CARLSBAD, Calif. – A challenging opening day of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships finished with Vanderbilt tied for 25th with a 12-over-par 300 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa North Course on Friday.
Senior Virginie Ding continued her strong form with a 1-under 71 at the 6,330-yard layout. Ding stands in a tie for 18th on the individual leaderboard. Ding carded seven birdies in the round including four on the final seven holes to finish at or under par for the eighth time in the past nine rounds.
The Commodores opened the championships with the first tee times of the day on the back nine. A tough stretch from hole 12 to 15 created an early hole for the Dores who dropped 10 shots in the sequence. Vandy found its footing, however, and played its final nine holes at just 2-over to stay in touch with the field.
“For some reason we seem to like digging ourselves into a hole to start the tournament but this group has shown they are very comfortable fighting back,” said head coach Greg Allen. “That’s exactly what we need to do the next couple of days. I was proud of the finish we had today because they kept it from getting really out of hand.
“We know there’s a lot of work ahead of us and we will need some help, but we are very capable of putting together a couple of great rounds to give ourselves a chance to play on Monday. It starts with making some adjustments to our game plan and then going out and executing.”
Celina Sattelkau ended the opening day at 3-over 75. Sattelkau carded a pair of birdies in the round. Sophomores Tillie Claggett and Lynn Lim each finished at 5-over with a 77 on the morning. Freshman Sara Im, who stepped into the lineup for Ava Merrill, finished her first round of championship action at 7-over 79.
The Commodores sit nine strokes back of a tie for 15th. The top 15 teams following Sunday’s third round will advance to Monday. Clemson leads the field at 8-under with Texas A&M one stroke behind the Tigers.
Vanderbilt will tee off at noon PT/2 p.m. CT in Saturday’s second round. Live scoring is available on Golfstat.
