May 1, 2025

NCAA Division I regionals — Mao Saigo victorious at The Chevron

The IX: Golf Thursday with Marin Dremock, May 1, 2025

Mao Saigo holds up The Chevron Championship trophy high to her left and smiles widely. A friend supports her in the background.

Apr 27, 2025; The Woodlands, Texas; Japan's Mao Saigo raises the championship trophy after winning The Chevron Championship. Saigo overcame a five-person playoff to capture her first LPGA Tour win and first major championship. (Photo Credit: Erik Williams | Imagn Images)

As we inch closer to summer, the ends of the academic year and the NCAA golf season approach as well. Welcome back to Golf Thursday where, this week, we break down the NCAA Division I women’s golf regional selections.

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Regionals will take place May 5–7 at a variety of courses across the country, where several conference champions and other selected teams compete for a chance in the NCAA D-I National Championship. The top five teams and the lowest individual not on an advancing team from each regional site will get to play in the Championship May 16–21 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. Here’s the breakdown of each site’s team competition.

Charlottesville Regional, Birdwood Golf Course, Charlottesville, Va.

Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion South Carolina will vie for a spot in the NCAA National Championships in the Charlottesville regional tournament. The Gamecocks will be matched up against host school Virginia, Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) champion College of Charleston, Ivy League champion Princeton, Atlantic 10 champion Richmond and Big South champion Radford. Mississippi, Florida, UCLA, UCF, North Carolina State and BYU are also set to compete.

South Carolina defeated Florida 3-1-1 in the SEC match-play final in Florida’s home state. But watch out for SEC medalist and World Amateur No. 23 Caitlyn Macnab, as she’s coming into the tournament with momentum. Maybe she can spark some fire in her Mississippi team and surge the No. 3 seed team to the tournament.

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Columbus Regional, OSU Golf Club, Columbus, Ohio

No. 3 seed Ohio State hosts this set of regionals, going up against SEC giants No. 1 seed Arkansas and No. 2 seed LSU, Big Ten foe Illinois and several conference champions. The Mountain West champion UNLV, Mid-American champion Kent State, Missouri Valley champion Illinois State, BIG EAST champion Xavier and Horizon League champion Oakland will all be fighting for national championship appearances, though they’re seeded lower than non-conference-champion teams.

Big 12 teams Kansas and Houston will definitely be looking to perform after disappointing finishes in the conference championship. To round out the bunch, SMU, in its first season as an ACC school, will compete as the No. 6 seed.

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Gold Canyon Regional, Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club, Gold Canyon, Ariz.

Big Ten winner Oregon highlights the Gold Canyon regional as the No. 1 seed. The Ducks will go up against host school Arizona State, the No. 2 seed, as well as Auburn, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, California, Virginia Tech and San Jose State. Here are the conference champs that are also set to tee it off: Sacramento State (Big Sky), Cal State Fullerton (Big West), Navy (Patriot League) and Quinnipiac (MAAC).

World Amateur No. 3 and Big Ten Player of the Year Kiara Romero will look to continue the momentum of her medalist finish at the Big Ten Championship and guide her team to the national tournament.

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Lexington Regional, Keene Trace Golf Club, Lexington, Ky.

ACC champion and powerhouse Florida State headlines the Lexington regional. It finds itself matched against USC, TCU, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Georgia Southern, Pepperdine, Louisville and Miami (Fla.). Western Kentucky (Conference USA), Morehead State (Ohio Valley) and Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast) are the other conference champions slated to play.

World Amateur No. 1 Lottie Woad and World Amateur No. 2 Mirabel Ting have to combine forces and bring their best games to vie for Florida State’s spot in the National Championship. FSU won its first-ever ACC Championship with a 3-2 matchplay win over Wake Forest to punch a ticket in the regional tournament. While Woad lost her match, Ting secured a 5 and 4 victory to get the Seminoles rolling. Woad will want to redeem herself, and Ting will rein in that momentum with senior captain Kaylah Williams and fiery first-year Alexandra Gazzoli.

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Lubbock Regional, The Rawls Course, Lubbock, Texas

Although Texas is the No. 1 seed in the Lubbock regional, No. 3 seed and Big 12 champion Arizona is a team to watch from this area. Several players have had solid finishes in the 2024-25 season, and the team won a fun one at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate. No. 2 seed Wake Forest also has a bone to pick, having lost the ACC Championship in a nail-biter to Florida State.

Texas A&M, Iowa State, Tennessee, Purdue, Campbell and UC Davis make up the next six seeds. Conference champions FGCU (Atlantic Sun), Tarleton State (WAC) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Southland) are also making a run for the national tournament this year.

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Norman Regional, OU Jimmie Austin Golf Club, Norman, Okla.

The final regional site brings us to Oklahoma, which is hosting teams like defending national champion Stanford, Northwestern, UNC, Michigan State, Duke and Baylor. WCC champion Oregon State, AAC champion Tulsa, Summit League champion Denver, Southern Conference champion Furman and Sun Belt Conference champion Southern Mississippi round out the Norman region.

The story is all about Stanford this year. This team has a genuine possibility of winning back-to-back national titles. This season, it was ranked No. 1 in the Golf Channel NCAA D-I and the Mizuno Women’s Golf Coaches Association preseason polls. Even after falling to Wake Forest in the ACC match play semifinals, the Cardinal have a stacked starting five that can propel them to another championship.

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You can keep tabs on all things NCAA DI women’s golf by following the NCAA website. Updates will be posted as we inch closer to the regional tournaments and the National Championship.

This week in women’s golf

Five at The IX: 2024 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Mao Saigo wins first LPGA tournament and first major championship at the 2025 Chevron Championship

On Sunday, April 27, dreams came true for second-year LPGA Tour member Mao Saigo. The 23-year-old from Japan clinched not only her first major championship but her first-ever win on the LPGA Tour at the 2025 Chevron Championship. Saigo posted a 2-over 74 in the final round to finish T1 at -7 with four other golfers: Ariya Jutanugarn, Hyo Joo Kim, Ruoning Yin and Lindy Duncan. Saigo birdied the first playoff hole, sealing her victory in the five-person playoff at The Club at Carlton Woods. Here’s what Saigo had to say in her post-win press conference.

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THE MODERATOR: Okay, here with Mao Saigo, the 2025 Chevron Championship winner. Congratulations. What does it feel like to be here in the robe?

MAO SAIGO: It was my dream to earn this major. It is my first time to win this tournament, and I was able to realize my dream, and I’m very happy about this.

Q. First off, huge congratulations to you today for competing as hard as you did. Starting off, first round 2-under, second round 6-under, third round 9-under, and five-man playoff, 7-under. How did you manage to maintain your mental and physical game to make it to where you’re sitting at right now?

MAO SAIGO: A lot to do with the fact that the accumulation of my hard work, too. I also wanted to win for my team, who has worked so hard for me.

So it was a playoff with a lot of people, as many as five people, and I was determined to fight through and not escape.

Q. You actually join many of Japan’s greatest golfers in major titles. How does it feel to knowing you represented your country so well and with so much decorum this week?

MAO SAIGO: This time, a lot of Japanese players took on the challenge to do this, and my predecessors have also earned majors, and I really thought I needed to catch up with them as much as possible.

But instead of applying too much pressure on myself, I wanted to respect each process and move forward steadily. It’s true that my predecessors have paved the way for me, but I also wanted to be myself and play this golf tournament.

Q. How will you celebrate besides the jump?

MAO SAIGO: Next week and the week after next, I really need to be in the zone for the tournaments. I’m so happy I can’t even think about how I’m going to celebrate.

What I can think off the top of my head right now and I want my manager to cook something really good, and then give me some rest.

Q. On the incoming stretch for the sudden death playoff, Lin (sic) actually had a chance to make birdie and missed it. It was like a domino effect for everybody to make bogey. How do you feel in that moment after everyone else had that opportunity and they had missed it?

MAO SAIGO: I was so laser-focused and nervous and really in the zone. All I could think of is the ball in front of me. I couldn’t see anything else.

I was shaking from nervousness, but I did my best to calm down, and I shot and it went in.

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