Some of the aggressive rounds of girls’s golf could not happen at LPGA occasions.
Each Tuesday and Thursday, the Stanford ladies’s golf workforce performs playoffs to find out the highest 5 gamers to compete in upcoming tournaments.
Among the many contenders are 5 of the world’s high 66 gamers, based on the World Beginner Golf Rating, together with high seed Rose Zhang and third seed Rachel Hick.
“It is improbable,” stated Stanford coach Anne Walker. “I really feel like I watch a mini event each Tuesday and Thursday. You by no means know who will go down or who will find yourself on high for these 5 locations to go to the championship.”
This week, 5 feminine Stanford gamers—Zhang, Heck, Angelina Yee, Allen Krauter and Carolyn Stordza—will compete to play a aggressive spherical on one of the in style golf programs in Augusta Nationwide for girls’s amateurs.
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Mega Jean, the world’s quantity 16 beginner, who has signed as much as play for the Cardinal subsequent season, can be on the sphere. The present sixth Stanford participant, Brooke Seay, has additionally been invited to ANWA. As an alternative, this week she’ll compete in The Chevron Championship, the primary main LPGA championship of the season, at Mission Hills Nation Membership.
Stanford and Jane gamers make up roughly 10% of the 72 gamers who will compete in ANWA.
“I see it as a second in time,” Walker stated. “I coached 20 years, and I by no means would have imagined a 12 months like this that I might be so fortunate as a coach to get to know these children, have them play at Stanford and be part of their journey. I am simply making an attempt to take pleasure in it and notice it won’t be like this once more. Perhaps it’s, But it surely’s exhausting to grasp [having] It is a nice record once more. I am actually pleased with them.”
The primary two rounds of the 54-hole ANWA will happen Wednesday and Thursday at Champions Retreat Golf Membership in Evans, Georgia. The sphere shall be minimize to 30 gamers after 36 holes. Every participant, whether or not or not they minimize, will get to play a Friday observe spherical on the Augusta Nationwide. On Saturday, the highest 30 groups will compete to turn out to be the third winner of the occasion.
Heck, a sophomore from Memphis, tied for third at ANWA final 12 months with a 54-hole complete of 2-over 218, one shot behind Japanese winner Tsubasa Kajitani. Zhang, whose time was her remaining 12 months at Pacific Academy in Irvine, California, additionally positioned third.
“I am very stunned,” Heck stated. “After taking part in final 12 months, I used to be simply counting the times. I am unable to wait to get again there. Final 12 months it was wonderful to consider all the massive names that walked these lanes earlier than. It is a bit unrealistic. I feel you’ll be able to perceive what It simply feels such as you’re really there taking part in and strolling round in an amen’s nook.”
Cardinal’s extremely aggressive {qualifications} at Stanford Golf Course ought to make her greater than prepared for ANWA. Walker selects the highest 4 gamers for the upcoming event with a handicap system that features the final six rounds. She’s utilizing the coach’s decide for fifth.
“I actually suppose qualifiers are generally tougher than tournaments,” Yi stated. “I feel he is nice. He retains me aggressive on a regular basis and pushes me to be higher in observe.”
In October, Zhang turned the primary Stanford College participant — each women and men — to win every or his first three collegiate entries. And sure, that features Tiger Woods, who gained 11 instances in two seasons with the Cardinal in 1995 and 1996. Chang has earned 4 top-five spots in three video games this spring, together with a pair of runner-ups.
“It was positively sudden,” stated Zhang, who completed seventeenth on the ANWA Opening Ceremony in 2019. “I might say it got here as a extremely huge shock as a result of I assumed I must transition as a brand new scholar to this new world.”
Zhang’s common run of 69.48 in 21 runs would break Stanford’s document of 72.31, set by Maria Stackhouse from 2013 to 2016, by almost three strokes. Zhang hit an 8-under 64 within the remaining spherical of the Juli Inkster Invitational this month.
In August 2020, Zhang turned the primary participant to win the US Beginner Ladies’s Championship earlier than the Rolex Junior Women’ Championship, which she later gained in the identical month with six gorgeous pictures. She has already competed in 4 LPGA majors, which noticed her compete within the 2023 Amundi Evian Championships. She is one in every of solely three two-time winners of the McCormack Medal, which is awarded to the world’s finest beginner participant.
“It is actually, actually good,” Walker stated. She’s boring, I will inform you a large number. She’s a fairly boring participant and that is the best praise I can provide her. She’s form of in the course of the lane, in the course of the inexperienced, one or two kicks. That. After which the opening or two the place you are lacking the inexperienced, what do you do? You chop it and make the hits. That is what makes it so good.”
As Zhang did properly in her first season at Stanford, Heck gained her first NCAA singles title for this system in 2023. She topped with a formidable freshman season wherein she gained six instances and set a single NCAA season document of 69.72.
“The day I got here residence from faculty, I went and laid [NCAA title] “The cup is in my room,” Heck stated. The subsequent day, she went downstairs and is on the lounge shelf. My dad stated, “I’ll have a look at this day by day. I’ll by no means recover from it. It doesn’t matter what occurs to the remainder of the season or my golf profession, it’s one thing I’ll all the time have, and it’s actually particular.”
Heck gained two extra instances this 12 months, and her complete of eight wins in lower than two seasons tied her to quantity two in Stanford historical past. Earlier this month, the Cardinal set an NCAA document with a 54-hole workforce totaling 50 beneath on the Gunrock Invitational in Sacramento. Heck led the best way on the age of 18 beneath.
“Having the gamers now we have makes everybody higher,” Heck stated. “We push one another, inspire one another each single day. It may be very simple to fall into the entice of possibly being extra aggressive, and really jealous whereas combating for a spot on the workforce. However on the finish of the day, you simply have to sit down again. And fascinated with how grateful we’re to be a part of this workforce.”
Off track, Heck is a budding painter and plans to affix the Air Power Reserve or Air Nationwide Guard after faculty. She turned enthusiastic about becoming a member of the army when highschool pal determined to enroll within the US Army Academy.
“I began studying in regards to the army simply to be supportive, and I fell in love with it,” Heck stated. “I knew it was one thing I wished to include into my life not directly. It teaches you a large number about self-discipline and teamwork. It helps you out on the golf course as a result of it makes you notice that this isn’t about you and that this workforce you play for. It taught me so many classes that I can I take it in each side of my life.”
Krauter, from Stuttgart, Germany, moved to america when she was 15 to attend Saddlebroke Prep in Wesley Chapel, Florida. She positioned eighth in each championship in 2023 and in 5 of seven this season. It will likely be her first look in ANWA.
“I feel it is loopy that that is the one event Augusta is internet hosting aside from the Masters,” Krauter stated. “I feel it is nice to have a ladies’s occasion. I feel it raises consciousness that there are ladies who play golf and actually good ladies – and that we are able to positively compete. Clearly, for us, simply taking part in in Augusta can be an unbelievable alternative.”
Not one of the ladies had been as conversant in Agusta Nationwide as Gunn, a freshman at Holmdel Excessive Faculty in New Jersey. She competed within the Drive and Chip & Putt Finals 4 instances and missed out on ANWA final 12 months.
“It means rather a lot,” Ghani stated. “Clearly I grew up watching The Masters on TV, and did not know on the time that I would ever get an opportunity to play there. Everybody has unbelievable tales, and it is coated throughout TV and everybody follows it. It is an effective way to unfold the sport and placed on a extremely good present” .
Ganne gave a formidable displaying on the US Ladies’s Open on the Olympic Membership in San Francisco in June. On the age of 17, she had a share of the first-round lead with a 4-under-67 lead and was within the final group on Sunday. She positioned 14th because the low beginner and tied.
A participant within the First Tee Program in New Jersey, Ganne performed on 4 nationwide groups final season: the Met Golf Affiliation’s Carey Affiliation Cup, the Junior Ryder Cup, the Junior Solheim Cup and as a non-participant within the Curtis Cup. She tied for sixth place on the Junior Invitational in Sage Valley on her final begin in March.
“With this hack on the US Open final 12 months, I’ve turn out to be a little bit of a family title,” Walker stated. “She’s obtained an enormous quantity of confidence. She’s sensible once they are available in, has nice wit and is fast on her ft. She’s positively hungry for the following degree. Given her maturity, it appears to be like like she’s been a junior golfer for longer than she actually has.”
An necessary a part of Walker’s job is to not solely get many proficient gamers to go away their ego within the membership and succeed within the workforce setting, but in addition to assist combine personalities from many various nations and cultures. Along with 5 gamers from america, Stanford has gamers from Belgium, Germany, China and Switzerland. Jan’s dad and mom are from India. To assist the ladies get to know one another, Walker makes use of a buddy system the place gamers meet their teammates for espresso or lunch.
Sturdza, a freshman, grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, and solely traveled to the US for holidays and tournaments earlier than enrolling at Stanford College. Her older brother, Max, a golfer at Florida Atlantic, shall be her boxer throughout ANWA.
“I’ve by no means spent a lot time right here, so I have not spent a lot time with the Individuals,” Sturdza stated. “I have not interacted a lot with somebody from China. It is wonderful to study new cultures and to study from them. It is wonderful to see how completely different we will be and but how related we will be. It is simply a lot enjoyable to be in like this.” Various workforce.
It doesn’t matter what occurs on the Augusta Nationwide this week, the Stanford gamers can have unfinished enterprise once they return to campus. They’ve one other championship after which the Pac-12 Championship earlier than beginning play within the NCAA regional.
The Cardinal reached the NCAA quarterfinals final season, however didn’t win this system’s first nationwide title since 2015.
“We’re making an attempt to create a studying setting the place we will help them perceive that that is only a small a part of the journey and that they’re on a schedule that goes far past Stanford Golf,” Walker stated. “We’re simply making an attempt to make it possible for they’re transferring based on that schedule, that they are open to new experiences and new concepts, to allow them to go to locations the place they have not performed their video games but.”
This place shall be Augusta Nationwide this weekend.
