NCAA: Women’s Golf National Championship Goes Down To The Wire

With weekly events on the pro golf tours, sometimes NCAA competition flies under the radar. For those who watched the NCAA Women’s Golf National Championship, however, got some high drama action.

For those unfamiliar with the format of the NCAA, the final two colleges play five match-play events with the better record taking the championship. And this year, the two schools going up against each other were Duke and Wake Forest. Just 80 miles separate the schools in North Carolina, adding a rivalry aspect to the event, but the rivalry wasn’t the only thing that provided drama in the match play.

On top of the school pride, many of the women for both teams are seen as budding stars. That’s why three of the five matches ended up going to extra holes, the first time that has happened in NCAA history. And on top of all of that drama, the score was tied at 2 with only one match still going in extras. Eventually, Duke pulled out the win on the 19th hole to give them the title.

Miranda Wang was so close to putting a second point on the board for @DukeWGolf in the #NCAAGolf Women's Championship Match. pic.twitter.com/bF4Xud4Gvt

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 22, 2019

Sophomore Miranda Wang was the woman who won it for Duke in the end and it was a bit of redemption after she prematurely celebrated a potential winning putt at the 18th hole. It all ended up sunny in the end for Duke and their coach couldn’t have been happier. “I couldn’t feel more proud than I do right now,” Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. “We’ve had a tough team all year long and they were tough this week.”

Speaking of Coach Brooks, the dramatic win also provided him with a few accolades of his own. Brooks, already the winningest women’s coach in NCAA history, added to his mystique by winning his first ever match play championship. That makes Brooks the first women’s coach to win a championship in stroke and match play. He also passed Arizona State’s Linda Volstedt for most national titles as a women’s coach.

This is certainly an exciting moment for all of Duke’s team and we congratulate them on their win. And who knows, maybe we’ll be seeing some of these women succeeding on the LPGA TOUR in the future.

Cover Image Via Instagram