KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — The spring season officially began on Monday morning on the Big Island of Hawaii, and second-ranked Stanford women's golf teed off at the annual Pac-12 Preview. Entering as the defending champions of the event, the Cardinal saw how deep this year's conference field is. Several teams find themselves wadded up in the middle of the pack, and after one round, Stanford was able to finish fourth and just one stroke back of the top three.
All five Stanford golfers got underway at 7:30 am on the Big Island with the shotgun start, and it was Paula Martin Sampedro who got off to the fastest start. The freshman resumed her sound start to her collegiate career by recording birdies on her second, third, and fourth holes of the day, which immediately put her atop the leaderboard. She cooled off after that hot start, did not go over par on her final 17 holes, including the only eagle on 13 recorded during the round. Martin Sampedro finished the day with a 69, four strokes under par.
She was joined by Sadie Englemann, who matched Martin Sampedro in a tie for third place overall with a 69 on Monday. Englemann recorded six birdies in the first round, the most by any Cardinal and tied for the most on the day by any golfer in the field. Her back nine was excellent, going 3-under with a trio of birdies and no bogeys, to get herself back in contention atop the leaderboard.
Megha Ganne endured a rocky start to her round before she settled in and helped the Card climb up to fourth overall. Ganne bogeyed on two of her first four holes, but then rebounded with five birdies the rest of the way finish Monday 1-under with a 72, putting her just outside the top-15 in the overall field.
Arizona, ranked sixth in the most recent NCAA golf rankings released by Clippd, finds itself leading the Pac-12 Preview after 18 holes of golf, posting a 281 in the opening round to lead USC by a stroke. Washington sits in third place just one stroke above Stanford.
Bailey Shoemaker of USC finds herself in front of the field after Round One, with a 6-under 67 in the first round. Gile Bite Starkute is in second with a 5-under 68, and Martin Sampedro and Englemann are in a group of four tied for third.
Stanford will tee off at 7:30 am HT/9:30 am PT on Tuesday in the second round, with another shotgun start that will feature Card on each of the first five holes at Nanea Golf Club.
Pac-12 Preview (Nanea Golf Club, par 73)
| Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4. Stanford | 288 (-4) | -- | -- | 288 (-4) |
| T3. Paula Martín Sampedro | 69 (-4) | -- | -- | 69 (-4) |
| T3. Sadie Englemann | 69 (-4) | -- | -- | 69 (-4) |
| T16. Megha Ganne | 72 (-1) | -- | -- | 72 (-1) |
| T47. Caroline Sturdza | 78 (+5) | -- | -- | 78 (+5) |
| T53. Kelly Xu | 80 (+7) | -- | -- | 80 (+7) |