FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas women’s golf coach Shauna Estes-Taylor predicted her team would land in the Columbus (Ohio) NCAA Regional before Thursday’s tournament announcement.
Estes-Taylor nailed the prediction as the No. 12 Razorbacks were given the No. 4 seed for the regional hosted by Ohio State, which will take place May 8-10 at the notorious Scarlet Course in Columbus.
“I’ve gotten it wrong every year to be quite honest,” Estes-Taylor said with a laugh after the selection show on The Golf Channel. “When we looked through it and tried to figure it, we had a feeling that was where we were going to go.”
The Razorbacks, led by junior Alana Uriell, senior Summar Roachell, and sophomores Kaylee Benton, Maria Fassi and Cara Gorlei, are coming off a fourth-place finish at the SEC championships, which included all three rounds under par.
“I loved the consistency that I saw,” Estes-Taylor said. “To shoot three rounds under par, we obviously had an opportunity to win a championship. … It’s the first time I think all spring I saw a lot of consistency in our group.”
The other top teams in the Columbus Regional are No. 1 seed Florida, which won the SEC championships by 13 strokes in Birmingham, Ala., No. 2 seed Florida State, No. 3 seed South Carolina, No. 5 seed Colorado, No. 6 seed Texas A&M, No. 7 seed Purdue and No. 8 seed Ohio State.
The top six teams in each of four NCAA regionals will advance to the NCAA championships, which will be played May 19-24 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., with Northern Illinois serving as host. The other NCAA regional sites are in Athens, Ga., Alubuquerque, N.M., and Lubbock, Texas.
The Scarlet Course, with bent-grass fairways and greens, is considered among of the most difficult in college golf.
“It’s tough, which I think is advantageous for our team,” Estes-Taylor said. “As we prepare at [Arkansas’ home course] The Blessings [in Johnson], I think we get to see a lot of the challenges we’ll face there.”