KU women’s golf picked for NCAA regional for second straight year

By Henry Greenstein     Apr 24, 2024

article image Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics
The Kansas women's golf team was selected for an NCAA Regional Championship on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

Updated 4 p.m. Wednesday:

The Kansas women’s golf team was selected Wednesday afternoon to participate in NCAA Regional Championship action for the second year in a row.

KU has now made the postseason as an at-large entrant in back-to-back years after doing so just once in the rest of its history (in 2014).

The Jayhawks, who are No. 49 in the national Spikemark Clippd rankings, will play at Tumble Creek Club in Cle Elum, Washington, as the No. 9 seed in a field of 12 teams that also includes, in seeding order, Stanford, Duke, Arizona State, Virginia, San Jose State, Washington, Alabama, Virginia Tech, Long Beach State, Sacramento State and Seattle.

“I think we were all a little bit surprised because it was the first region announced, but it was just such a good feeling when we saw it,” senior Hanna Hawks said. “It made all of the hard work we’ve done this season really pay off.”

Last year, in head coach Lindsay Kuhle’s second season at the helm, KU went to Georgia for regional competition and tied for eighth. The top five teams advance out of a given regional site, as does the highest-scoring individual not included on any of those teams, to participate in the NCAA Championship.

“That was one of our biggest goals this year, not only to make the regional championship, but hopefully be able to contend at the national championship in San Diego,” Kuhle said. “So I think it shows that we’re really here to compete and to be one of the nation’s best.”

This year, some of KU’s memorable moments included an individual victory for junior Jordan Rothman at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate in October, a team victory for the program’s first title in six years at the Westbrook Invitational in February and a seventh-place finish at the Big 12 Conference championship last weekend featuring an unlikely leader in sophomore Amy DeKock.

“I think we’re experienced, we’ve very tough and resilient and I think we’re going to have a great performance because we are prepared,” Kuhle said. “… Like I’ve said all year, I think we’re one of the best ball-striking teams in the nation and I think this course will reward that, no matter what the weather is. So I’m extremely confident and know that if they can just relax and have fun and play their normal golf I think we have a really good chance of making the national championship.”

The 2014 KU team that made an NCAA regional through an at-large bid ended up finishing fifth and qualifying for the NCAA Championship, where it came in 24th. Otherwise, only in 1990 and via Holly Reynolds’ individual appearance in 1993 have the Jayhawks made it that far in the postseason.

The top five teams in the regional are Nos. 1, 11, 13, 24 and 25 in the Spikemark Clippd rankings.

“I think that we’re just going to prepare as well as we can, and really go into it with a competitive mindset to do our best and leave it all on the table,” Hawks said.

article imageMissy Minear/Kansas Athletics

The Kansas women’s golf team was selected for an NCAA Regional Championship on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

article imageMissy Minear/Kansas Athletics

The Kansas women’s golf team was selected for an NCAA Regional Championship on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

article imageMissy Minear/Kansas Athletics

The Kansas women’s golf team was selected for an NCAA Regional Championship on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.