CARLSBAD, Calif. — Capping off one of the best stroke play seasons in NCAA history, top-seeded Stanford women’s golf shattered the NCAA’s 72-hole stroke play scoring record during the fourth round of the NCAA Championship. The Cardinal shot 1,125, 27 strokes under par, to clear the field by 21 strokes.
The 2024-25 Stanford Cardinal puts itself in rare air, becoming just the second team in NCAA history to go undefeated in stroke play, joining the 1994-95 Arizona State Sun Devils. Along the way, Stanford set the NCAA Championship single-round scoring record on Sunday of 18-under, and the overall NCAA Championship scoring record of 27-under.
It takes a complete team effort to get to this point, and the Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women's Golf, Anne Walker, knows that well.
“They share the load, and they share each other’s successes,” Walker said of her lineup and her team as a whole. “They make each other better, they’re so happy for one another, but they are also competitive with one another. It’s the perfect blend.”
The team’s depth was on display all week long, with four Cardinal finishing inside the top-10 of the leaderboard. That had only happened two other times in the history of the women’s golf national championship: 2019 by Texas and 1982 by Tulsa.
Leading the way was Kelly Xu, who was within striking distance of her first collegiate win. She entered the day two strokes back of the lead and pulled within one stroke on multiple occasions. She lost her chance at a national championship after going 3-over during a six-hole stretch on the back nine, but finished with a 1-under 71 on the day and went 8-under over four rounds. She becomes just the fourth Cardinal all-time to finish the NCAA Championship with all four rounds at par or better.
Scoring her second top-five in the NCAA Championship was Paula Martín Sampedro, who finished fourth at 7-under for the week. She began the day trailing the lead by just one stroke but was unable to birdie until the 15th hole. Still, she was steady throughout the day and ended with a 1-over 73 for her fourth top-five finish of the season. She is also the second Cardinal to begin her career with consecutive top-five finishes at the NCAA Championship (Rose Zhang, 2022-23).
Megha Ganne and Meja Örtengren finished tied for tenth to round out the individual medalists for the Cardinal. It was Ganne who had the low round of the day for Stanford after her 2-under was dropped on Sunday. She shot a 3-under 69 and had six birdies, including four in the first eight holes to rocket her way up the leaderboard. Örtengren was also under par at 1-under for the day, using two birdies in another steady round. Örtengren finished 9-under over the final three rounds of stroke play.
Stanford advances to the match play portion of the NCAA Championship for the tenth time in ten years under the current format, the only team to advance every year. This marks the fifth straight year Stanford enters match play as the top overall seed.
Match play begins for the top-seeded Cardinal on Monday at 6:50 am in the quarterfinals against Virginia. The winner will go on to face the winner of USC and Florida State in the afternoon. Stanford’s lineup will be Paula Martín Sampedro, Meja Örtengren, Kelly Xu, Megha Ganne, and Andrea Revuelta Live coverage of both the quarterfinals and semifinals can be found on Golf Channel.
NCAA Championship (Omni La Costa Resort & Spa North Course, par 72)
| Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Stanford | 293 (+5) | 278 (-10) | 270 (-18) | 284 (-4) | 1,125 (-27) |
| 3. Kelly Xu | 72 (E) | 69 (-3) | 68 (-4) | 71 (-1) | 280 (-8) |
| 4. Paula Martín Sampedro | 73 (+1) | 68 (-4) | 67 (-5) | 73 (+1) | 281 (-7) |
| T10. Meja Örtengren | 77 (+5) | 70 (-2) | 66 (-6) | 71 (-1) | 284 (-4) |
| T10. Megha Ganne | 74 (+2) | 71 (-1) | 70 (-2) | 69 (-3) | 284 (-4) |
| T24. Andrea Revuelta | 74 (+2) | 73 (+1) | 69 (-3) | 74 (+2) | 290 (+2) |