NCAA increases women’s golf championship field to 30 teams for 2023

An equal number of women’s college golf teams will have a shot at a national championship in May as do the men for the first time.

On Wednesday, the NCAA Div. I Women’s Golf Committee announced 30 teams would qualify for the NCAA Championships beginning this year. This comes two months after the committee changed the women’s field from 24 to 27 in November, which caused plenty of controversy.

Equal representation is something women’s college golf teams and coaches have argued for for some time. Now, just as many women’s teams will be at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, as men’s teams.

The number of individual competitors will drop from 12 to six with the announcement, but there will be 156 women’s college golfers teeing it up in Arizona.

“There is significant importance in providing equitable participation opportunities for our women student-athletes,” said Bradford Hurlbut, director of athletics at Fairleigh Dickinson and chair of the Division I Women’s Golf Committee. “We are thrilled with the announcement by the Division I Competition Oversight Committee to move to 30 teams and 156 deserving student-athletes for the upcoming 2023 championship finals.”