Original images via Eastern Michigan Athletics
With a historic performance Monday, Eastern Michigan’s women’s golf team advanced through the second round of cuts made at the NCAA championships in California.
EMU’s three-round team score of +6 (1,154 strokes) through stroke play placed it 10th out of 30 and survived Sunday’s cuts by being one of the top-15 teams in the field.
EMU has never been to a postseason event before, let alone be at the sport’s final and biggest event of the year. But now, under second-year head coach Josh Brewer, this team wakes up today as one of only eight remaining in the entire country.
To climb out of the 10-spot, EMU needed a big day. What it ended up with is the best mark of the day: 4-under par for the day (284 total strokes) — one of only two teams to shoot under par Monday. From 10th, EMU landed itself fifth on the team leaderboard.
The other team, to real surprise, was top-ranked Stanford at -1 in Round 4, -22 through stroke play. Stanford is the only team to shoot under the course’s 72-par each of the four days of stroke play.
EMU, at 1,154 total strokes, went 2-under Friday, 7-over Saturday, 1-over Sunday, and 4-under on the holiday.
Savannah de Bock knocked in five birdies to have a team-best score of -3 (69) and move up to a 12th-place tie on the individual leaderboards (-3 total, 285), while Janae Leovao (-2, 70), Baiyok Sukterm (-1, 71), and Erina Tan (+2, 74) all had four birdies apiece in Round 4.
Sukterm, -2 through stroke play, is up to 14th on the individual board with four birdies to three bogies on Monday.
Leovao, at +1, had her best day with a two-under performance. Two of her four birdies came on par-3 holes. Her twin sister, Jasmine (+7), whose scores factored into the team’s first three days’ scores, went three-over as she hit more bogies (5) than birdies (2).
Tan’s scores did not make it into the team’s totals in the first three rounds (top four of five players’ scores are calculated), but she went under-par on just enough holes on Monday to make it into the official team score. She finished with a score of two-over par (74), and is 11-over through the first four rounds.
As EMU advances another round, the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will be held today. EMU will face Texas (+1), which is led by the field’s #1 golfer Farah O’Keefe (-12, 276), the winner of the sport’s individual title yesterday. The winning team of that match will take on the winner of the Stanford (-22) vs. Pepperdine (+11) match.
The other half of the bracket will feature USC (-9) vs. Duke (+7) and Arkansas (+1) vs. Oklahoma State (+3).
The quarterfinal matches today will begin bright and early out West. The first four teams will begin their tee times at 6:50 a.m. PT (9:50 a.m. ET), and the second half of teams, which includes Eastern, will begin play at 7:40 a.m. (10:40 a.m. ET).
The semifinal rounds will be played today at 2:05 p.m. PT (5:05 p.m. ET), and the championship final will be on Wednesday. The Golf Channel will have cable coverage today from 1-3:30 p.m., and 6-10 p.m., and tomorrow from 6-10 p.m. ET.
Quarterfinal matchups (Tuesday):
#2 USC vs. #7 Duke, 6:50 a.m. local (PT) start, from hole #1.
#3 Arkansas vs. #6 Oklahoma State, 6:50 a.m. local start, from hole #10.
#4 Texas vs. #5 Eastern Michigan, 7:40 a.m. local start, from hole #1.
#1 Stanford vs. #8 Pepperdine, 7:40 a.m. local start, from hole #10.
EMU’s total stroke play scores:
#5 Team: +2 (1,154: 286-295-289-284).
t12, Savannah de Bock: -3 (285: 71-73-72-69).
15 birdies, 2x on #1, #5, #6 and #17.
11 bogies, 3x on #7, 2x on #3 and #15
t14, Baiyok Suktrerm: -2 (286: 72-72-71-71).
13 birdies, 2x on #5 and #8.
11 bogies, 2x on #9 and #12.
t23, Janae Leovao: +1 (289: 71-75-73-70).
13 birdies, 2x on holes #2, #6, #12 and #15.
14 bogies, 2x on holes #1, #4 and #9.
t46, Jasmine Leovao: +7 (295: 72-75-73-75).
11 birdies, 2x on #2 and #8.
14 bogies, 4x on #7, 2x on #9 and #12.
2 double bogies.
t64, Erina Tan: +11 (299: 74-75-76-74).
13 birdies, 2x on #9.
22 bogies, 3x on #7 and #14, 2x on #4, #10, #13, and #17.
1 double bogey.
Mariana Vega: N/A (sub).
