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Oklahoma golf: OU women begin play in NCAA Championship finals

By Chip Rouse

BEDMINSTER, NJ - JULY 15: Cristie Kerr hits her second shot on the first hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open Championship at Trump National Golf Club on July 15, 2017 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
BEDMINSTER, NJ - JULY 15: Cristie Kerr hits her second shot on the first hole during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open Championship at Trump National Golf Club on July 15, 2017 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /
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The defending national champion men’s Oklahoma golf team isn’t the only group of Sooners that has made it way into the 2018 NCAA Championship finals. The OU women still in the national championship hunt as well.

Related Story: Sooner men win the NCAA Norman Regional by one stroke

The 19th-ranked Sooner women are in nearby Stillwater, Oklahoma, this weekend, at the Karsten Creek Golf Club, as one of the 24 schools that qualified for the NCAA Championship finals by virtue of finishing in the top six teams at four different regional locations last week. The Sooners fought off a shaky start and finished sixth at the Austin (Texas) Regional.

Oklahoma will be paired with the teams from Auburn and Florida State in the opening round of play on Friday. The tournament format consists of 54 holes of stroke play over the weekend. At the completion of play on Sunday, the field will be cut to 15 teams. Those 15 teams will compete in a final 18 holes of stroke play on Monday, when the field will be reduced to eight teams.

The final eight teams will go head to head in match play to determine the national championship team. Arizona State is the defending national champion, having defeated Northwestern a year ago at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

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The Sooners are making their ninth appearance in the finals of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship and its fourth in the past seven years. OU last appeared in the finals of the NCAA Women’s Championship in 2014, finishing fourth, the best finish in program history. In 2012, Oklahoma finished 6th as a team in the championship, and Sooner Chirapat Jao-Javanil was the individual medalist and national champion.

Oklahoma is led by junior Julienne Soo, who has a career-best scoring averaging of 71.00 this season. As a team, the 2018 Sooners are on pace to break the school record for season round average. The record is 290.73, set by the 2016-17 team. This year’s group is averaging 289.12 a round.

OU ranks eighth in the nation this season with an average individual score of 73.22. The Sooners’ 471 birdies in the 2017-18 season is the sixth most in NCAA Division I.

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