding point was contested for by All-Americans Mariah Stackhouse and Haley Davis, with Stackhouse carding clutch birdies on 17 and 18 to force sudden death. Her two-putt par on the 19th hole lifted the Cardinal to the title. It marked only the ninth time in NCAA history that a men's and women's program from the same school have won national titles in the same sport.
• Senior Shannon Aubert will be making her fourth NCAA Championships. She tied for 11th during the 2016 edition in Eugene, Oregon, and posted a 3-0 match-play record during Stanford's championship run in 2015.
• Three Cardinal student-athletes are featured among GolfStat's top 30 individual rankings: Andrea Lee (4th -- 70.73 adjusted scoring average), Mika Liu (25th -- 72.54), and Albane Valenzuela (29th -- 72.25). Ziyi Wang (73.03) checked in at 63rd.
• Valenzuela is tabbed fourth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and is the list's top Swiss golfer. Lee, fifth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is seeking her seventh career collegiate win, and fourth on the season.
• Wang may have the hottest hand of any golfer in the nation. She followed a fourth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships with a second-place effort at the NCAA San Francisco Regional. Five of her past six rounds have been under par.
• Stanford has finished at least third or better in each of its 10 events on the season.
A very good NCAA Regional win. And a very good boy. #GoStanford
A post shared by Stanford Women's Golf (@stanfordwgolf) on May 9, 2018 at 7:00pm PDT
The Schedule
• Friday: First round of stroke play
• Saturday: Second round of stroke play
• Sunday: Third round of stroke play (top 15 teams and nine individuals not on those teams advance)
• Monday: Final round of stroke play (individual national champion crowned, top eight teams advance to match play)
• Tuesday: Match-play quarterfinals and semifinals
• Wednesday: Match-play championship
The Coverage
• Live results will be available throughout the event at GoStanford.com, with updates available on Twitter (@StanfordWgolf), Facebook (StanfordWgolf) and Instagram (@StanfordWgolf).
• Golf Channel's live tournament coverage of the NCAA Women's Golf Championships begins May 21 to crown the individual national champion and tracking the teams attempting to qualify for the eight-team match play championship.
• Golf Channel's coverage from May 22-23 will include all three rounds of the team match play, ultimately crowning a team national champion.
Taking the ?? less travelled in Oklahoma #NCAAGolf #DirtRoad pic.twitter.com/t99SGIZIlG
— Stanford Women's Golf (@StanfordWGolf) May 16, 2018
The Course
• Karsten Creek Golf Club will host the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Golf Championships. Karsten Creek has previously hosted the NCAA Men's Golf Championships in 2003 and 2011.
• Karsten Creek was built in 1994 for the Oklahoma State golf teams. It was designed by Tom Fazio and honored as the "Best New Public Course" for 1994 by Golf Digest Magazine. It stretches over 7,400 yards with SR1020 bent-grass greens and zoysia fairways. All of the holes were carved from the native oak trees surrounding Lake Louise.
• In the May 1998 edition of Golf Digest, Karsten Creek Golf Club was awarded its first five-star rating, making the course one of 10 in the nation to be so honored. Since that time, the course has gone on to receive numerous accolades. Karsten Creek joined the likes of Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Pinehurst Resort and Country Club (No. 2). Four of these courses have hosted major championships, and most of the others maintain national prominence. While other courses are located in resort areas or near the coasts, Karsten Creek's surprising beauty is derived from an unsuspecting tract of land that is densely covered with black jack and pin oak trees and contains dramatic elevation changes that are not common to the heartland of America. As the course continues to mature, it steadily climbs all of the top 100 lists across the country and has been ranked as the best college course in the country by Travel & Leisure Golf magazine.