Darling, Rydqvist & South Carolina Blitz Elite Field at the Annika; McCauley Ties for 4th

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LAKE ELMO -- The Annika Intercollegiate gets one of the strongest fields of the college golf season every year. This year, seven of the 12 teams in the field came into the tournament ranked among the top 20 in the country.

South Carolina must not have noticed. The defending champion Gamecocks, who are ranked No. 4, shot the lowest score of the day in each of their three rounds at Royal Golf Club. They matched No. 7 Wake Forest with a 276 in the first round Monday. That was the lowest single-day score by any team in the tournament, and they did it again in Wednesday's final round. That gave them the surreal total of 833 -- 31 under par! -- and they won by 27 strokes over No. 10 Oregon. Wake Forest was another shot behind in third at 861, and No. 12 Arizona State finished fourth at 862.

It is pretty good measure of how strong the field was that the highest-ranked team, No. 3 UCLA (the runner-up in the 2024 NCAA Championships), finished sixth, five behind fifth-place Duke (No. 15 in the rankings) at 871. 

This was the fourth time that South Carolina, which is coached by former Edina High School star -- and Duke All-American -- Kalen Anderson, has taken home the first-place trophy.

Fittingly, the Gamecocks were led by their two returning All-Americans, Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist, both seniors. Darling took the lead on Day 2 with her second 5-under 67 in a row, but her three-shot head start disappeared when she went 2 over on the first five holes Wednesday. She pulled back into a tie with Rydqvist when she eagled the 504-yard, par-5 ninth, but even with that, she spent the first part of the back nine chasing Rydqvist, who was playing one group in front of her.

Rydqvist bogeyed the par-5 second hole, but she bounced right back with an eagle at the 320-yard, par-4 third, and she added birdies at the par-4 sixth and par-3 seventh, on the way to a front-nine 33. Right after Darling made her eagle at the ninth (for an outward 36), Rydqvist reclaimed the lead with a birdie at the par-4 10th. Darling pulled even once again with a birdie at the par-3 12th (163 yards), and she followed Rydqvist's birdie at the par-4 14th with a birdie of her own. 

The Royal course concludes with two par 5s. As it turned out, the 528-yard 17th was decisive. Rydqvist didn't birdie it, and Darling did. Rydqvist drew even, briefly, by making a birdie at the 448-yard 18th, but Darling matched it, nearly holing her 20-foot eagle putt and tapping in for the birdie that settled the issue. She closed with a 68, which put her at 202 (-14). Rydqvist shot 66, and that gave her a 203. C. Lopez-Chicarra of Wake Forest shot 68 and finished third, four behind Darling at 206.

It was another five shots back to fourth place at 211, and that was where Minnesota's Bella McCauley was, tied with Duke's Katie Li after turning in a 70. A fourth-place finish was pretty impressive, considering the competition, and it was McCauley's second top-four finish in the two tournaments she's played so far as a junior. The former Minnesota state Class AAA high school champion from Inver Grove Heights took third last week in West Lafayette, Ind., at the Boilermaker Classic.

It's possible that McCauley used up most of her quota of birdies for this tournament on Monday, when she made eight of them, but suffered a costly double bogey at the 17th, which was sandwiched between birdies at the 16th and 18th holes.That roller coaster ride (8 pars, 8 birdies, 1 bogey, 1 double) resulted in a 67. She made another double -- on another par 5 -- early Tuesday, at the 516-yard second hole, and she was 3 over for the day after she bogeyed the eighth. She battled back with an eagle at the ninth and a birdie at the 10th. That was followed by bogeys at the 11th and 12th, but she got one of lost strokes back with a birdie at the 17th and salvaged a 73.

On Wednesday, she made her second birdie of the week at the second hole (to go with the double on Tuesday), but she parred the next 12 holes in a row, before adding a birdie at the par-4 15th. At that point, she wasn't going to catch Lopez-Chacarra and get a share of third, but she could have separated herself from Li and finished solo fourth -- if she hadn't bogeyed the 17th. (Despite an eagle and four birdies, McCauley was only 1 under on the par 5s for the week.)

The Gophers' Mariana Mesones closed with a 71 and tied for 16th at 217. McCauley's younger sister Reese shot 74 for the third straight day, and the resulting 222 had her in a tie for 34th.

As a team, Minnesota tied for ninth at 877, along with Clemson, the No. 18 team in the national rankings.  


Annika Intercollegiate Presented by 3M

At Royal Golf Club

Par 72, 6,395 yards

Lake Elmo

Final results (national rankings in parenthesis)

1. South Carolina  (4)          276-281-276--833 (-31)

2. Oregon (10)                      290-289-281--860

3. Wake Forest (7)               276-298-287--861

4. Arizona State (12)            294-289-279--862

5. Duke  (15)                         291-286-289--866

6. UCLA (3)                          293-295-283--871

7. California                         291-291-290--872

8. Iowa State                        282-302-290--874

T9. Minnesota                    286-298-293--877

T9. Clemson (18)                294-296-287--877

11. UCF                               291-296-296--883

12. Purdue                          302-294-289--885

Individiuals

1. Hannah Darling, So. Carolina     67-67-68--202 (-14)

2. Louise Rydqvist, So. Carolina     69-68-66--203

3. C. Lopez-Chacarra, Wake For.    67-71-68--206

T4. Bella McCauley, Minnesota     67-73-71--211

T4. Katie Li, Duke                             66-75-70--211

T6. Patience Rhodes, ASU               68-74-70--212

T6. Caroline Canales, UCLA              67-74-71--212

T6. Maylis Lamoure, So. Carolina      67-74-71--212      

T9. Beth Coulter, Arizona State           75-70-68--213

T9. Karen Tsuru, Oregon                     72-72-69--213

T16. Mariana Mesones, Minnesota   69-77-71--217

T34. Reese McCauley, Minnesota     74-74-74--222

T51. Sara Tomaszewski, Minnesota  76-74-78--228

T59. Madison Le, Minnesota              82-77-77--236