BYU junior Rose Huang was the only member of the BYU women’s golf team to qualify for NCAA nationals, as the No. 41 ranked team finished ninth overall at the NCAA Austin Regional on May 9 at the University of Texas Golf Course.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get to the NCAA Championships as a team,” coach Carrie Roberts said. “But, we are super proud of Rose Huang, who qualified as an individual.”
Only the top six teams at regionals advance to nationals, as well as the top three individual finishers outside of those teams.
Maddie Szeryk from Texas A&M claimed the first individual place with a total score of 209 (-7). Tied for fourth place, Huang faced off against Michigan State’s Sarah Burnham and Houston’s Leonie Harm in a five-hole playoff for the second and third individual spots.
The three players remained tied through four holes, but Huang separated herself with a birdie on the fifth hole. The shot secured the second individual spot for Huang, with Harm taking the third and final spot.
Huang earned a season-best score of 212 in Austin, golfing a 71-70-71 over the three-day competition.
Kendra Dalton, the lone senior at the competition, also finished in the top 20, shooting one over on the final day to earn 16th place at the regional.
The team as a whole was a 10-over on the final day and a 21-over for the entire tournament. The Cougars are just a few strokes behind nationally-ranked Michigan State (11) and Texas A&M (38).
No. 3 Arkansas won the regional shooting 5-under par on the final day to finish at 26-under. The Razorbacks, along with No. 8 Texas, No. 19 Auburn, No. 14 Florida, No. 35 Baylor and No. 21 Oklahoma advance to the 2018 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma May 18-23, where Huang will represent BYU as an individual.
