Welcome to this week’s Golf Insider, everyone!
On Wednesday, May 27 in Carlsbad, Calif., No. 1 ranked Stanford rose back to the top and emerged victorious over No. 2 USC at the 2026 NCAA DI Women’s Golf National Championship.
Stanford had a strong start, as USC struggled on a lot of their early holes. The sixth hole specifically caused a lot of issues for the Trojans.
USC’s Catherine Park double-bogeyed the par-5 sixth to give Stanford’s Paula Martín Sampedro a one-up lead. Then, USC’s Kylie Chong hit it out of bounds on the sixth, leaving Cardinal Andrea Revuelta with three putts to win the hole. Revuelta only needed two putts to take a two-up lead in that match.
The first player to put a point on the Stanford board was Meja Örtengren, who won her match against Trojan Jasmine Koo 6 and 5. On her opening nine, Örtengren made three birdies and six pars to create a mountainous lead over fellow sophomore Koo to climb on the back nine.
Örtengren putted extremely well in her match; she was making just about everything she landed on the green. It became mentally and physically hard for Koo to chip away at the lead when Örtengren was absolutely pouring them in.
On the 13th, Örtengren rolled in yet another lengthy birdie putt. She went bogey-free in her absolutely clinical performance.
Just around the same time Örtengren clinched the first point, teammate Sampedro clinched her win over Park 3 and 2. On hole 16, Park couldn’t make her birdie putt to extend the match. Stanford now had two points on the board, one away from clinching the national championship.
With Kylie Chong keeping a close match against ACC champion Andrea Revuelta and Elise Lee and Kelly Xu trading blows for the second straight year (Lee played for 2025 champion Northwestern last season), the final point was going to have to be a fight. But luckily for Stanford, senior veteran Megha Ganne was pulling ahead in her match against Bailey Shoemaker.
Ganne came into her match not trailing a hole in her last 34 holes of match play. Through five holes, this dominance showed, as she led four-up. Ganne birdied the first hole, and Shoemaker bogeyed the next two. Again, USC struggled, making unforced errors, and Stanford just had to stay steady.
But on the sixth and seventh, Ganne faltered with back-to-back bogeys. Shoemaker made two pars to narrow Ganne’s lead to two-up.
The back nine returned to Ganne’s favor, though. The reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion started off the back nine draining a monster of a birdie putt to gain a three-up lead. She sank another birdie on No. 14 that she thought was a mishit, but it instead went right in the heart of the hole. Ganne went to the 15th hole with the third Stanford point and the national title on her fingertips.
Ganne hit a beauty of a shot into the green, using the slope nearly flawlessly to feed the ball closer to the pin. But Shoemaker matched it, putting a shot just about a foot closer. Ganne missed her birdie putt on the low side, forcing Shoemaker to make hers to keep the match — and the tournament — alive. But Shoemaker missed low, allowing Ganne to tap in her par putt and clinch the national title. Ganne was 5-1 in match play this season.
With this year likely being the Stanford core’s last, the redemption from last year’s loss felt so much sweeter. For seniors like Ganne and Xu — who celebrated her birthday with a national championship win — it meant everything to be able to lead their team to one final win together.
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O’Keefe makes Longhorn history
You may have noticed that Texas, a powerhouse this season, was not in the championship match. The Longhorns saw their season end in the quarterfinal match to underdog Eastern Michigan.
Texas’s only bright spot this tournament was their star Farah O’Keefe’s stroke play dominance. Earlier in the week, Farah O’Keefe closed out an incredible four rounds to win the individual title. The junior capped off a fantastic season with the Longhorns that included four individual wins, posting a tournament total of 12-under-par to help her team to match play.
O’Keefe’s final round was a roller coaster, but her attitude and consistency were instrumental in keeping her in the competition. Where other players faltered, O’Keefe stayed poised to rise to the challenge and control the damage.
In her final round, O’Keefe carded a 2-under-par 70 that included six birdies and four bogeys. She began the day with a par on the first hole, but she then bogeyed the par-5 second hole. It’s always tough to make a bogey, but making six on a par five that she birdied two out of the three previous days had to sting. But O’Keefe made up for it with a par on the next three holes before getting back on track with birdies on the sixth and eighth.
O’Keefe began her back nine with another bogey on a par five that dropped her back into a tie for the lead. But if we know anything about Farah O’Keefe, it’s that she’s going to fight. O’Keefe found the bunker off the par-four 11th tee, but stuck a beauty of a wedge shot pin high and sunk the putt for birdie. Another great birdie, this time on the par-three 12th, saw her regain a two-stroke lead over the competition.
But back-to-back bogeys on holes 13 and 14 dropped her back the two strokes she just gained. However, the rest of the field was not gaining any momentum either. O’Keefe never lost the lead; she was either tied or ahead her whole final round. With back-to-back birdies on holes 17 and 18, O’Keefe fought off chases from the past two U.S. Women’s Amateur champions — Rianne Malixi and Megha Ganne — to emerge victorious.
“I credit all the hard work that we’ve put in mentally as a team. You know, I was doing a lot of different things to make sure that I was staying in the moment,” O’Keefe said in her post-round interview with Golf Channel.
Surely, O’Keefe would have loved to contend for a team title with her squad, but Eastern Michigan’s Cinderella story was too good to be denied.
This individual title win cemented O’Keefe’s place at the top of college golf and also earned her the 2026 Annika Award for Player of the Year. She is the first Longhorn to win the Annika Award since it was established in 2014.
And with that, another season of college golf is a wrap. In the news links below, I’ll share coverage from the Division II and Division III tournaments, where Dallas Baptist University and Emory University both defended their titles.
See you next week, golf fans.
This week in women’s golf
LPGA News
Field breakdown: 2026 ShopRite LPGA Classic
How to watch the 2026 ShopRite LPGA Classic
LET News
Laisne excited to tee it up on home soil at Jabra Ladies Open de France
Babnik enjoying being back at Evian after recent good form
LET winner Bennet wants to keep being in contention
Kouskova hoping to defend crown at ‘beautiful’ Evian
Six storylines ahead of 2026 Jabra Ladies Open de France
LET returns to Evian for Jabra Ladies Open de France
Huang makes history with third LET victory
Huang claims Lalla Meryem Cup after stunning comeback in Morocco
Epson Tour News
Meet the 2026 LPGA Collegiate Advancement Pathway (LCAP) graduates
Five Epson Tour athletes receive 2026 Kathy Whitworth 88 Award
Amateur/NCAA News
Stanford beats USC for fourth title in school history, third in five years
DBU repeat as NCAA DII national champions
Emory wins second consecutive NCAA DIII national championship
Farah O’Keefe jumps in LEAP standings after earning six points in three days
Texas junior Farah O’Keefe wins Annika Award
Why Eastern Michigan’s NCAA semifinal run should be celebrated
GB&I captain Catriona Matthew aims to end 40-year Curtis Cup drought in America
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Five at The IX: Gearing up for another ShopRite LPGA in Galloway, N.J.
The LPGA returns to Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. for the ShopRite LPGA Classic from May 29-31. Last year, Jennifer Kupcho birdied three of her last five holes to hold off Ilhee Lee and win the 2025 edition of the tournament. It was her first win on the LPGA Tour in nearly three years. Ahead of this year’s Classic, Kupcho spoke to the media in a pre-tournament press conference on May 27. Here are some snippets from her appearance.
MODERATOR: All right, joining us ahead of the 2026 ShopRite is Jennifer Kupcho, our defending champion. Jennifer, can you just reflect a little bit on your win last year and earning that here at an historic LPGA event?
JENNIFER KUPCHO: Yeah, I think it meant a lot to me last year coming off a bit of a rough start at the beginning of the year. Kind of reminded myself I could do it again.
Also, this was my first ever LPGA event here at ShopRite back in my rookie year, so super special to win it, and then be able to come back this year. It’s exciting.
Q. Yeah. This is our third Donald Ross course in a row. Kroger and Mizuho were both at Donald Ross courses. Can you just give us some insight into the courses, the setup, and how it plays for the LPGA?
KUPCHO: Yeah, I think compared to the last couple events, this Donald Ross course is definitely a lot easier. It always plays a little bit short. The greens are small so you kind of have to be pretty spot on with your wedges. Because the course is so short you have a lot of wedges.
Yeah, compared to the last couple weeks I think those were—the greens were much more crazy and undulating, so you can take a little bit of a breath going into the greens this week. (Smiling.)
Q. So starting with the Solheim Cup, how can you use this tournament as a springboard to get back onto the team?
KUPCHO: Yeah, I think just going out and playing. I think one big thing I’ve worked on this year is going out and having fun, not necessarily worrying about the outcome or what it could mean.
I think if you get too far ahead of yourself you kind of start to put way too much pressure. So, yeah, just go out and have fun, do the best I can.
The greens are definitely tough and bumpy, so you kind of just take it for what it is. If they go in, great. If not, don’t take it personal.
Q. You’ve had a really strong last four outings on the Tour. Has last year’s win kind of re-calibrated your focus, or was it kind of like the moment that you kind of felt like, hey, I can do this and I can do this at a high level again and again? Was it something you said last year coming into this year that was like, hey, I can replicate that?
KUPCHO: Yeah, I think last year made me realize I kind of do the same thing every year. Looking back on it, I start out slow from the offseason. I would say compared to most girls, like I take a lot of time off. I put my clubs away this year for an entire month during December and January. Most girls don’t do that, so I know I’m going to start out rough beginning of the year, and kind of around April end—beginning of May, I start to come out.
So, yeah, I think through that win last year I was able to understand like this is the trend that I do, so just be patient with it and just keep working, and then I’m going to spring when I spring.
Q. So with USC and Stanford [in the NCAA DI women’s golf final], Stanford’s team is just all-world everything. You’ve got Megha Ganne, Catherine Park are going to be out here LPGA Tour soon. What does it mean about the future state of women’s golf and the LPGA Tour coming out of college ranks based on the NCAAs?
KUPCHO: Yeah, the girls that are there in the NCAAs playing the individual, playing the teams, they’re all really good. They’re all going to be really stacked when they come out. I think we’re definitely going to see them out here competing with all of us for sure.
I think that’s kind of the thing, right? Like it’s a bit of a turnover out here. You have the older girls going out to start families and then you have the new really good studs coming up from college.
Yeah, it’ll just continue to change, and I think they’re all really good players where we’re excited to see them out here.
Mondays: Soccer
By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tuesdays: Tennis
By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Wednesdays: Basketball
By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Thursdays: Golf
By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Fridays: Hockey
By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Saturdays: Gymnastics
By: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
