Arizona women’s golf traveled to Palos Verdes, Calif., to compete in the Pac-12 Championships from April 15-17, finishing in sole possession of second place behind USC.
All five UA golfers that competed out on the West Coast placed within the top 25 on the leaderboard. UA freshman Ya Chun Chang led the way for the ‘Cats by placing fourth place (two under par) on the tournament. The final round for Chang proved to be her best as she tied for the second best round on the day in the field with a third round score of 69.
With 10 out of the 12 Pac-12 teams ranked in the top 45 according to golfstat.com, the Wildcats were up for a big challenge, especially going up against No. 1 USC and No. 5 Stanford. At the end of the second round of the tournament, UA trailed Stanford by six strokes. A final-round surge from Arizona propelled them into second place by the end of round three, holding off both Stanford and ASU.
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Senior Haley Moore and sophomore Yu-Sang Hou both came in at a tie for eighth place at four over par. Moore, who led the field in par scoring, 41, used a consistent three rounds to stay within the top 10. Moore’s 72 in rounds one and three helped solidify her position towards the top of the leaderboard.
Hou used a final-round score of 70 to jump seven spots up the leaderboard and gave her a chance to share the eighth spot with her teammate Moore and Stanford golfer Andrea Lee.
UA’s Bianca Pagdanganan jumped five spots up the leaderboard in the final round to finish in a tie for 20th place. The senior golfer bounced back after a 77 in round two to score an even par 71 in round three, her best 18-hole score of the tournament.
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Sandra Nordaas, the UA junior from Norway, rounded out the Arizona lineup with a tie for 24th place. Her final round score of a 70 (one under par) jumped her an impressive 15 spots up the leaderboard to place within the top 25.
The final round of the Pac-12 Championship proved to be the best round for the Wildcats by a long shot, as they bested their second round score by 12 shots in the final round with no UA golfer shooting higher than a 72. The ‘Cats wrapped up another top three finish at the Pac-12 Championships as they finished in a tie for third place with Stanford in Seattle, Wash., a year ago.
The three day, 54-hole event proved to be a nice touch to the end of the regular season schedule as the Wildcats gear up to defend their national championship title. Up next, the Wildcats head into the post-season at the NCAA Regional Championship from May 6-8.
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