USC’s women’s and men’s golf teams drove home success with third-place finishes at their respective fall-season closing tournaments over the last two weeks.

The No. 2 women’s team traveled to Atlanta to play in the prestigious East Lake Cup, an invite-only tournament for some of the top teams in the country. The No. 24 men’s team headed to the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational in Alpharetta, Georgia, to face 13 opponents.  

Both Trojan teams placed first or third in every tournament they played in the fall. After finishing the year strong, both teams will take a hiatus until January, when they will return to action for a spring season with many of the most important tournaments, including the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

Women’s golf crushes Florida State in consolation

The Trojans finished the East Lake Cup in third place, after falling to Northwestern 4-1 in the semifinals, which set them up to play Florida State in the consolation match on the final day. 

The tournament featured some of the top teams in the nation and is modeled after the NCAA Golf Championships. This year, the featured schools were No. 3 Oregon, No. 23 Northwestern and No. 30 Florida State. 

The tournament, which differed in format from the other tournaments the Trojans played this year, featured 18 holes of stroke play in order to determine an individual champion and to seed teams for match play the following day. Following seeding, two rounds of play determined a team champion, along with a consolation match to determine third place.

Due to a three-hour weather delay on the opening day of the tournament, stroke play was cut in half, with only 9 holes being played.

The Trojans finished the opening day a combined 3-over, which seeded them second among the four teams and set them up to face Northwestern for the semifinals of the tournament. 

Freshman Sarah Hammett tied for third in stroke play and shot even par, leading the Trojans.  Sophomores Kylie Chong, Jasmine Koo and Elise Lee all tied for sixth in stroke play, shooting 1-over. Koo and Hammett tied for first in par 5s during individual play, scoring a 4.50 average. 

When USC took on Northwestern, despite Hammett being 1-up on Northwestern junior Ashley Yun for a majority of the round, Yun tied it up at the 13th hole and finished to win their match 1 up. 

Koo won her match, but not without some drama. Northwestern sophomore Hsin Tai Lin led Koo in almost every hole in their head-to-head. Lin was at least 1-up until the 15th, when Koo tied her score. They finished the 18th hole in a tie, causing a sudden-death round to determine the winner. They returned to hole 15, tied again and then Koo secured the win shortly after at hole 16. 

Lee, Chong and senior Catherine Park, meanwhile, were dominated by Wildcat golfers, and the team loss slated the Trojans to play Florida State in the consolation match. 

Bouncing back from their loss the day before, the Trojans won the match against Florida State 4-1, thanks to strong performances across the board, especially from Park and Hammett. Chong was the only Trojan to lose on the tournament’s final day.

Park dominated her match, winning six holes against Florida State sophomore Alexandra Gazzoli. Hammett too was in control the whole way, taking the lead at the opening hole and holding the lead the rest of the way against Seminole sophomore Elin Pudas Remler, ending the match 3-up. 

The women’s golf team concluded the fall season with one tournament win and three top-three finishes in its other tournaments. The Trojans will return to competition Jan. 23, 2026, for the Battle of L.A. in La Quinta, California. 

Safa leads men’s golf to third place

The Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational featured 14 teams, with the majority of them ranked in the top 50, including a No. 1 Virginia that dominated the tournament, finishing a combined 24-under to win by 15 strokes.

The Trojans shot 7-under, just two strokes behind second-place, No. 29 Duke. 

Senior Antonio Safa led the Trojans with a 14th-place finish after dominating the first round with a 6-under-par 66. He especially performed well on par 4s, where he averaged 3.90, good for fifth best in the tournament. 

Sophomore Jaden Dumdumaya shot 2-under par in round one, his best performance of the tournament. Dumdumaya finished in 18th overall to end the fall season with four straight top-20 finishes after shooting a combined 1-over in his final two rounds. 

Junior Nicolas Dominguez and redshirt senior Luke Stock tied for 27th, both finishing the tournament at 1-over par. 

The Trojans dominated par 5s, with three players contributing to the lead. Stock led the Trojans in third best with his average of 4.25. Safa tied for fifth, with an average of 4.42, and Dumdumaya tied for tenth with his average of 4.50. 

Though they were still a ways off Virginia’s stellar performance, the Trojans edged the Cavaliers out with a 4.50 average on par 5s across the three days, the best team mark of the tournament. The Cavaliers were second at 4.57.

The Trojans also came in third for birdies, shooting 58 during the tournament — 17 of which came from Safa, the second most for an individual over the three days. 

Despite making a strong comeback effort with a 2-under round two, sophomore Jack Buchanan could not fully recover from a 2-over opening round, closing the tournament with a 5-over-par 77 to end the weekend well above even. 

The men’s golf team amassed two tournament wins and two third-place finishes during the fall season, only finishing first or third. The Trojans will return to the course after winter recess with the Copper Cup at the El Niguel Country Club in Laguna Niguel, beginning Jan. 19, 2026, to kick off the spring season.