Buffaloes Rally To Finish Sixth, Clinch NCAA Finals Spot

SAN FRANCISCO – Redemption.

After missing the NCAA Finals the last two years by a single stroke, the University of Colorado women's golf program flipped the script.

The Buffaloes set a torrid pace early and held on by the skin of their teeth to finish in sixth place at 5-over, 869, at the 2018 NCAA Women's Golf San Francisco Regional at TPC Harding Park.

No. 26 ranked Colorado's final round 1-under, 287, was enough to finish one stroke better than NCAA Finals host Oklahoma State and San Diego State. The Buffaloes advance to the NCAA Finals for the second time in program history, May 18-23, at the Karsten Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla.

Joining the Buffaloes in Stillwater from the San Francisco Regional will be tournament champion and No. 5 ranked Stanford (-8, 856), top-ranked UCLA (-4, 860), No. 40 Mississippi (-1, 863), No. 32 Louisville (E, 864) and No. 16 Kent State (+1, 865).

"Interesting day for the team," Colorado head coach Anne Kelly said. "Really proud of them and happy for this group to make it through to the finals. We have been on the other side of the bubble the last two years and it feels good to be on this side."

Senior Brittany Fan, who spent a good portion of the day atop the leaderboard, was Colorado's low individual wire-to-wire, finishing tied for sixth overall at 5-under, 211. Sophomore Robyn Choi shot a crucial 69 in Wednesday's final round to jump into a tie for 13^th at 1-under, 215. Sophomore Kirsty Hodgkins tied for 17^th overall at even par, 216.

Those three results account for the top three 54-hole NCAA Region scores in team history.

To say Colorado started the day on fire would be an understatement. The Buffaloes scorched the front nine with a collective 8-under for their four scoring golfers. That would be nine birdies, one bogey, and nothing worse, over that 36-hole stretch. The performance vaulted Colorado from ninth up to second, but with a ton of golf to be played.

Colorado couldn't match its performance on the back, but did just enough to hold its ground. The Buffaloes only had one birdie in that stretch, by Fan at the par-5 No. 12. Colorado's top trio of Fan, Choi and Hodgkins played the final two holes even to hold the Buffaloes at 1-under for the round.

Colorado, part of the first group to tee off on the day, entered the clubhouse in seventh and at that point essentially waiting on Oklahoma State, which at the time had a one-stroke advantage over the Buffaloes mid-way through its back nine. San Diego State was already in the clubhouse, one shot behind.

On a course where the toughest two holes were down the stretch at No. 15 and No. 18, there was room for hope. Where Colorado saw Michigan make big shots in 2017, and Virginia the year before, Oklahoma State dropped two strokes over the final four holes to tie SDSU for seventh and send the Buffaloes to Stillwater.

"After yesterday (slipping to ninth) our coaches got us in the mindset to be confident and determined or get beat by the other teams," Fan said. "So we took that mindset out there today. It was a little stressful at the end, but we couldn't do anything but wait. Once we were done we were just hoping for the best."

"It's really special for me as a senior, but also for everyone for what we went through the last two years. We're excited and looking forward to it."

Choi was on fire early, shooting a 4-under 32 on the front. After opening with a pair of pars, Choi made her first birdie on the par-3 No. 3. She stayed at 1-under through five and then made her move with three straight birdies on two par-4s at No. 6 and No. 7 and the par-3 No. 8. Choi holed out with par on No. 9, to finish one stroke behind Fan's regional 9-hole record of 31 set on Monday.

She wasn't able to improve on that score on the back. After five-straight pars, Choi had her lone slip of the round at the par-4 No. 15 with a bogey. She ended with three pars to finish her day at 3-under.

Fan continued her mastery of the TPC Harding Park front side by shooting 3-under over the first nine. At the turn she was 6-under for the championship, briefly holding a two-shot advantage for the overall lead. Fan remained in the lead through 12 when she moved to 7-under with her fourth birdie of the day at the par 5 No. 12. However, she had a hiccup with back-to-back bogeys at No. 15 and No. 16, to finish the day with a 2-under 70.

Hodgkins logged a 1-under, 71, as her second under-par round of the tournament produced her ninth Top 20 finish of the season. Saying she played mistake free golf would be an understatement. Hodgkins had 17 pars including all nine holes on the back. Her lone non-par hole was a good one, as she made birdie at the 330-yard par-4 No. 7.

"Everyone came out very determined and started out very well," Kelly said. "It was back and forth coming down the stretch but Brittany, Robyn and Kirsty really pulled us through. They all made very solid pars on the last three holes."

Junior Gillian Vance shot a 5-over, 77, for the second straight day to finish the tournament in a tie for 74^th place at 12-over, 228. She had a strikingly similar round as yesterday, where she played well but just couldn't get in the red. Vance finished with 13 pars and had five bogeys. She was even over the first six holes before back-to-back bogeys put her at 2-under on the front. Vance fell to 4-over with bogeys at No. 10 and No. 11. She put together six straight pars before closing out with a bogey at No. 18.

Freshman Alisha Lau finished tied for 77th at 13-over, 229. Lau had a great start to her round, playing even on the front nine. She birdied the par-4 No. 2 and remained at 1-under until a bogey at the par-4 No. 7. Lau struggled on the back. After dropping stroke at 10, she had a double-bogey at the par-4 No. 14 and then bogeyed the last two holes to finish the day with a 5-over, 77.

NOTES: Colorado's first NCAA Finals appearance came in 2012 after the Buffaloes placed fourth at the NCAA West Regional in Erie, Colo…Fan's sixth place finish was the highest for a Colorado women's golfer at the NCAA Regional. Jenny Coleman tied for 10^th at the 2012 event…Fan shot a total of 7-under on the front nine at the Regional…Fan, who entered the tournament as Colorado's all-time stroke average leader, lowered her career mark to 74.24…Hodgkins and Choi both shot under par to remain tied for the school record for rounds under par in one season with 12…Colorado was the second-best par-5 team in the field playing those four holes at -12 under with an average score of 4.80…UCLA's Patty Tavatanakit took medalist honors at 8-under, 208, one stroke better than Stanford's Ziyi Wang…Advancing out of the San Francisco Regional as individuals are Marthe Wold of California (T3, -6), Hira Naveed of Pepperdine (T6, -5) and Emma Broze of Oklahoma State (T8, -3).

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T6.	Brittany Fan	66-75-70—211
T13.	Robyn Choi	73-73-69—215
T17.	Kirsty Hodgkins	71-74-71—216
T74.	Gillian Vance	74-77-77—228
T77.	Alisha Lau	76-76-77—229
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
1.	Patty Tavatanakit, UCLA	68-73-67—208
2.	Ziyi Wang, Stanford	71-69-69—209
T3.	Julia Johnson, Mississippi	71-72-67—210
T3.	Marthe Wold, California	71-70-69—210
T3.	Mariel Galdiano, UCLA	66-75-69—210
TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Stanford	287-287-282—856
2.	UCLA	280-295-285—860
3.	Mississippi	290-287-286—863
4.	Louisville	287-294-283—864
5.	Kent State	284-290-291—865
6.	Colorado	284-298-287—869
T7.	Oklahoma State	291-289-290—870
T7.	San Diego State	289-294-287—870
9.	North Carolina	289-292-290—871
10.	South Carolina	296-289-288—873
11.	Pepperdine	297-285-294—876
12.	California	297-292-290—879
13.	North Carolina State	296-296-291—883
14.	Oregon	287-290-308—885
15.	Princeton	305-299-297—901
16.	Long Beach State	304-304-297—905
17.	Grand Canyon	306-306-300—912
18.	Fairleigh Dickinson	315-313-309—937

Buffaloes Rally To Finish Sixth, Clinch NCAA Finals Spot

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Players Mentioned

Robyn Choi

Brittany Fan

Kirsty Hodgkins

Alisha Lau

Gillian Vance