CARLSBAD, Calif. — Vanderbilt women’s golf opened the 2025 NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in historic fashion, carding a 6-under 282 to claim the first-round lead. The 282-round is the lowest in program history at the NCAA Championship.
Junior Tillie Claggett and sophomore Ava Merrill paced the Commodores with 3-under rounds to sit in the top 10 individually. Lynn Lim fired a 2-under 70 to give the Dores three players under par in the opening round.
Sara Im rallied from a slow start on the front nine to shoot 34 on the back and round out Vanderbilt’s scoring with a 2-over 74. Angelina Tolentino, playing La Costa for the first time, finished 4-over but went 1-under on the back nine to close strong.
“I thought the girls did a nice job of bringing the momentum that we had the last two rounds in Lexington with us,” said head coach Greg Allen. “It’s really nice to take advantage of the morning tee time and get off to a good start. Ava, Tillie and Lynn did a great job of getting under par early and staying there all day. I’m really proud of the fight Sara and Angelina showed after a rough start.”
Merrill started strong with back-to-back birdies on the second and third en route to a 3-under and bogey-free front nine. Lim also played bogey-free golf on the front side, going 3-under with back-to-back birdies on eight and nine. Claggett rebounded after finding the hazard on hole No. 2 to birdie three times on the front nine. She added three more birdies on the back to hit the clubhouse at 3-under on the day.
“It’s still super early, so we understand there’s a lot of golf left, and we just need to embrace the leaderboard and where we’re at,” said Allen. “Tomorrow is a brand-new day and we need to come out with the same mindset and be ready to battle from start to finish.”
The Dores lead Oklahoma State by two strokes. Vandy and the Pokes were the only two teams to finish under par on Friday.
Vanderbilt will play in the afternoon flight on Saturday, teeing off at 12:12 p.m. PT/ 2:12 p.m. CT.
Live scoring for the NCAA Championship is available on SCOREBOARD. The Golf Channel will broadcast the championship beginning with Monday’s fourth round.
