ATHENS, Ga. -- There are routs, shellackings and all-around beat-downs, and then there is what Southern California did at the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship.
One year after a heartbreaking one-shot loss to Alabama, the Trojans won this title by 21 shots over Duke at a windy University of Georgia Golf Course on Friday. It might as well have been have been 100.
The victory lap started almost from the moment the first tee shot.
To quantify the total domination of USC in this championship, if Duke had fired its lowest single-round total of the season in Friday’s finale and UCS had equaled its worst total of the year, the Trojans still would have won. But neither of those things happened. Instead, this USC squad became the first NCAA women’s golf team in 31 years to shoot the lowest scores in each of the tournament’s four rounds.
Tulsa led after every round in 1982 when many of the best teams in the nation still played in the AIAW. That Tulsa team also set the margin-of-victory record, beating Southern Methodist by 36 shots, but no team in the last decade has won by more than 20 shots.
“It was definitely an awe-inspiring victory,” said Trojans coach Andrea Gaston. “I know our team broke a number of records at this tournament. These girls have been relentless in their worth ethic and it paid off.”
The memory of last year also helped.
The Trojans led by five shots with six holes to play a season ago, but a few loose shots opened the door for Brooke Pancake and Alabama. Pancake closed strong to capture the Crimson Tide’s first national championship title in women’s golf.
“No lead is ever safe,” said USC junior Sophia Popov, who shot 74 on Friday and finished tied for sixth individually. “Losing the way we did last year was brutal. We all had to live through the one shot that could have been the difference. And now to come out and win the way we did, we were not going to take it for granted at any point.”
The records USC broke included the lowest single-round total, 12-under, 276, which they fired on Wednesday. They also shattered the 72-hole scoring record at 19-under par 1,133 to beat the old record, set by UCLA in 2004, by a whopping 15 shots.
The only real competition was for the individual title, which USC’s star freshman Annie Park also took wire-to-wire. At least that one was close enough to keep everyone’s attention. Park led by two shots over Ally McDonald of Mississippi State and SEC champion Stephanie Meadow of Alabama going into the final round.
McDonald, who went out in the morning wave because she qualified as an individual and not with her Mississippi State teammates, caught the worst of the wind and shot 81.
Meadow kept it close, pulling to within a shot of Park’s lead through eight holes. But a double-bogey at nine sent Meadow into a downward spiral. She played her last 10 holes in seven-over-par and shot an 80 to finish the week at one-over. That was good enough to make her low SEC player.
Meanwhile Park bounced back from two bogeys on the back nine to finish with three birdies in her final six holes, including a two-putt birdie on the par-five 18th after hitting a 235-yard 5-wood to a tucked pin. She shot 71, which was her highest score of the week, and won by six shots over Duke’s Lindy Duncan.
“It felt great, especially to birdie the last hole,” Park said. “For awhile it felt like I was making bogey and then birdie, but I kind of got on a roll on the back (nine).”
Park, 18, enrolled at USC in January after graduating early from high school. And while she is the seventh freshman to win the NCAA championship, she is the first to do so in her first semester of college.
Just how long she will stay at USC remains an open question. Women golfers are like basketball players when it comes to being one-and-done. Those who can compete on the LPGA Tour tend to leave early and often.
Park offered no comment on her future, although coach Gaston said, “I hope all these girls graduate,” a comment that brought a raised eyebrow and a chuckle from Popov, who nodded toward Park and said, “Yeah, right.”
“Annie provides another dimension to this team,” Popov said. “I’m really glad we have her.”
She didn’t say, “For now,” but it was definitely implied.
