FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — If there were any questions on how the nation’s top teams may play at the Blessings Golf Club, those questions are beginning to be answered.
Some have already called it Concession all over again.
In 2015 the NCAA Women’s Championship was played at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., and USC topped the stroke-play leaderboard at 40-over-par. It took 60-over-par to advance to match play.
It may be unfair to make that leap just yet, but Blessings is a par-73, 6,397-yard layout with demanding greens complexes. It’s similar to what we saw at Concession in 2015, and we could see higher numbers again this year.
Time will tell if this championship will eclipse 2015 scores.
LIVE SCORES: NCAA Div. I women’s golf
PHOTOS: See the images from the championship
The morning wave consisted of 12 teams and 66 total players who played to a scoring average of 80.77. Three players had a 1-over 74 to tie for the clubhouse lead: Inez Wanamarta of Purdue, Sarah Rhee of Washington and Alessandra Fanali of Arizona State.
“The hardest challenge here is to be patient, don’t give up and fight to make birdies till the end,” Fanali said. “It was also important for me today to find the good pace on long putts and I found that hard to do.”
Arizona State, ranked No. 15 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, turned in the best score with an 18-over 310. Washington was one shot back at 311 followed by Purdue at 312.
“We did a good job of accomplishing many of our goals and to win the wave, we are very pleased with our effort,” ASU coach Missy Farr-Kaye said.
“This is a marathon not a sprint. You have to take it one day, one hole, one shot at a time and it’s like that at any national championship, but this golf course requires a tremendous amount of mental strength, resilience, grit and all of the above. Whoever is the best of at that at the end of the week, they are going to be on top.”
