Record Pace at Porters Neck – Stanford Cardinal

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Top-ranked Stanford women’s golf embarked on the 2026 ACC Women’s Golf Championship, with the first two rounds of stroke play taking place Thursday at Porters Neck Country Club. As is often the case, the Cardinal came out hot and remained that way throughout the day, building a sizable lead as it looks to enter match play as the top seed for the second consecutive year.

On a calm morning at Porters Neck, scores were low across the board. As a team, Stanford shot 13-under in the opening round, setting a new ACC single-round scoring record that Duke matched in the same round. As the morning turned into afternoon and the winds picked up, so too did the scores. Still, that played in Stanford’s strength, as the Cardinal was the best team across both rounds, posting a 23-under as a group on Thursday. No. 10 Duke and SMU are the closest teams to Stanford, sitting at 12-under.

That pace has Stanford well on its way to set a new ACC Championship team scoring record. The current mark was set by the Cardinal just one year ago, with Stanford tying the record of 27-under (837). Stanford only needs to shoot a 283 to set a new conference record, which the Cardinal has already done 17 times in 20 team rounds this season.

Last year, Andrea Revuelta won the ACC individual championship, and her fellow Spaniard is in contention to win it this year. Through 36, Paula Martín Sampedro holds a two-stroke lead over Riane Malixi of Duke, with an impressive 133 (-11). She is also in contention to set a new ACC individual scoring record that Revuelta tied last year with a 202 (-14).

Her Thursday at Porters Neck was nearly perfect, with a lone bogey to blemish her scorecard over two rounds. She was clean in the opening round, with eight birdies en route to an 8-under 64, tying the single-round scoring mark in ACC Championship history (Phoebe Brinker – Duke, 2023). How did she get there? Four birdies on both the front and back nines, and she was great on all variants. Four of her birdies came on par-4s, while two apiece were on par-3s and par-5s. Martín Sampedro added a 3-under 69 in the second round of the day to head into the clubhouse in sole possession of the lead.

Kelly Xu is in contention for individual medalist honors behind Martín Sampedro. She started the morning as the first off the tee and quickly birdied three times in the first four holes, racing out to an early lead. She cooled down the rest of the morning, finishing with a 71, before…