Mimi Rhodes, Macy Pate and Rachel Kuehn led a strong Wake Forest comeback effort Monday that fell two strokes short at the NCAA Women’s Championship at Omni La Costa North in Carlsbad, California.
Pate, a freshman from Winston-Salem, shot even-par 72, including a long birdie putt televised on Golf Channel on her final hole as Wake, the defending team champion, made a charge at finishing in the top eight and securing a spot in the match play competition to determine the national team champion.
Rhodes led the Demon Deacons with 70 despite finishing with a bogey.
Kuehn, a graduate student, also had a televised birdie on her last hole and shot 71. Carolina Lopez-Chacarra missed a putt for birdie at 18 and posted 77, Wake’s highest counting score. Brooke Rivers shot 79.
Auburn got the eighth spot with 20-over 1172 for 72 holes. Oregon and UCLA were only three shots ahead of Wake at 1171. Wake pulled within four of Clemson, which shot 1170. In the tournament format, each team’s top four 18-hole scores from its five players were counted each day.
Stanford and LSU tied at the top with 2-over 1154. Stanford was awarded the top seed in match play due to better scores not counted during the tournament. Texas A&M was third with Southern Cal fourth.
Rhodes was the Deacons’ top finisher for 72 holes at even-par 288, good for a tie for 11th place. Kuehn shot 290 and Pate posted 299.
Adela Cernousek of Texas A&M was the medalist was 12-under, three better than Lottie Woad of Florida State.
