No. 4 Gamecocks Open Play at NCAA Championship Friday
South Carolina Athletics
Carolina off in the afternoon wave for round one at Grayhawk Golf Club
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – No. 4 South Carolina opens play at the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship on Friday. The Gamecocks will be off in the afternoon wave alongside a pair of SEC foes in No. 5 Mississippi State and No. 6 Texas A&M. The trio of teams will be paired together for the opening two rounds of play.
It’s the same five-player lineup as its been for much of the spring with sophomore All-Americans Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist in the top two spots followed by senior Mathilde Claisse, freshman Mia Sandtorv Lussand and senior Justine Fournand. Graduate transfer Katherine Muzi will serve as the team’s substitute as she did at the SEC Championship and regionals.
The Gamecocks punched the team’s third-straight trip to the NCAA Championship with a runner-up finish at the NCAA Athens Regional (May 8-10) recently. Rydqvist and Darling finished second and third, respectively, as four of Carolina’s five players finished in the top-20. The Gamecocks set a new 54-hole NCAA Regional program record with a score of 853 (-11).
Carolina is playing in its 12th NCAA Championship (20th appearance all-time) this week in 16 seasons under head coach Kalen Anderson. She’s the winningest coach in program history with 22 victories. The team has its two best NCAA Championship finishes under her direction, taking fifth in 2012 and finishing T-5th in 2016, the team’s only appearance in the new match play format. In those 12 NCAA Championship appearances under Anderson, the Gamecocks have finished in the top-15 (medal round) seven times.
Teams will play 54-holes of stroke play the first three days with a cut to the top-15 for the medal round on Monday. An individual NCAA Champion will be crowned at the conclusion of the 72 holes. There will be a cut to the top-eight for the match play quarterfinals on Tuesday. The semifinals will follow the quarter matches with the National Championship on Wednesday. Golf Channel will have live coverage the final three days.
This marks the third and final season the NCAA Championship will be played at Grayhawk Golf Club. This year’s championship also marks the first in which 30 teams (was 24) are in the field on the women’s side.
Fournand will be Carolina’s first player off on Friday at 2:52 p.m. (ET). Live scoring is available the duration of the event via Golfstat.
2023 NCAA Championship Gamecock Lineup
- Hannah Darling
- Louise Rydqvist
- Mathilde Claisse
- Mia Sandtorv Lussand
- Justine Fournand
- Katherine Muzi
2023 NCAA Championship Field
- Stanford
- Wake Forest
- LSU
- South Carolina
- Mississippi State
- Texas A&M
- San Jose State
- Florida State
- Southern California
- Texas
- Baylor
- Northwestern
- Pepperdine
- Vanderbilt
- Ole Miss
- Clemson
- SMU
- Duke
- Arizona
- Oklahoma State
- Virginia
- Georgia
- Texas Tech
- Michigan State
- TCU
- Tulsa
- New Mexico
- NC State
- Oregon State
- Augusta
(teams listed by seed – seeding based off latest Golfstat Team Rankings)
Individuals
- Tiffany Le, UC Riverside
- Dorota Zalewska, Chattanooga
- Isabella McCauley, Minnesota
- Camryn Carreon, UTSA
- Sara Byrne, Miami (FL)
- Leon Takagi, Kent State
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