Women’s golf wins Pac-12 title, men look to follow

Next week, the golf postseason will start for the No. 6-ranked USC men’s squad as they enter the Pac-12 tournament Monday. They hope to achieve the same level of success as the women’s team did this past week at the women’s Pac-12 championship.

In the Pac-12 tournament, the No. 1-ranked Women of Troy dominated the competition, winning the conference championship by a resounding 11 strokes over No. 2 Arizona. The Trojans were the only team to finish under par overall and showed the conference why they are the top-ranked team in the nation. The win was the women’s sixth Pac-12 title and the sixth win of the season overall.  

Head coach Justin Silverstein was happy with the team’s outing.

“It went really well even though the course was really tough and tricky,” Silverstein said. “We limited bogeys, got a lot of pars and did a really good job playing consistently.”

Sophomore Gabriela Ruffels led the way for the Trojans, finishing at 3 under for the tournament, which was good for a third place finish individually. Ruffels’ outstanding performance through the first two days culminated in a score of 68 on the third day. That score was the second lowest overall in the entire tournament, setting her apart from the rest of the field. Junior Allisen Corpuz, sophomore Jennifer Chang and sophomore Alyaa Abdulghany also finished in the top seven individually.

“I think all five of us [starters] are really good players, and we prepared the right way so that we could put out a good performance,” Corpuz said.

Corpuz, who had one of her best outings of the season at the tournament, will look to continue her success as the postseason progresses at regionals.

Four of the women were also named to the All-Pac-12 First Team, including Chang, Ruffels, sophomore Amelia Garvey and freshman Malia Nam. Even though the program is already dominating the NCAA, these underclassmen show that the team will only improve.

The women hope to continue their elite play at regionals, where they seek to earn a spot in the NCAA championships, which will be held in May at the University of Arkansas.

“Stanford has two of the best four players in the world, which is always huge,” Silverstein said. “And Arizona played really well this past week at the Pac-12 tourney.”  

As for other dangerous teams, Silverstein will be looking out for Texas, which has been on USC’s tail for the No. 1 spot the whole season along with Florida, Wake Forest and Duke.

If rankings hold USC in the No. 1 spot, the women will head up to Cle Elum, Wash. and the Tumble Creek Golf Course for regionals in just a couple weeks.  

“The course at Cle Elum is really hard and tough but suits us well,” Silverstein said. “The conditions will be tough because it will be windier than usual.”

The men will enter the Pac-12 tournament play April 22 and will most likely face stiffer competition than the women. Although the men won the Pac-12 title in 2018, this year they will have to deal with No. 2-ranked Arizona State, who have won their last three tournaments.

The Trojans just competed in the Western Intercollegiate tournament, finishing fourth overall in the field behind the aforementioned Cal and first place Stanford.  

Their outing was definitely not what the team was looking for as a rough second day of play hindered them from hanging onto the third place spot.

For No. 1-ranked amateur senior Justin Suh, the tournament was also not his best performance, finishing in seventh after he couldn’t recover from a 74 on the second day of play.  Although sophomore Kaito Onishi and freshman Cameron Henry finished in the top five, Suh ended up in seventh after he couldn’t recover from a 74 on the second day of play.

Overall, the team did not perform terribly, but with both Arizona State and now Stanford heating up as the postseason approaches, USC’s title defense is in danger.

As in the past, the team will rely on Suh to carry them in the postseason.  He is still the world’s top-ranked amateur and in the team’s one tournament without him this season, the squad suffered a rough 10th place finish. For the men to succeed next week, the rest of the team will have to step up their game.  

The road to Arkansas and the NCAA championships appears to be very tough for the men’s squad, but it has both the talent and the skills to pull it off. First, however, the Trojans must try to defend their Pac-12 title against a very competitive field next week.