Clemson, SC—ACC Champion Clemson was selected for the Pullman Washington Regional of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship on Wednesday afternoon, to be held May 8-10. Coach Kelley Hester’s team will be one of 12 teams in the field. The top five teams after 54 holes of stroke play will advance to the National Championship Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 19-24.
The Pullman Regional will be held at Palouse Ridge Golf Club, the home course for the Washington State University program. This will be Clemson’s first appearance at this course, but the second time Clemson has played in an NCAA Regional in the state of Washington. In 2014, Clemson’s first year of competition, Clemson played in the NCAA Regional at Tumble Creek Golf Club in Suncadia, Washington.
The Palouse Ridge Golf Club will play host to a women’s regional for the first time. It played host to a men’s NCAA Regional in 2013. The course opened on August 29, 2008. The facility is 2600 feet above sea level.
This will be Clemson’s eighth selection to the NCAA Women’s Golf Tournament in nine possible opportunities. The team missed the 2015 tournament and the COVID19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 tournament.
The Tigers finished fifth at the 2017 regional in Athens, Ga. to advance to the National Tournament, where they finished tied for 20th. Clemson lost in a playoff with Wake Forest for a spot in the national Tournament in 2018.
This year’s Clemson team is coming off its first ACC Championship. Clemson won the tournament at Sedgefield Golf Club in Greensboro on April 16. The Tigers defeated Duke in the semifinals and Virginia in the finals by identical 3-1-1 scores.
The field at the Pullman Regional includes top-ranked and defending National Champion Stanford and the nation’s number-one player Rose Zhang. Baylor, ranked 12th by Golfstat, is seeded second, while Southern Cal, ranked 13th by Golfstat, is seeded third. Clemson is the #4 seed at the regional with a #24 overall national ranking. Kentucky is the #5 seed with a #29 ranking by Golfstat and Golfweek.
The other teams in the field include Texas Tech, Houston, North Carolina, UNLV, Sacramento State, Cal Poly and Green Bay.
Clemson played a difficult schedule this year and has faced five of the teams in the Pullman Regional. Clemson has an 8-3 record with a 94-stroke advantage against those five teams. Clemson has played in tournaments against 43 of the other 71 teams in the NCAA…
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