The Kansas women’s golf team will be playing in the NCAA tournament for just the third time since 1990.
The women’s team heard its named called Wednesday afternoon when at-large selections for the national championship tournament were revealed. The Jayhawks will be the No. 9 seed at the 12-team regional site in Athens, Georgia.
KU’s appearance is the program’s first since 2014, and it comes in just the second year of golf coach Lindsay Kuhle’s tenure with the Jayhawks.
“I knew that we could be great,” Kuhle said on Wednesday. “I knew we had the resources, the support, the people and the facilities. I didn’t know that it would be this soon, but when you get the right people on the bus that really care about this program, and its growth, and are competitive, it is a perfect formula to achieve great goals.”
KU will be competing on the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, which is not a regular stop for the Jayhawks. But KU will enter the tournament with some good local knowledge nonetheless. Kuhle was an assistant coach at Georgia in 2012-13.
“I know the course well having been a coach there and having played many tournaments there as a player,” Kuhle said. “I know what you need to do to play well there, and it is ball striking and putting. Those are the two areas that we have improved the most this season and why we have played so well this spring.”
Kansas will have its work to do to advance out of the regional, though. The top five teams in each regional advance to the national championship tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona. South Carolina, the No. 4-ranked team in the country, is in KU’s bracket. So too is No. 9-ranked San Jose State, No. 16 Ole Miss, and No. 23 Ohio State. Kansas finished the season ranked No. 51 in the country.
The Jayhawks, though, have been setting records. In February, the team set the school record team score for a 54-hole tournament, shooting a 12-under at the UCF Challenge in Orlando, Florida. The next week, the team set the 18-hole record with a 9-under score.
At last weekend’s Big 12 Championships, KU graduate senior Esme Hamilton became the first Jayhawk to be named to the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament team since 2017.
KU will play 54 holes in regional action at Athens, with play taking place May 8-10. The national championship tournament will be held May 19-24 at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale.
This is just the second time that KU has been in the NCAA tournament since the event moved to a regional format. KU also competed in the NCAA championships prior to the regional system in 1990 when it won the Big Eight Conference Tournament.
The Athens region in this year’s tournament includes: No. 1 South Carolina; No. 2 San Jose State; No. 3 Ole Miss; No. 4 Ohio State; No. 5 Georgia; No. 6 Maryland; No. 7 Kent State; No. 8 Charleston; No. 9 Kansas; No. 10 Furman; No. 11 Augusta; and No. 12. Sacred Heart.
As a coach, Kuhle — who came to KU from the University of Denver — has participated in 16 NCAA regional tournaments.
Aubrey Billig/Kansas Athletics
