Carlsbad, Calif. – On a day that saw 14 out of 15 teams on the course finish over par, Clemson women’s golf used clutch shots from Melena Barrientos and Annabelle Pancake to finish the 2024 NCAA Championship stroke play in fifth and advance to Tuesday’s match play quarterfinals as one of the top-eight teams. This year’s championship is being held at the Omni La Costa North Course (6,297 yards, par 72).
Monday was the first time in school history the Tigers had played in the fourth-round of stroke play and Tuesday will mark the first time the Tigers have participated in the championship match play. Pancake finished seventh in the individual standings, the highest-ever individual stroke play finish by a Tiger.
The Tigers, much like the rest of the field, struggled on Monday, but a clutch birdie from Pancake on 17 and a long birdie putt from Barrientos to close out her round sent the Tigers into match play.
Women’s golf is the fourth Clemson team to make the Final 8 in their respective sport this year, with men’s and women’s soccer doing so in the fall and men’s basketball accomplishing the feat in March.
Southern California was the only team to finish the day under par, turning in a -1 to move up six spots and into fourth. LSU finished the day at +3 to move into a tie for first place with Stanford, who shot +11 in round four. Texas A&M and individual champion Adela Cernousek carded a +14 on the day to finish third. USC is the No. 4 seed in the match play quarterfinals, while Clemson fell one spot to fifth after going +16 on the day. Oregon and UCLA tied for sixth and Auburn was the final team to make the cut.
Clemson is now set to face Southern California in match play, teeing off Tuesday morning at either 9:50 a.m. eastern (6:50 a.m. local time) or 10:40 a.m. eastern (7:40 a.m. local time). Should the Tigers win their match, they would advance to Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals.
The end of Tuesday’s semifinal will be shown on GOLF Channel from 6-10 p.m. Live scoring will be available at ClemsonTigers.com.
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