Cardinal On Top Heading to Match Play – Stanford Cardinal

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Top-ranked Stanford women’s golf finished stroke play as the leaders for the sixth consecutive season, entering the match play portion of the 2026 NCAA Championship as the top seed. Three Cardinal finished in the top 15 overall, earning awards following the conclusion of stroke play.

Blustery conditions and difficult pin locations were the result of elevated scores across the board, with just two of the 15 teams in the field shooting under par. The Cardinal shot 287 (-1) as a team, its worst round of the tournament, but still managed to extend its overall lead over No. 2 USC to 13 strokes, gaining eight on the Trojans. Stanford finishes stroke play 22-under as a team, five strokes off last year’s pace.

The battle of the individual national championship was on everyone’s mind, as the day began with a pair of Stanford Cardinal in contention. Meja Örtengren began the day one stroke off the lead while Megha Ganne was two strokes back. In the end, everyone was chasing Farah O’Keefe of Texas, the No. 4-ranked amateur in the world, as she pulled away and would not surrender the lead. The junior Longhorn finished 12-under for the week and essentially secured her national championship with birdies on holes 17 and 18.

Had O’Keefe recorded pars on those holes, things could have been a lot more interesting. Ganne was making a charge late in the round, on par with how the week went for Stanford. Most rounds, the Stanford contingent played better on the back nine, and that was once again the case on Monday. Ganne was two strokes over par on the front nine, but then ripped off four birdies in a clean final nine, including birdies on holes 17 and 18, the same that O’Keefe birdied. That vaulted Ganne to 10-under for the week, a 70 on the round, and outright second in her final NCAA Championship.

Making another late charge was Kelly Xu, who, like Ganne, is playing in her final NCAA Championship. She was the hottest golfer on the course for the Cardinal in the final round, shooting a 69 (-3) to lead the way. She was one of the few golfers in the entire field who had success on the front nine, with four birdies before the turn, adding three more on the back nine. She tied for 14^th overall, the second time in her career that she’s placed in the top 15 at Omni La Costa.

Örtengren struggled to get things going in the final round of stroke play, posting a 79 (+7) on Monday. Four of the first seven holes were bogeys, and after a birdie on…