KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — The second round of the Nanea Invitational wrapped up on Tuesday morning at Nanea Golf Club, with No. 1 Stanford women’s golf continuing to climb towards the front. Stanford is the only team to shoot at least 10-under par in both rounds as it looks for a team, and perhaps an individual, champion to close out the fall.
The battle for a team championship is heating up. One day after shooting 21-under as a team, No. 6 Auburn fizzled and shot 6-over, dropping to third and trailing Stanford by five strokes. Stanford now sits at 21-under through two rounds after posting an 11-under on Tuesday, but the Cardinal remains looking up at the leaders. No. 21 Arizona State is one stroke ahead of Stanford heading into Wednesday’s finale.
Megha Ganne had one of the biggest rebounds of the entire tournament. She was the Cardinal’s drop-score on Monday, but she shot a 4-under 69 during the second round, a six-stroke swing from Monday. Only Farah O’Keefe from Texas had a better round on Tuesday (68), and it moves Ganne 25 spots up the leaderboard into the top 20. The closing to her round was incredible, as she strung together four birdies over her final five holes to rocket her way back to the right side of par.
Ganne wasn’t the only Cardinal to break into the 60s on Tuesday. Kelly Xu continued to have a strong start in Hawaii with a 69 of her own. The clean round was split down the middle with two birdies on the front nine and two more on the back nine. This puts Xu in familiar territory, entering the third round just two strokes behind Anna Davis for the individual lead and in a tie for second. Xu has entered the third round leading (Windy City Intercollegiate) and in fourth (Stanford Intercollegiate) already this fall.
Another good round was shot by Paula Martín Sampedro, who fired a 2-under 71 and sits in a tie for 12th at 4-under overall. Her day began with three birdies during her first five holes before tapering off and recording just one more birdie the rest of the round. Still, the No. 2 in the World Amateur rankings finds herself in a great position to secure another top 10 finish, which would be the 17th in just 2.5 years of collegiate golf.
On the individual side, Kaila Elsayegh finds herself as one of the golfers tied with Martín Sampedro for 12th overall after shooting a 3-under 70 on Tuesday, the best round in the freshman’s career. Like Xu, it was a clean round, with consecutive birdies on her fourth and fifth holes of the day, and one on 11, her final hole. She joins Leigh Chien (1-under) and Anna Song (even) as individual golfers at par or better for Stanford.
The final round of the Nanea Invitational takes place on Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. PT, with Stanford looking for its second consecutive stroke play win to close out the fall. Stanford won’t be back in action as a team until February with the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate on Feb. 9-10.
Nanea Invitational (Nanea Golf Club, par 73)
| Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2. Stanford | 282 (-10) | 281 (-11) | -- | 563 (-21) |
| T2. Kelly Xu | 69 (-4) | 69 (-4) | -- | 138 (-8) |
| T11. Paula Martín Sampedro | 71 (-2) | 71 (-2) | -- | 142 (-4) |
| T16. Meja Örtengren | 71 (-2) | 72 (-1) | -- | 143 (-3) |
| T16. Andrea Revuelta | 71 (-2) | 72 (-1) | -- | 143 (-3) |
| T20. Megha Ganne | 75 (+2) | 69 (-4) | -- | 144 (-2) |
| T11. Kaila Elsayegh | 72 (-1) | 70 (-3) | -- | 142 (-4) |
| T23. Leigh Chien | 70 (-3) | 75 (+2) | -- | 145 (-1) |
| T28. Anna Song | 74 (+1) | 72 (-1) | -- | 146 (E) |
| T46. Nora Sundberg | 73 (E) | 79 (+6) | -- | 152 (+6) |