Look Back: Gamecocks Rally To Win Third Straight Regional

The South Carolina women’s golf team had won the last two NCAA Regionals, holding off a late surge by Florida at the Baton Rouge regional in 2016. How would the team follow those two wins? By accomplishing something the program had never done before.
 
By 2017 the Gamecocks were an established force in the collegiate golf scene. Head coach Kalen Anderson had built the team into a powerhouse with four NCAA Regional wins that decade, two of which came in the previous two years. The 2017 season presented the opportunity to further solidify the program’s place among the best in the nation, and a chance to send one of its best players, Katelyn Dambaugh, off with a third consecutive NCAA Regional win.
 
“Katelyn was always a leader and critical to our momentum,” Anderson said of the senior. “Somehow we could always rely on her, especially at the most important times.” Dambaugh, coming off another All-American season and earning medalist honors at the SEC Championship, knew how much another strong regional performance would mean to the program, and to her.
 
“This program was and is so important to me,” Dambaugh said. “It transformed me into the player I am. It was the most important thing to leave it in a strong place and help build it and help it succeed as much as possible. To this day, I try to help it build more and more. The Gamecock program is truly a special program.”
 
One player alone wouldn’t be enough to secure a third NCAA Regional win, and luckily Dambaugh was surrounded with talented golfers that had experience in winning regionals. Junior Ainhoa Olarra built off a strong sophomore campaign and earned the first of her two All-America honors in 2017, while senior Jia Xin Yang and Marion Veysseyre brought previous experience in winning NCAA Regionals to the table. But the team had another weapon, a freshman that earned All-American distinction named Ana Pelaez, and she was ready to make quite the impression in her first postseason as a Gamecock.
 
“Oh Ana! There are not enough amazing things I can say about that girl,” Dambaugh continued. “She is a special one. I knew from the minute she stepped foot on the course at her first practice that she was going to be incredible. I knew she was going to be the key to that program in the coming years.” Anderson added “Ana was the difference maker in Columbus. Her superior play lit a spark for the team both on and off the golf course that week, bringing us a wave positive energy.”
 
For some golfers joining a team that won back-to-back regionals might put some extra pressure on them to contribute right away, but Pelaez didn’t feel the weight of situation. “I honestly never felt pressured,” Pelaez said. “I remembered I was super excited and ready to make it to nationals. I knew the team I had freshman year was really good and I guess I trusted that so much that I never felt pressured to keep the streak going.”
 
As the Gamecocks arrived in Columbus, Ohio coach Anderson knew that her team was in a for a challenge, not only from the other teams but from the course itself. The Gamecocks found out just how real that challenge was as the team finished the first round tied for sixth place, 12 strokes behind Florida at the top of the leaderboard.
 
“The Scarlet Course at Ohio State is a championship course that does a good job of separating teams,” Anderson noted when discussing the course. “I remember preaching a lot of patience that week, reminding our players that the course demanded a marathon mentality not a sprinters mentality. I believed highly in the experience of our players and team. I knew that if our players stayed in a patient, gritty mindset on this difficult golf course we would overcome our poor first round to qualify for the NCAA Championship. My message to the team that week was repetitive – patience and attitude will prevail.”
Anderson was on to something with that strategy as things started to turn around in the second round. Both Pelaez and Dambaugh shot 2-under in the round, and Olarra added a 1-over as Carolina moved up to fourth place heading into the final round. Pelaez’s performance was vital to Carolina’s success, but heading into the final round she found herself tied for fourth place, within striking distance of becoming the fifth Gamecock to earn medalist honors at a NCAA Regional. For a woman that had already made history at Carolina by being the first freshman to earn All-America honors, winning the NCAA Regional would be the cherry on top of a historic season. “My freshman year was an absolute dream come true,” Pelaez said. “The things that I achieved during that year definitely helped me during my postseason.”
 
When the Garnet and Black hit the course for the final round nobody on the team could have known what would happen. The women locked in with Pelaez, Dambaugh and Olarra all shooting a 2-under 70 for the round. The Gamecocks had done their part, posting the best score of the day for the second round in a row, and the team hit the clubhouse to wait out the rest of the competitors.
 
“I remember eating lunch in the clubhouse with our score posted,” Anderson recalled. “The golf course was playing tough in difficult conditions. I knew we had already secured our bid to the NCAA Championship, and I was extremely proud of the team’s performance and fortitude. As I kept watching the leaderboard, I began to realize that we were suddenly in contention to win the team and individual championships as the team and individual leaders were faltering in on their closing holes.”
 
Florida had held onto the lead through the entire tournament, but the Gators stumbled in the third round, flipping the script from the previous year when Florida rose up the leaderboard to take a share of the NCAA Regional win from the Gamecocks.
 
“We watched from the clubhouse steps while the final player from Florida made bogey on the 18th hole, which secured our team and individual regional victories,” Anderson said. “Although we had a bit of help from our competitors, it was remarkable to think that we won the 2017 Regional after starting ourselves in a hole. Admittedly, it was a bit unexpected to win when you look where we started our day.”
 
For the third year in a row the Gamecocks sat atop the leaderboard at the end of a NCAA Regional. In the span of three years Carolina won more NCAA Regionals than the rest of the teams in program history combined, and the win in Columbus gave Carolina its fifth regional win in a seven year span. Pelaez took medalist honors, making it two years in a row for Gamecock medalists after Dambaugh did it in 2016.
 
“I loved watching Ana win the regional title her freshman year,” Dambaugh added. “She deserved that. Ana is one of the fiercest people I know. When she sets her mind to something, no one better get in her way or she will plow you over. I saw the determination in her eyes every day. I respected her so much, not because of her game, but because of how much she cared about Gamecock golf. She still does! I see a lot of myself in her and I relate to her more than people may know. I think that is why she and I have become so close. Ana is like a sister to me and people better remember her name because she is going to do incredible things.”
 
“Ana was a highly decorated recruit, but had some adjustments coming to the U.S. for her freshman year,” Anderson said. “It was so rewarding to see Ana ‘break out’ to claim an individual title and lead us to a team championship as well.”
“Winning the regional felt like I had accomplished something big, especially as a freshman,” Pelaez recalled. “I honestly didn’t know how important that tournament was until I won. Everyone congratulated me followed by ‘wow you won REGIONALS!’ I definitely felt it was a special tournament to win, especially for the team.”
 
The rally in Columbus was a fitting ending for Dambaugh’s time in Columbia. She left as the second Gamecock to earn All-America distinction in three separate years to go along with medalist honors at the 2016 NCAA Regional and 2017 SEC Championship, and a handful of program scoring records as well.
 
“It meant the world to be a part of something so special,” Dambaugh said of winning three consecutive regionals. “The program and culture that Coach built deserved to get that. She built something there that is indescribable. It meant so much to be able to give coach what she deserved because I would not have had that opportunity if it were not for her. And I would not be the golfer and person I am now if it were not for her.
 
That was only the beginning. The program has continued to build and get better. It will not be long before they are national champions. They have all the talent in the world, and I cannot wait to get back to the fall and watch it all happen!”
 
“Our victory in Columbus was direct result of the excellent job our team did of maintaining patience and a positive attitude in challenging, adverse conditions,” Anderson concluded. “Qualifying for the NCAA Championship three years in a row is impressive, but three straight regional victories are a remarkable accomplishment when I really think about it.”