Women’s Golf wins Pac-12 championship

The No. 10 women’s golf team won the Pac-12 championship this weekend with a 3-under par team score of 849. This is the Trojans second straight Pac-12 title after winning in 2019. 

The Trojans won their last regular season tournament at the Silverado Showdown in Silicon Valley earlier this month. 

USC put themselves in first place on the first day of the tournament Friday and held that spot through the end of the weekend. All five of the Trojans finished in the top 20 individually.  

Leading USC was senior Amelia Garvey, who finished in second with a 5-under 208, and junior Malia Nam who tied for third with a 4-under 209. Freshman Rachel Heck from Stanford finished in first place with a 7-under 206, just two strokes ahead of Garvey. 

“That’s an amazing finish for her,” Garvey said of Nam’s performance. “She missed a couple of teams at the start of the year, so it’s nice to give her the confidence and see her start playing well again heading into the middle of the postseason now.”

Nam had four starts and two top 3 finishes this season, including the Pac-12 championship. 

Garvey was also confident about her own return to form.

 “Earlier in the season I was just getting used to playing competitive golf again,” Garvey said. “I had over 10 months off when I went home to New Zealand for [the coronavirus], so it was kind of getting in those reps again, and now I’m starting to see that pay off.”

Although the Trojans held the lead throughout the tournament their win came at a close margin. The team posted the lowest score on Friday of 283 but performed worse than both Stanford and Arizona State in the second round while still managing to stay in first place. 

The Trojans maintained their confidence despite the second round slump. 

“We knew we didn’t play our best coming into the final round,” senior Alyaa Abdulghany said. “But I had a lot of faith in this team and I knew we could get it done.”

Ultimately, USC and Stanford tied the third and final round with a 5-under 279. The Cardinal finished the tournament five strokes off of the Trojans with a 2-over 854. 

The weather also proved to be an obstacle on Sunday. 

“I’m really proud of the team for the way they pulled through in really tough conditions,” Garvey said. “It was probably one of the windiest days out of the three.”  

As a top 10 team, the pressure has been intensifying for the Trojans during the postseason. But, they remain confident heading into the final rounds of the season in May.

“It’s kind of like a knock out round now, but this team handles pressure so well we don’t really think about that too much and are so confident in our ability to get things done,” Abdulghany said. “We’re just trying to stick to our process as much as we can, and everything will go our way.” 

USC will advance to the NCAA regional championships on May 10. The NCAA will announce the Trojans’ regional assignment Wednesday.