Oklahoma punched its ticket to the NCAA Women's Golf Championships on Wednesday, finishing fourth in the Norman Regional.
The Sooners shot even par as a team in the 54-hole regional tournament held at OU's home course, the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club. The third and final rounds were played out over two days because of inclement weather in the Norman area on Tuesday.
Sooners advance to 2025 NCAA Women's Golf Championships
In addition to the Sooners, who are making their first appearance in the NCAA Women's Championships since 2018 and 10th in program history, four other schools qualified out of the Norman Regional. Stanford was the regional champion, finishing with a 54-hole women's team course record 23 under par at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club.
Only four of the 12 teams competing in the Norman Regional, including OU, finished the 54 holes with a score of even par or better.
Northwestern shot 14-under to capture second place. There was a pretty wide gap from there.
No. 24 Michigan State was in third place at minus-3, followed by the Sooners (even par) and Baylor (plus-3). The top five teams, along with the top-scoring individual not on one of the qualifying teams, advanced to the NCAA Championships on May 16-21 at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.
Oklahoma started the final round in seventh place, one shot back of the fifth and final qualifying spot. Led by senior Raegan Chaney, who shot a bogey-free, 4-under-par 68 over the final 18 holes, Oklahoma finished with a final-round team score of 3-under to move into third place.
Smith had rounds of 75-69-68 to tie for fifth place on the individual leaderboard. Junior MaKayla tied for 11th with a 54-hole score of even-par 216.
The Sooners benefited playing on the home course. They were fifth in the field with 43 birdies over the 54-hole tournament and third with 177 pars. The Sooners also posted the second fewest bogeys (44).
The format for the NCAA Women's Championships is 54 holes of stroke play. The field is then cut to 15 teams for one more 18-hole round. The top eight teams after 72 holes move on to match play to determine the national champion.
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