When Stanford freshman Rose Zhang sealed the final point in her team’s 3-2 victory over Oregon on Wednesday to clinch the Cardinal’s first NCAA Championship since 2015, discussions began about where this particular team ranks in the pantheon of women’s college golf.
It starts with Zhang, the top-ranked amateur in the world and Annika Award winner, who won her first three college starts last fall before a spring in which she won the individual NCAA title and posted four runner-up finishes. Rachel Heck, the No. 4 player in the world and last year’s NCAA champion, had suffered a sophomore slump by her lofty standards but still won twice in the spring after having swept most of the hardware a year ago. It’s nearly unprecedented to have two players on the same roster who have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time in college.
That was the two-headed monster at the top, but the Cardinal wouldn’t have won without the veteran leadership of senior Aline Krauter (world No. 26) and junior Brooke Seay (world No. 42) who combined to go 6-0 in match play while Zhang and Heck combined to go 3-3. Krauter was the picture of consistency, registering nine top-20 finishes in her senior campaign. Seay had five top-10s, including at the Pac-12 Championship and NCAA regional.
Zhang, Krauter and Seay were named All-Americans, giving coach Anne Walker multiple All-American selections in nine consecutive seasons. And how about Walker, the coach who has arguably created what the Wake Forest men’s teams of the 1970s had? The Cardinal are an automatic favorite every year now, with only the finicky match-play format standing in their way to trip them up. It didn’t this time around – Stanford became the first No. 1 seed on the women’s side to win the title since match play was introduced in 2015.
"It takes really special people to (win with expectations), to be able to shut that noise out and be able to come out here and perform ..."
Anne Walker
A great deal of that comes back to the humble Walker, a former Cal Bear who continues to craft something special in Palo Alto. As usual, she passed the praise to her kids. It’s what a great coach does.
"It takes really special people to (win with expectations), to be able to shut that noise out and be able to come out here and perform and allow yourself to swing free the way they did today,” Walker said. “It speaks to the caliber of player that they are, but it also speaks to the type of person that they are.”
The weight of the college golf world has been turning its focus to Walker’s team a lot recently, and for good reason.
Maybe this year’s team is not the best for either men’s or women’s, considering that the 1974-75 Wake team had Curtis Strange, Jay Haas and Scott Hoch while winning the NCAA title by 33 strokes. The 1970-71 Texas men’s team had Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite leading the Longhorns to their first NCAA title in any sport, if you can believe that. Stanford’s 1994-95 men’s team will always be celebrated for Tiger Woods, Notah Begay III and Casey Martin. In more recent years, the 2012-13 Cal team with Max Homa, Michael Kim, Brandon Hagy and others virtually couldn’t lose. Alabama had some doozies in the Justin Thomas, Bobby Wyatt, Cory Whitsett era. And Oklahoma State in 2017-18 looked formidable with Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff.
But the women’s side doesn’t have quite that level of history. Arizona State won five times in a six-year span during the 1990s. Dan Brooks has built some incredible Duke teams, from the Amanda Blumenhurst years to the Leona Maguire years. Southern Cal’s 2013 national title came with Annie Park and Sophia Popov.
But when it comes to a complete collection of talent, it will be hard to push this year’s Stanford team off the top spot.
Stanford had the star power, the experienced leaders and a half-dozen players ranking within the top 100 of the world. The team had two individual NCAA champions and Annika Award winners. They were ranked No. 1 the whole season, with a target on their back. They garnered so much attention from the golf world that the group No Laying Up went and filmed a lengthy documentary on the team.
What more could you ask for?
No, they didn’t blaze through match play without issues. All three of their victories were by 3-2 scores. Georgia and Auburn tested them. Oregon got into a large hole early and nearly dug itself all the way out, pushing it to the final match decided on the 17th hole.
But in the end, Stanford always had answers. And now the Cardinal may be the top answer to the question of the greatest women’s team ever to play.
Sean Fairholm