Walsh brilliantly leads NCAA National finals with brace of 67s
Lauren Walsh
Castlewarden’s Lauren Walsh looks determined to leave the amateur ranks on a high after she carded a second successive five-under 67 to lead the individual standings in the NCAA DIV 1 Championship in Arizona.
Thanks to Walsh’s brilliance, the No. 2-ranked Wake Forest women's golf team maintained their lead after 36 holes.
The Deacs have a two-stroke lead over No. 1-ranked Stanford and have had nine of their 10 rounds be even or under par so far.
Walsh is now 10-under for the event, which is the lowest score through 36 holes in the three years the National Championship has been played at Grayhawk in Scottsdale.
She leads Southern California’s Catherine Park by a shot.
After recording back-to-back birdies on her fourth and fifth holes, Walsh eagled the par-five seventh hole and hit her tee shot to three feet on the par-three eighth hole.
She made the turn at four under par and recorded two more birdies on her second nine to finish the day with her second 67 of the event.
Walsh has five top five finishes this season and eight total in her Wake Forest career.
She’s five shots clear of world number one Rose Zhang while LSU’s Aine Donegan is tied 140th on 13-over after rounds of 78 and 79.
The top eight teams after four rounds qualify for the matchplay.
Team Leaderboard
Team Scores (to par)
1 Wake Forest 279-280 (-17)
2 Stanford 288-273 (-15)
3 South Carolina 286-276 (-14)
4 Texas 292-276 (-8)
T5 Oklahoma State 280-291 (-5)
T5 Texas A&M 287-284 (-5)
7 USC 296-276 (-4)
T8 Pepperdine 295-279 (-2)
T8 Florida State 288-286 (-2)
10 New Mexico 287-288 (-1)
11 Georgia 286-290 E
12 Baylor 289-290 (+3)
13 Arizona 292-288 (+4)
14 LSU 294-288 (+6)
15 Duke 288-296 (+8)
16 San Jose State 292-293 (+9)
T17 SMU 291-295 (+10)
T17 Clemson 299-287 (+10)
19 Michigan State 293-294 (+11)
T20 Ole Miss 300-288 (+12)
T20 TCU 293-295 (+12)
T22 Mississippi State 301-288 (+13)
T22 Texas Tech 291-288 (+13)
24 Oregon State 297-293 (+14)
25 Virginia 298-293 (+15)
26 Augusta 296-297 (+17)
27 Northwestern 303-291 (+18)
28 Vanderbilt 305-292 (+21)
29 Tulsa 301-306 (+31)
30 NC State 305-304 (+33)
Wake Forest Leaderboard
Player Scores (to par)
1 Lauren Walsh 67-67 (-10)
T9 Mimi Rhodes 70-70 (-4)
T24 Rachel Kuehn 70-72 (-2)
T32 Emilia Migliaccio 72-71 (-1)
T62 Carolina Chacarra 72-74 (+2)
