The regional championships where held May 5 -7 (see previous post for details). The top seeds in each region made it to the the NCAA championship to be held May 16-21 at Omni La Costa Resorts & Spa in Carlsbad, CA.; and televised on Golf Channel, ESPN, Peacock (check local listings). Monday TV coverage will be final day of stroke play; Tuesday and Wednesday will be match play. See screenshot below for Golf Channel coverage (time is EST).

Below is a list of the 5 teams and one individual from each region (not on a winning team) moving on to the championship.

Charlotte Region

Winner: South Carolina (won by 11 shots with a final team score of 2 under par). Rounding out the top 5 teams are: (2) Ole Miss, (3) Florida, (3) Virginia, and (5) UCLA. Individual Champion was Marie Madsen of NC State (she is also the individual moving on that was not on a winning team).

Columbus Region

Winner: Kansas (with a team score of 6 under par). Rounding out the top five teams are: (2) Arkansas, (3) Ohio State, (4) UNLV, and (5) LSU. Individual Champion was Lyla Louderbaugh of Kansas (with a winning score of 12 under par). The other low score individual advancing is Moa Svedenskilod of Houston. The one surprise was UNLV (7th seed) advancing.

Golf Canyon Region

Winner: Oregon (winning team score 12 under par). Rounding out the top five teams are: (2) Arizona State, (3) Oklahoma Sate, (4) Mississippi State, (5) Cal State Fullerton. The individual Champion was Kiara Romero (16 under par). The surprise team moving on is Cal State Fullerton which was the 10th seed out of 12 teams. The upset was that the third seed, Auburn, did not make the championship. However, Anna Davis of Auburn is the low individual moving forward from a team not advancing.

Lexington Region

Winner: Florida State (no surprise as the top seed). Rounding out the top five teams are: (2) Georgia Southern who were the sixth seed, (3) Kansas State, (4) Southern California, (5) Vanderbilt. The Individual winner was Carla Bernat of Kansas State. You may recall that name because she was the women that won this year’s Augusta National’s Women Amateur. What is really interesting is she beat the top two players in the world; Lottie Woad (#1) and Mirabel Ting (#2) both play for Florida State. The upset at the Lexington Region was that third seed, TCU, did not advance. However, Sofia Barroso Sa of TCU is the low individual on a non-advancing team moving forward.

Lubbock Regional

Winner: Wake Forest. The wind and rainy weather did not stop the #1 seed from winning the Region, Wake Forest advances and the individual champion from the region is from Wake Forest – Carolina Chacara. The other individual moving forward is Lousiane Gauthere from Florida Golf Coast.

The big surprise was that Arizona, #3 seed did not advance; and Tennessee (#6 seed) did advance. Also, the most exciting situation in all the regions was a playoff between Texas A&M (#4 seed) and Purdue (#7 seed). Purdue won the playoff to win the fifth slot from the Lubbock Region going to Nationals.

As expected most of the top seeds advanced to the NCAA national championship. I still believe that one of the following will win: Florida State, Wake Forest, or Stanford. If it were purely stroke play, Standford would probably win because they have not lost a stroke play event this year; but any team that can make it to match play has a chance. After all, Wake Forest took out Stanford at the ACC in the seim-final matches.

There could be a surprise winner! It’s hard not to put your money on Florida State since they won the ACC Championship where both Wake Forest and Standford competed. But I would not be surprised is South Carolina or Arkansas win because both teams have been playing stellar golf coming into the championship season. Who I want to win – South Carolina. Who I think will win and my final pick – Florida State wins it.