2023-24: Season in Review2023-24: Season in Review
Women's Golf

2023-24: Season in Review

Stanford won its third national championship since 2015 and claimed five tournament wins over the course of another wildly successful 2023-24 campaign.

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STANFORD, Calif. — History was made once again by Stanford women’s golf in 2023-24, capping off another season as the top-ranked team in the country and with its third-ever national championship. Despite two-time NCAA individual champion Rose Zhang turning pro, Stanford remained best in the nation, piling up five wins, a Pac-12 championship, and an NCAA championship. Stanford has made every regional field dating back to 1993 and has made every national championship field since 2010 while being the only team in the country to reach the NCAA match play quarterfinal stage in all nine seasons of the current format.

TOURNAMENT WINS

Stanford came out of the gates hot during the 2023-24 season by winning the 2023 Carmel Cup, the second year in a row the team won the season-opening event. Megha Ganne built on her Pac-12 Freshman of the Year season by winning her first collegiate tournament, opening the event with a 6-under 66 in the first round en route to a 15-under 201, the lowest score of her career and the fifth-lowest 54-hole score in Stanford history.

It wasn’t until March 5 that Stanford claimed another title, winning the 2024 Juli Inkster Invitational in Fairfax. It was another rain-soaked event like it was in 2023, and the final round was suspended and ultimately canceled. Stanford led after 36 rounds and thus was declared the winner, scoring its second-consecutive win at the Juli Inkster Invitational.

Then came the final Pac-12 Championship, hosted at Palouse Ridge in Pullman, Washington where Stanford set the NCAA Regional scoring record in 2023 by shooting 50-under as a team. The Cardinal were the only team under par through round one, and then went 14-under and 12-under in the final two rounds to shoot a 28-under 836 to break the Pac-12 Championship scoring record. Stanford claimed its third-ever Pac-12 Championship and its first since 2014. Four Cardinal finished in the top-11, and the entire team was under par for the event. In the second round, four Stanford golfers shot in the 60s for the first time in program history.

Continuing to peak at the right time, Stanford cruised through the NCAA Cle Elum Regional, finishing 17-under over three rounds, the only team in the field to finish under par. It is the sixth time in the last eight years that the Cardinal has won its regional, but it didn’t stop there. Rachel Heck won her ninth career tournament and Stanford held the top four spots individually on the leaderboard, the first time in program history it has done so. Kelly Xu finished second, while Megha Ganne and Paula Martin Sampedro tied for third.

It all came together at the NCAA Championship, where Stanford finished stroke play as the top overall seed for the fourth consecutive year. A clean 3-0 win over Auburn in the quarterfinals set up a rematch against USC, which bounced Stanford from the 2023 NCAA Championship in the same round. This time, the Cardinal got the better of the Trojans, winning 3-1 to earn the right to face Pac-12 foe UCLA for the title. It came down to the final pairing, but in a 3&2 fashion, Heck clinched the winning point for Stanford to secure its second national championship in three years. Stanford is the only team in the country to win multiple national championships in the match play era and is also the only program to win a women’s championship entering match play as the top seed.

RACHEL RETURNS

Perhaps one of the biggest boosts of the season for Stanford came in the Pac-12 Championship when Rachel Heck returned to the lineup. After missing various points of the last few seasons with injuries, Heck seemed like she was back in top form, finishing tied for seventh with all three rounds under par. This addition to the lineup was crucial towards Stanford winning the title in Pullman, especially when you consider she was entered fifth in the Stanford lineup. But that was just the tip of the iceberg...

...at the Cle Elum Regional, Heck returned to the top of the leaderboard and won the regional, her first collegiate win since the 2022 Gunrock Invitational in 2022, exactly 800 days prior. She tied the Tumble Creek Club women’s course record during the second round with a 7-under 65, tying current assistant coach Brooke Riley who did so in the 2019 Cle Elum Regional. Heck tied Andrea Lee (9) for the second most wins in program history, trailing only Rose Zhang (12).

This makes it fitting that Heck was the one on the green to clinch the national championship for the Cardinal. A former individual and now two-time team national champion, Heck was named a Third Team All-American by Golfweek, the third season in her career picking up All-America honors.

ANOTHER BREAKOUT FRESHMAN

In 2021, Rachel Heck was the NCAA individual champion. In 2022, Rose Zhang was the NCAA individual champion. What did both have in common? They were freshmen. In 2024, Paula Martin Sampedro certainly impressed during her first season on The Farm, finishing third overall at the NCAA Championship and collecting a number of accolades.

Hailing from Madrid, Spain and ranking as a top-20 amateur, Martin Sampedro was the most consistent golfer for the Cardinal. She paced Stanford with a 70.50 scoring average in 28 rounds and finished at par or better in 24 of those 28 rounds. Nine times she shot in the 60s, including a 5-under 67 in both the Carmel Cup and Juli Inkster Invitational, and had nine top-10 finishes in 10 tournaments. Her worst finish this year came at the Pac-12 Championship, when she still finished under par for the event.

Martin Sampedro earned a bevy of awards following the national championship, including: Pac-12 Golfer of the Year, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, WGCA Co-Freshman of the Year, and First Team All-America (Golfweek, WGCA).

ENGLEMANN EARNS EAST LAKE CUP WIN

Getting back to the top for the first time in two years, Sadie Englemann became a champion again with her individual win at the 2023 East Lake Cup. She was the leader following 18 holes of stroke play, helping give Stanford the top spot heading into match play. This victory led Englemann to earning Pac-12 Golfer of the Week honors, the second Cardinal to do so during the season. The senior out of Austin, Texas is a two-time All-Pac-12 golfer and a two-time All-America selection.

ALL CARDINAL AT AUGUSTA

The 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur featured a heavy dosage of Cardinal red as five current and four future Stanford golfers were invited to this year’s event at Augusta National. The current Cardinal were Sadie Englemann, Megha Ganne, Rachel Heck, Paula Martin Sampedro, and Kelly Xu. All four future Cardinal are slated to join Stanford in the fall of 2024: Leigh Chien, Meja Ortengren, Andrea Revuelta, and Nora Sundberg. The nine invites to the event are the most by a single school in the history of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Ganne, Martin Sampedro, Revuelta, and Sundberg all advanced to the final round, once again making history as Stanford produced the most to make the final cut.

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