Men’s NCAA Division I
The college golf season annually wraps up play with the NCAA Championships at the end of May. In the Men’s Division I, none of Michigan’s teams made it out of regional play.
Although the MSU Spartans did not qualify for the championship, they were one of the six locations that hosted Men’s Division I Regional action.
Eagle Eye Golf Club in Lansing hosted Georgia, Illinois, Oregon, Florida and Texas, who claimed the top five spots and moved on to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. MSU finished seventh out of the 13 teams in the regional, to end their 2023 season. Luke O’Neill, from Kansas State, fired three rounds of 68-69-69 to take medalist honors.
In the Auburn Regional, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Chattanooga, Ohio State and Colorado State claimed the top five spots and qualified for the National Championship. Drew Salyers was low medalist with scores of 72-68-72 and will play in the National Championship as an individual.
Arizona, Stanford, Virginia, San Francisco and East Tennessee State qualified for the National Championship at Bear’s Best Golf Club in Las Vegas, hosted by UNLV. Oklahoma State’s Jonas Baumgartner carded three rounds of 70-68-63 to grab medalist honors.
At the Institute Golf Club in Morgan Hill, California, Mississippi State, Brigham Young, Florida State, Baylor and Pepperdine were the five teams to advance to the National Championship. With three rounds of 71-72-69 Riley Lewis of Loyola Marymount was low medalist and will compete in the National Championship as an individual.
The University of Oklahoma hosted a regional at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman. Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas Tech and Duke were the five teams that advanced. With a total of -14-under par, Ludvig Aberg, from Texas Tech, won medalist honors and Will King, from the University of Kansas, with a -9-under par effort advanced as the low individual score from the Oklahoma Region.
The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in Salem, South Carolina hosted the final regional with Georgia Tech, Arkansas, North Carolina, New Mexico and Texas A&M getting the automatic bids. Furman’s Sam Lape fired 15-under for the three rounds to advance as an individual.
Florida’s Fred Biondi finished at -7 under par to barely edge out Jackson Buchanan, from Illinois and Ross Steelman, from Georgia Tech, to grab medalist honors for the Individual portion of the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship. Steelman had held the 36-hole lead, but Biondi’s final round 67 moved him to the top of the leaderboard.
After the individual competition the top eight teams qualified for match play to decide the NCAA Champion. North Carolina was the top seed with Florida, Illinois, Pepperdine, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Virginia and Arizona State rounding out the top eight teams.
The team championship was not final at the time of publishing, but the results can be found at: https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=match&tid=26016,
Men’s Division II
Avalon Lakes Golf Club in Warren, Ohio hosted the Men’s NCAA Division II Championship. Oklahoma Christian took the title by 15 shots over Barry University.
Grand Valley State wrapped up their 2023 season with a T-3 finish in the NCAA Division II National Championship. Although they did not place anyone in the top 20, the GVSU had solid efforts from all five players. They were led by Charles Delong and Bryce Wheeler, who both finished at T-25. Drew Coble was T-36, Nick Krueger T-40 and Charlie Cooley T-86.
Men’s Division III
Hope College, from Holland, Michigan, qualified for the Division III Championship, but did not make the final cut finishing outside the top 18 to enter match play.
Women’s NCAA Division I
Stanford’s Rose Zhang repeated as the NCAA Women’s Individual National Champion. She won the NCAA Individual title last year, as well. It was just another addition to the No. 1 ranked amateur’s already bulging trophy case. In April, she became the youngest player to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. In her last 35 amateur events she has finished inside the top 10 on 22 occasions and won 15 titles. She is one of the most dominant woman amateurs of all time.
Having accomplished every major feat in women’s amateur golf, Zhang announced she will turn professional and compete against the best women golfers in the world on the LPGA Tour.
In the team portion of the NCAA Women’s Tournament, Wake Forest took down the women from USC to win the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf National title. Emilia Migliaccio, Rachel Kuehn and Lauren Walsh won their matches to give the Demon Deacons their first NCAA Women’s Division I Golf championship.
In the match play the Demon Deacons downed No. 6 Florida State and No. 7 Texas A&M to reach the national championship match, where they beat USC 3-1-0.
Michigan State was the No. 1 seed coming out of the Palm Beach Regional, but their season ended with an 18th place finish at the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale. MSU’s Katie Lu did qualify for the individual portion of the tournament and finished T-41 out of the field of 81 players.
Women’s NCAA Division II Championship
The Women’s NCAA Division II Championship was held at Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka, Missouri. Both Grand Valley State and Wayne State made it out of regionals to the Division II National Championship. The women from GVSU finished 11th, while the Wayne State ladies were 18th.
Grand Valley State’s Paula Badino carded three solid rounds to get to -1 under par good enough for a T-4 finish in the Individual portion of the tournament.
