No. 4 Texas women’s golf took third behind No. 3 Southern California and No. 1 Stanford at the Stanford Intercollegiate Tournament on Sunday.
Texas faced the Cardinal earlier this October at the NB3 Matchplay event, where they beat Stanford’s overall score by one point to win the trophy.
Overall, the Longhorns performed well. Their 12-under final day at the Intercollegiate ties the program record for lowest 18-hole team performance. Still, they need to have more consistent success if they want to rise up the ranks of the next WGCA poll, coming out Oct. 25.
Sophomore Farah O’Keefe continues to show why she is one of the best collegiate golfers in the country with a 7-under that matches the school record for 18-holes. The score tied her for third at the competition and put her only three strokes behind the tournament champion, USC’s freshman Jasmine Koo.
Junior Angela Heo climbed an astounding 34 places of individual ranking on the final day of the intercollegiate, making four birdies in six holes to finish with a 4-under on Sunday. Heo got off to a bad start on the first two days of the tournament, shooting a combined 11-over. That combined with her loss to the Cardinal’s Kelly Xu at NB3 marked a downturn in her play. Despite a rocky beginning, her rally on Sunday should leave the coaches with high hopes for the remainder of the season.
Junior Cindy Hsu faltered slightly at the tournament after playing well at NB3. In Palo Alto, she finished tied for 18th and broke even. At NB3, she won her first two matches before navigating the tie against Stanford’s star sophomore Paula Martin Sampedro that sealed Texas’ victory.
While there were plenty of great moments for the Longhorns individually, the team as a whole needs to play better with consistency if they want to capture the first national championship in program history. Texas’ impressive last day made up for two days of fairly lackluster play, and while they struggled, both Stanford and USC stayed consistent which allowed them to stave off the Longhorns’ final push for the championship.
New head coach Laura Ianello will need to ensure the Longhorns continue to play the way they did on Sunday if this team is going to reach its full potential. This was an opportunity for Texas to prove it is a powerhouse, especially after they took the NB3 over Stanford. Instead, they looked like a good team next to its highly ranked competition, not a great one.
However, Texas is absolutely still in the race for the championship as it finishes its fall season in Hawaii on Oct. 28 at the Nanea Invitational.
