No. 4 Gamecocks Headed to Match Play at NCAA Championship

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – No. 4 South Carolina punched its ticket to match play at the 2023 NCAA Championship on Monday. The Gamecocks, who will be the No. 4 seed, will face fifth-seeded Southern Cal in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Carolina shot 289 (+1) in the final round to move two spots up the leaderboard. Today marks the team’s second match play appearance and its first since 2016. A win tomorrow against the Trojans will guarantee the Gamecocks the program’s highest finish ever in 20 NCAA Championship appearances. Carolina finished T-5^th in 2016 and fifth in 2012.

“We played a lot more discipline golf,” said head coach Kalen Anderson. “We worked a lot more mental toughness at practice this year. One of the blessings that we had during the year is we played the Bahamas event. We played undisciplined golf in really firm and hard conditions. It wasn’t even close to as windy as this. The greens were really firm, small, and really difficult. We met with them after that. I told them ‘we are a great team, but we will never be successful in the postseason, especially at Grayhawk, if we don’t start playing more discipline golf and get a little tougher.’ We really made an effort all spring to play more disciplined and do things at practice to make them tougher mentally.”

The team’s 1,153, 72-hole total is a new program record at the NCAA Championship by nine shots. The previous low score at NCAA finals was 1,162 in 2016. Carolina broke the 18-hole program record at the NCAA Championship with the team’s 12-under 276 in the second round.

“Overall, our lines and how we went about some difficult hole locations is what impressed me the most with our play today,” said Anderson. “We have a lot of talent and kids who want to go for things and be aggressive; as they should because they are really talented. We are learning when to be aggressive and when not to. Over the course of the spring, they have done a really good job and bought into that.”

The Gamecocks were 7 -over through six holes today as a team but a pair of eagles at the par-5 seventh hole by senior Mathilde Claisse and All-American Hannah Darling helped turn the tide of the round. Carolina’s four counting scores were par or better on the back nine as the team shot 4-under coming into the clubhouse.

Darling, a PING First Team All-American last season, paced the team today with a 2-under 70. She finished T-18^th at 2-under overall for the tournament to also lead the team. Claisse and senior Justine Fournand both finished T-21^st at 1-under with 72-hole sores of 287 (-1).

Fournand shot 72 (E) and was bogey free on the back nine with birdies at 11 and 18, the two par-5s on the backside of the course. Freshman Mia Sandtorv Lussand shot 73 (+1) with a trio of birdies. She finished T-55^th at 7-over. Claisse was the final counting score with a 74 (+2). Like Fournand, she was also bogey free on the back nine. Sophomore All-American Louise Rydqvist shot 78 (+6).

Top-ranked Stanford earned the No. 1 seed for match play again as All-American Rose Zhang defended her individual NCAA title. No. 6 Texas A&M, who won the SEC Championship, joins Carolina as the two Southeastern Conference representatives in match play tomorrow.

Carolina and Southern Cal will tee off starting at 10:10 a.m. (ET) on hole ten. Claisse will be the first player off with Darling in the anchor match. Live scoring will be available via Golfstat. The semifinal matches will also take place tomorrow shortly after the quarterfinals conclude.

Golf Channel will have live coverage starting at noon (ET).

2023 NCAA Championship Gamecock Leaderboard

T25. Hannah Darling –  286 (-2)

T21. Mathilde Claisse – 287 (-1)

T21. Justine Fournand – 287 (-1)

T55. Mia Sandtorv Lussand – 295 (+7)

75. Louise Rydqvist – 307 (+19)

2023 NCAA Championship Leaderboard

1. No. 1 Stanford – 1,133 (-19)

2. No. 11 Texas – 1,138 (-14)

3. No. 2 Wake Forest – 1,139 (-13)

4. No. 4 South Carolina – 1,153 (+1)

5. No. 9 Southern California – 1,154 (+2)

6. No. 10 Florida State – 1,155 (+3)

7. No. 6 Texas A&M – 1,156 (+4)

8. No. 16 Pepperdine – 1,160 (+8)

–top-eight teams advanced to match play on Tuesday–

T9. No. 39 New Mexico – 1,163 (+11)

T9. No. 23 Arizona – 1,163 (+11)

T11. No. 20 SMU – 1,164 (+12)

T11. No. 24 Oklahoma State – 1,164 (+12)

13. No. 5 Mississippi State – 1,165 (+13)

T14. No. 28 Georgia – 1,167 (+15)

T14. No. 3 LSU – 1,167 (+15)

–top-15 teams advanced to medal round on Monday–

16. No. 8 San Jose State – 882 (+18)

17. No. 12 Baylor – 883 (+19)

T18. No. 33 Michigan State – 885 (+21)

T18. No. 22 Duke – 885 (+21)

20. No. 35 TCU – 886 (+22)

21. No. 32 Texas Tech – 890 (+26)

T22. No. 15 Northwestern – 892 (+28)

T22. No. 46 Oregon State – 892 (+28)

T24. No. 19 Clemson – 893 (+29)

T24. No. 26 Virginia – 893 (+29)

26. Augusta – 896 (+32)

27. No. 17 Vanderbilt – 897 (+33)

28. No. 18 Ole Miss – 898 (+34)

29. No. 36 Tulsa – 914 (+50)

30. No. 41 North Carolina State – 917 (+53)

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