The better news: The increase is even bigger than first expected.

RELATED: Rare rules mishap at NCAA Women’s Championship

In November, the NCAA Women’s D-I Golf Committee announced it had received approval to have 27 teams advance out of NCAA Regional competition to the national championship, up from 24 in previous years. On Thursday, the Committee announced that the number will actually jump to 30, matching the total teams that advance at the men’s NCAA D-I Championship.

Six individual golfers also will advance from regionals to nationals, for an overall player field of 156.

“There is significant importance in providing equitable participation opportunities for our women student-athletes,” said Brad Hurlbut, director of athletics at Fairleigh Dickinson and chair of the D-I Women’s Golf Committee, in a release. “We are thrilled with the announcement by the Division I Competition Oversight Committee to move to 30 teams and 156 deserving student-athletes for the upcoming 2023 championship finals.”

Having 30 teams at nationals had been the goal of the Women’s Golf Committee since early last year after submitting a plan in February to the NCAA D-I Competition Oversight Committee. According to a report in Golfweek, that request was denied in June, causing Hurlbut’s committee to submit a second request that increased the number to 27, which the NCAA agreed.

While three more teams is progress, having only 27 would create a potential issue in that the number of teams that advanced out of each of the six regional qualifying tournaments would be uneven — three sites would have five teams moving on and three would have only four.

Trying to figure out which sites would get the bigger number would require the Women’s Golf Committee to construct a “strength of field” metric that could have brought with it some controversy among coaches.

In the meantime, the NCAA D-I Competition Oversight Committee reconsidered the first recommendation for 30 teams. It’s approval means that all six regionals will have the same number of teams — five — advancing to nationals.

The number of schools qualifying for the NCAA women’s postseason will remain at 72, with 12 teams playing at each regional site.

The NCAA Championship will take place for the third straight season at Grayhawk, this year being held May 19-24. The six regional sites are as follows, with play slated for May 9-11):
• Athens, Georgia – University of Georgia Golf Course
• Palm Beach Gardens, Florida – PGA National Respoort
• Pullman, Washington – Palouse Ridge Golf Club
• Raleigh, North Carolina – Lonnie Poole Golf Course
• San Antonio, Texas – TPC San Antonio
• Westfield, Indiana – The Club at Chatham Hills

The post Women’s college golf avoids potential headache with additional changes to NCAA D-I Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
It was all tied at 2-2 in the final of the NCAA Women’s Championship on Wednesday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale between No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon, but there was an air of inevitability as well. Cardinal freshman Rose Zhang, the No. 1-ranked women’s amateur who won the NCAA individual title on Monday and the Annika Award for national college player of the year on Tuesday, held a 2-up lead over Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen with two holes to play in the fifth and deciding match. A miracle comeback would be needed to change the pending outcome.

Instead of a miracle, the Ducks stumbled upon a penalty stroke after a rare rules violation.

As Nielsen, using a push cart in the Arizona heat, was walking up toward her ball in the rough off the tee on the par-4 hole, she mistakenly ran over Zhang’s ball, which was also in the rough. Under the Rules of Golf, Nielsen had to add a one-stroke penalty to her score for violation Rule 9.5b, which states: “If the opponent lifts or deliberately touches the player’s ball at rest or causes it to move, the opponent gets one penalty stroke.”

The rules official informed Nielsen and Zhang of the penalty after both hit their second shots, Zhang on the green but 40 feet from the hole Nielsen short left of the green facing a tricky pitch.

The individual champion delivers the team championship for @StanfordWGolf!

?: Golf Channel | @Stifel pic.twitter.com/jNL1YTm2Wa

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 26, 2022

Nielsen, now hitting her fourth shot, left the ball 14 feet short of the hole and failed to make what was officially her bogey putt. When Zhang two-putted for par, she had clinched the match, 3 and 1, and earned the winning point for the Cardinal.

“I just reminded Rose that nobody wants a tournament to end that way, but it didn’t,” Stanford head coach Anne Walker said afterwards. “At the end of the day, Sofie made 5, Rose made 4, and I want that to be for both Sofie and Rose to be the focus because no one wants a title to end that way.”

Interestingly, the penalty is only applicable in match play. The penalty was put into place during the most recent update of the Rules of Golf in 2019.

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The post Rare rules mishap adds to drama to NCAA Women’s Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.