Patty Tavatanakit defeated UCLA teammate Lilia Vu in a playoff to claim the individual title and the Bruins won the Pacific 12 Conference Women’s Championship for the second straight year at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.
Tavatanakit won with a par on the first extra hole.
“It’s a position that I think any coach would have traded for,” UCLA Coach Carrie Forsyth said after the Bruins gave her a sixth conference title in 19 years as head coach in Westwood. “It’s kind of bittersweet. I’m so proud of them and they are both champions. It’s a privilege to be a part of that.
“The team did a great job regrouping after winning the title last year.”
UCLA claimed its seventh overall conference title with a score of 287-286-287—860, 4-under-par, while USC was second at 291-288-293—872, and Stanford finished at 290-295-288—873 to tie for third with Arizona, which totaled 295-285-293—873.
Arizona State was fifth at 291-298-289—878, followed by Colorado at 291-291-299—881 and Washington at 293-295-299—887, and Oregon carded a score of 303-298-295—896, to tie for eighth with Washington State, which came in at 300-299-297—896.
California was 10th at 300-294-307—901, followed by Oregon State at 302- 304-305—911.
Tavatanakit, a freshman from Thailand, claimed her third title of the season and second in a row, with a score of 69-69-70—208, 8-under, to become the sixth Bruin to capture the conference title, joining Lisa Kiggens in 1991; Charlotte Mayorkas in 2004; Tiffany Joh in 2007; Alison Lee in 2014, and Vu last year.
“It means the world to me,” said Tavatanakit, who won the Silverado Showdown in her previous start. “I had a solid front nine, then ended up struggling a little bit. I hung in there and trusted in myself.
“I ended up playing off with one of my teammates, Lilia Vu. She is my inspiration and she helps motivate me to try and do my best.”
Vu, a junior from Fountain Valley who has claimed four victories for the second consecutive college season and is the top-ranked women’s amateur in the world, posted a score of 68-70-70—208, making a birdie on the final hole of regulation to force the playoff.
Haley Moore of Arizona was third at 70-70-70—210, followed by Emily Wang of Stanford at 68-74-70—212, while Wenyung Keh of Washington shot 73-71- 70—214 to tie for fifth with Olivia Mehaffey of Arizona State, who wound up at 69-74-71—214.
Allisen Corpuz of USC totaled 69-71-75—215 to tie for seventh with Brittany Fan of
Colorado, who finished at 70-71-74—215, while Andrea Lee of Stanford shot 73-74-69—216 to tie for ninth with Sarah Rhee of Washington, who came in at 68-73-75—216.
Marthe Wold led Cal in a tie for 15th at 72-73-75—220.
Rounding out the scoring for conference champion UCLA were Bethany Wu in a tie for 23rd at 73-76-73—222, Mariel Galdiano in 29th at 80-71-74—225, and Clare Legaspi in a tie for 38th at 77-78-74—229.
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