Furman’s Anna Morgan finished off an outstanding season with a tie for ninth-place at the NCAA Championship in Arizona.

South Carolina played their best round of the championship, but it wasn’t enough to climb into the Match Play final at the completion of stroke play.

Furman’s Morgan finished tied for ninth

Anna Morgan earned a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championship.

The Lady Paladin junior finished in a tie for ninth place after shooting a final round 2-over par 74 for a 291 total.

Morgan shot rounds of 72-71-74-74 for a 3-over par 291 total and a tie for ninth with two other golfers.

The SoCon Player of the Year finished behind the number one player in the country, Rose Zhang from Stanford, who led wire to wire.

Zhang had her worst round of the championship posting a 3-over par 75, but still finished at 6-under par 282 for a three shot victory over Natasha Andrea Oon from San Jose State.

Morgan began the championship ranked 29th in the GolfStat ratings and certainly will move up after her top-10 finish.

“I am so proud of Anna for finishing in a tie for ninth at the NCAA Championship,” said Furman head coach Jeff Hull.  “This caps off one of the best seasons in Furman women’s golf history and solidifies her as one of the top collegiate players in the country,” he added.

Morgan will have a busy time when she returns from Arizona.

Before leaving for the National Championship, Morgan won a spot to play in the US Women’s Open starting on June 2nd at the Pine Needles Resort in Southern Pines, NC

While she was at the NCAA Championship Morgan was added to the Arnold Palmer Cup team.

The Ryder Cup-style competition will be hosted by Golf Club de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland and played July 1-3. 

NCAA Women’s individual scores https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=player&tid=24975

Gamecocks best round isn’t good enough to advance

South Carolina shot their best round of the NCAA Championship, but it came too late.

USC’s 288 still left the Gamecocks 9-shots out of the last spot to advance to the Match Play final.

While South Carolina played their best round, so did several teams who already were in front of USC.

Texas, Southern Cal, Arizona St and Georgia all played better with only the Bulldogs playing well enough to make the final eight.

“Unfortunately we fell short of making match play, but I’m very proud of our group’s grit and finish today,” said head coach Kalen Anderson. “To shoot 8-under on the back nine and post the low round of the day shows true championship character,” said the USC coach.

South Carolina’s Annika Award candidate Hannah Darling was back in the lineup after not playing in the third round because of illness.

Darling shot a 3-under par 69 to lead the Gamecocks. Louise Rydqvist added an even par 72 to help USC to even par.

The post season was disappointing for the Gamecocks, who have now taken a top-five ranking into the NCAA Championship several times only to fail to advance to Match Play.

Anderson points to a very good regular season to counter another post-season flop for the #3 ranked Gamecocks.

” Although our expectation was to make a run at the National Championship, our body of work for the entire season is something for which to hold our heads extremely high,” said the USC coach.

If none of the Gamecocks either turn pro as last year’s SEC Player of the Year sophomore Pauline Roussin-Bouchard did or enter the transfer portal, Anderson could have four starters from the NCAA Tournament back for next year.

“We had a record-breaking season this year, and I look forward to returning four starters next year,” noted Anderson.

Stanford earned the top seed by finishing 3-shots in front of Oregon.

The rest of the field for Match Play includes 3rd seed Texas A&M, fourth UCLA, fifth Auburn, sixth Florida State, seventh San Jose State with Georgia in the last spot.

Final round NCAA Championship team scores https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=24975