The tees are set and the faraways impeccably mowed as the hot Oklahoma sun beats down on the 6,194-yard course at Tulsa Country Club. For the Cal women’s golf team, a long year of up and down tournament performances and grueling weekends on the road finally comes down to the 72-holes nestled among the rolling hills of the Midwest.
The Bears will tee off their first of 18 holesTuesday afternoon at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. with hopes of earning their first National Championship. The four-day, 72-hole stroke play event is scheduled to begin Tuesday and end Friday. Cal will attempt to outperform 24 other elite teams from across the nation, including six Pac-12 rivals.
Each team will send five individuals with the four lowest scores combining to create the team’s total score. After completion of the four rounds on Thursday, the squad with the lowest combined score will take home the national title. The teams will likely face hot weather and fast winds, with temperatures estimated to be in the high 80s and low 90s.
The No. 25 Bears are slight underdogs heading into the championships as they rank far below many of their top competitors such as conference foes No. 1 USC and No. 2 UCLA. After getting off to a solid start in its first tournament of the season, Cal recently battled through a tough second half of the season that was full of disappointing tournament finishes.
In three of their last four events, the Bears finished outside the top-five, including a season-worst 13th-place finish at the Silverado Showdown in April. Two weeks later, the Bears struggled once again in the Pac-12 Championships where they finished seventh behind No. 5 Arizona State and No. 12 Stanford, both of whom will join the Bears in Tulsa.
But the Bears likely silenced many critics after their solid performance at the NCAA Central Regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma on May 10 where they placed fourth to qualify for the championships. Oklahoma has proven friendly territory for the Bears who led the pack for most of the regionals, trading spots at number one and two before falling to fourth in the last round behind UCLA, Alabama and Mississippi State. Two of Cal’s youngest players, freshman Lucia Gutierrez and sophomore Hannah Suh, led the charge, both finishing in the top-20.
Cal will need all the momentum they can get going into the USGA acclaimed course. The Bears will attempt a feat they haven’t been able to accomplish since its first tournament of the season all the way back in October of last year — finish in first place for a tournament title. To do this on the national stage, against the best teams of the nation is sure to be a challenge for a young Bears team that didn’t even manage to make the championships last season.
Christine Menchaca covers men’s golf. Contact her at cmenchaca@dailycal.org