The Arkansas women’s golf team played its best round of the NCAA Championships on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., but it was not enough to propel the Razorbacks into the cut to 15 teams.
The Razorbacks shot a 13-over 301 to finish their run at the three-day event at 49 over and tied with Vanderbilt in 22nd place, three shots above last-place Alabama and 10 shots out of the cut line at 39 over.
South Carolina and Wake Forest tied at the cut line at 39 over and had to play a tiebreaker to determine the final team for today’s round.
The 6,340-yard Raptor Course at Grayhawk Country Club finally yielded sub-par rounds, as tourney-leader and No. 1 Stanford posted a 5-under 283 and No. 5 San Jose State moved up seven spots with a 3-under.
The Cardinal leads the event at an even par, nine strokes better than No. 2 Oregon (+9), which shot even par on Sunday. Texas A&M, which also carded an even par on the day, is in third at 13 over, followed by UCLA (+14) and Auburn (+21).
The 15-team field will be cut to eight and seeded for match play after today’s round, and the medalist will be awarded.
Rose Zhang of Stanford birdied her final three holes and shot 69 on Sunday to reach 9-under 207 for the tourney. She leads by seven shots over Georgia’s Jenny Bae and Oregon’s Tze-Han Lin heading into the final round of stroke play.
San Jose State’s Natasha Andrea Oon, medalist at the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Regional two weeks ago, fired a 2 under that featured three birdies and no bogeys and moved up seven spots into fourth place at 1 under after an opening-round 77.
The Razorbacks were led by Kajal Mistry, who had four birdies en route to a even-par 72, leaving her tied for 34th at 7 over.
Arkansas posted 13 birdies, an improvement over the first two rounds, when scoring was much tougher to come by.
Sophomore Miriam Ayora, who was subbed out on Saturday after an opening-round 85, rebounded with a 3-over 75 to post the Razorbacks’ second-best score. Junior Julia Gregg was at 4 over for the day and 7 over for the tourney, tied with Mistry.
Junior Ela Anacona had three birdies on the front nine to turn at 1 under, but she slide back to 6 over for the day and sinned at 17 over. She tied freshman Giovanna Fernandez on the day with a 6 over round.