This week in women’s college golf, teams competed across the country on an enviable slate of courses including Seminole Golf Club, Baltusrol (both Upper and Lower), The Merit Club and Medinah (No. 2).
It’s a trend that has trickled down from the LPGA, where each season the women play more historic and celebrated venues.
“It gives the student-athletes a sense of pride knowing that on the women’s side, that they matter. that they see the equality happening,” said Ohio State head coach Lisa Strom, who hosted the Barbara Nicklaus Cup earlier this year at Muirfield Village.
Strom notes that it takes visionaries to push the envelope, like longtime OSU coach Therese Hession, who started the Palos Verdes event more than 25 years ago and created the Muirfield event, which debuted last year as a mixed tournament.
“Junior golfers are looking at the sport at an entirely different level when they’re looking at schedules that say Pebble Beach, Baltusrol, Seminole,” said Mississippi State coach Charlie Ewing. “I just think that really changes the entire perspective of what college golf is like, especially on the women’s level.”
Here’s a look at 10 college events this fall that are scheduled at can’t-miss locations:
Stanford players pose after winning the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach (courtesy Stanford)
The Carmel Cup, traditionally held as a men’s event, featured a field of women this season ahead of the 2023 US Women’s Open, which will be contested over Pebble Beach for the first time next summer. Rose Zhang set a women’s course record 9-under 63 en route to the individual title while the Cardinal dominated the team portion by 13 shots.
Mississippi State hosted the event, and Ewing said the practice round was arguably the best day of the tournament as many players saw the iconic course for the first time.
“I think it’s huge,” said Ewing of college women competing at a place like Pebble.”Especially in the same era where television is coming into college golf as well, and I think it’s really special for those to be happening simultaneously. I think it’s taking golf to a whole different level.”
No. 18 of Baltusrol Lower, as it looks after Gil Hanse’s restoration.
The KPMG Women’s PGA heads to Baltusrol next summer, but first, the inaugural Ivy Intercollegiate Tournament was held Oct. 10 and 11 on both the Upper and Lower courses. The event featured 12 teams from the Ivy League and the ACC. Day 1 featured a 36-hole stroke play competition followed by a match-play competition pitting the two conferences against each other.
North Carolina won the team position of the event, and the ACC defeated the Ivy League by a score of 20.5 to 9.5.
Seminole in Florida (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
The 2022 Jackson T. Stephens Cup, a mixed event, was held at the famed Seminole Golf Club and televised on the Golf Channel this week. Top-ranked Stanford captured the women’s title, defeating Wake Forest 4-1 while North Carolina won the men’s team title.
Zhang, the No. 1 amateur in the world, clinched the winning point for the Cardinal. Her Curtis Cup teammate Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest went wire-to-wire to win the individual women’s stroke-play title.
The Donald Ross-designed Seminole recently hosted the 2021 Walker Cup and is No. 12 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list.
The 2023 Jackson T. Stephens Cup will be held at Trinity Forest Golf Club, Oct. 16-18.
Tiger Woods walks up to the green on the 18th hole during the final round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 02, 2019, in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
The second Barbara Nicklaus Cup was held at Muirfield Village earlier this month. After debuting as a mixed event that featured men’s and women’s teams competing together, this year’s tournament was a women’s only stroke-play tournament.
Jack Nicklaus built Muirfield, which was officially dedicated on Memorial Day in 1974 with an exhibition match between Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf.
The first Memorial Tournament was held in 1976. In addition to the annual PGA Tour stop, Muirfield Village has also hosted the 1986 US Junior Amateur, the 1987 Ryder Cup, the 1992 US Amateur Championship and the 1998 Solheim Cup.
Big Cedar Lodge’s Ozarks National in Missouri (Courtesy of Big Cedar Lodge)
Ranked No. 1 in Missouri on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play state-by-state list, Ozarks National at Big Cedar Lodge, designed by Coore and Crenshaw, will host a women’s collegiate event for a second time later this month.
Missouri State coach Kevin Kane hopes to one day make The Ozarks National Invitational one of the premier events in women’s college golf. The event will move to the spring in 2024.
“My dream was, and I guess still is, to have a field full of Power Fives and us,” said Kane. “If I could get them here, they’d love it. It’s a spectacular place.”
Justin Thomas putsts on the 18th green during the second round of the 2022 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
The annual East Lake Cup will be held Oct. 25-26 at historic East Lake Golf club in Atlanta. The event includes top-performing teams from the men’s and women’s NCAA Championship and will once again be aired live on Golf Channel and feature both stroke-play and match-play formats.
Atlanta’s East Lake, established in 1904, was the home course of Bobby Jones and has hosted the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship since 2004.
The 17th Hole Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, MS. photographed on September 16-19, 2018 (Copyright USGA/Russell Kirk)
Next week Mississippi State will host The Ally, named after Ally Ewing, the LPGA player who put the program on the map. Ewing, formerly Ally McDonald, is married to Mississippi State coach Charlie Ewing.
The event is held annually at Old Waverly, which hosted the 1999 US Women’s Open and 2019 US Women’s Amateur. The course was designed by US Open champion Jerry Pate and Bob Cupp.
“Every time I walk around there or ride in a cart,” said Charlie Ewing, “I look over at Lauren, our assistant, and say, ‘can you believe this is our home golf course?’ “
Amy Yang of Korea hits her tee shot on the first hole during the singles matches of the 2016 UL International Crown at the Merit Club on July 24, 2016, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Loyola University Chicago hosted the inaugural Loyola Parkinson Invitational earlier this month at the Merit Club, which held the 2000 US Women’s Open, won by Karrie Webb, and the 2016 UL International Crown team event.
Loyola came out on top at their home event, topping Creighton by five.
The Ocean Club Golf Course at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Photo by Troon Golf
For six years the beautiful views of the Ocean Club Golf Course played host to the LPGA at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. The windswept Tom Weiskopf-designed course on Atlantis’ Paradise Island Oceanside peninsula, will now welcome women’s college golf teams later this month.
The Little Rock White Sands Bahamas Invitational will be played Oct. 21-23 as Little Rock hosts back-to-back events this fall.
Florida’s Sierra Brooks at Blessings Golf Club on May 20, 2019. (Beth Ann Nichols/Twitter)
In early October, Arkansas hosted the third annual Blessings Collegiate Invitational presented by Tyson Foods at Blessings Golf Club. The event, televised on Golf Channel, features men’s and women’s teams playing together in fivesomes. Mississippi State won the women’s team title.
Blessings, Arkansas’ home course, hosted both the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships in 2019. The Fayetteville course is ranked No. 3 in Arkansas in Golfweek’s Best state-by-state private courses list.
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