Photo: Michael Weinstein
CHASING MAVERICK
Stanford’s McNealy returns as the men’s player to beat, while the Cardinal women’s team seeks to defend its NCAA Championship
Awards, accolades and championships flowed through the California college golf landscape in the 2014-2015 season. Stanford won the NCAA Women’s Championship, Maverick McNealy was the Division I Men’s Player of the Year, and players from schools across the state earned prestigious amateur honors, both in the U.S. and overseas.
The majority of those award-winning players return for the 2015-2016 season, which should see golfers and teams from California prominently ranked throughout the year. Here’s a look at the top players and teams in California:
MEN
Maverick McNealy’s sophomore season put him right up there with Stanford greats Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and Patrick Rodgers.
All he did was win six times, including the Pacific 12 Conference Championship and the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional titles, on his way to becoming the NCAA Division I Player of the Year, in addition to earning the Jack Nicklaus Award, the Haskins Award and the Pac-12 Player of the Year award.
“Maverick had one the best single seasons in our program’s history,” Coach Conrad Ray told NCAA.com. “It was fun to watch. It has also been fun to see how the team is the most important thing for him and (that) he realizes that his success is directly related to the team he has around him.
“Whenever you can have the No. 1 guy playing for you and at such a consistent level, it bodes well for the team score.”
About the only thing McNealy could improve on is helping the Cardinal finish higher than its disappointing tie for 22nd in the NCAA Championship.
The junior from Portola Valley, who won the Northern California Match Play Championship in July, will have plenty of help as Coach Conrad Ray also returns senior David Boote, who won the Welsh Amateur Championship over the summer, junior Viraat Badhwar of Australia, sophomore Franklin Huang, the 2014 California Junior Amateur champion, and sophomore Jeffrey Swegle.
USC finished fifth and rising junior Sean Crocker, who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur this summer, tied for 16th in the NCAAs last spring. Junior Rico Hoey, sophomore Jonah Texeira and senior Bobby Gojuangco also are back for Coach Chris Zambri’s Trojans.
UCLA, coached by Derek Freeman, was eighth in the NCAA Championships, and the Bruins return seniors Jake Knapp, who won the Husky Invitational last season, Jonathan Garrick and Lorens Chan.
Coach Ryan Donovan’s San Diego State Aztecs wound up 15th in the NCAA tournament and have back sophomore Gunn Yang, the 2014 U.S. Amateur champion from South Korea, senior Ryann Ree, sophomore P.J. Samiere, junior Nathun Mendoza III and senior Riccardo Michelini of Italy.
Longtime Cal Coach Steve Desimone had a relatively young team last season and will rely on senior Shotaro Ban, sophomore K.K. Limbhasut and junior Cameron Shaw, who all claimed titles in 2014-15, plus sophomores Sebastian Crampton and Alexander Wilson of Scotland.
Three of California’s best young golfers play at out-of-state colleges. Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis, the reigning NCAA and U.S. Amateur champion, is a senior at SMU, sophomore Beau Hossler of Rancho Santa Margarita who won the 2013 and 2014 South California Amateur, is a sophomore at Texas and Corey Pereira of Cameron Park, the 2015 Sahalee Players champion, is a junior at Washington.
WOMEN
Stanford’s women will have a tough act to follow after claiming the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship for the first time last season.
The good news is that Anne Walker, NCAA Coach of the Year, has her aces back.
Senior All-Americans Lauren Kim and Mariah Stackhouse return, along with junior Casey Danielson and sophomores Shannon Aubert and Calli Ringsby.
“I think every one of us believed this was possible,” said Stackhouse, who earned the winning point on the first playoff hole in Stanford’s 3-2 victory over Baylor in the championship match last spring at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.
“If you have Anne Walker as your coach, you know it’s possible. She always believed in us.”
USC’s Annie Park, the 2013 NCAA individual champion, turned pro after her junior year and already has won twice on the Symetra Tour, but Coach Andrea Gaston has a solid nucleus of veterans back.
Junior Gabriela Then and senior Karen Chung claimed individual victories for the Trojans last season, while junior Kyung Kim, sophomore Amy Lee and junior Doris Chen also are solid veterans.
Across town at UCLA, Coach Carrie Forsyth had four players reach the match-play portion of the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Freshman Brittany Wu made it to the semifinals before losing, junior Bronte Law reached the quarterfinals, sophomore Lydia Choi advanced to the third round and sophomore Aliea Clark was knocked out in the round of 64. Also back is senior Louise Ridderstrom of Sweden.
Law, from Stockport, England, won the English Women’s Amateur for the second straight year in July.
Cal Coach Nancy McDaniel returns sophomore Marte Wold, won captured the Norwegian National Championship in August; junior Lucia Gutierrez, who represented Peru in the Pan-Am Games; junior Alice Jeong, who won the Los Angeles City Women’s title, plus senior veterans Hannah Suh and Carly Childs.
Pepperdine, coached by Laurie Gibbs, is led by senior Marissa Chow, a two-time All-American who won twice for the Waves last season, junior Allesandra Arza of Paraguay, and sophomores Katherine Zhu of Canada and Tatiana Wijaya of Indonesia.
Other top players at California schools include junior Paige Lee and senior Andrea Wong of UC Davis, senior Emma Henrikson of Sweden and sophomore Mila Chavez at San Diego State, senior Regan De Guzman of San Jose State from the Philippines, and senior Hannah Sodersten of Fresno State.
