The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Regional Championships (Palm Beach Gardens)
No. 10 Women’s Golf advances to NCAA Championships
05.10.2023 | Women's Golf
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The Texas women's golf team finished tied for third place at the Palm Beach Regional to punch their ticket to the NCAA Championships on Wednesday at PGA National. The Longhorns will be making their seventh straight appearance and 31st overall appearance at the NCAA Championships, May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Longhorns are one of four programs that have advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the last seven seasons (Southern California, Stanford and Florida State are the three other programs).
"I am super proud of this team," Texas head coach Ryan Murphy said. "We've had a very up and down year but when we play well this young team can compete with anyone. Being the only team that advanced through this site that never played the back nine in the morning says a lot about this team. We were Incredibly resilient. Today they played hard for one another and it was incredibly satisfying to see that."
The Longhorns got better every round as they shot 298-291-289 for a 14-over-par 878 total. In the final round Texas shot two-under-par as a team on the front nine with eight birdies. The Longhorns made six birdies on the back nine holes and finished with a one-over-par final round. Michigan State took home the team title at eight-over-par with Duke in second (+11) and Texas and Northwestern tied for third (+14).
Freshman Angela Heo (T6) and junior Bentley Cotton (T9) both finished in the top-10 for the Longhorns. Heo shot four-under-par on the front nine, including a stretch of three straight birdies and finished with a one-under-par 71 final round. Cotton made three birdies on her round, including a key birdie on hole 15 and carded a two-under-par 70 final round.
"Individually some great rounds today," Murphy said. Bentley played a terrific round and finished it off really well. 70 in the wind at PGA National when we need it, that's big-time stuff. Can't really overstate how good that round was. And Angela too. 71 was fantastic although she dropped a few coming in. Her front nine was truly spectacular and then coming in we just needed her to avoid big numbers, which she did. I'm very proud of both of them!"
"And we had big rounds this week from Bo, Sophie and Cindy," Murphy added. "Bo's 71 in round one carried us. We needed that round. And the bounce-back rounds from Cindy and Sophie in round two were really big for us as were their rounds today."
The Lineup
• Angela Heo made four birdies in her first eight holes, including a stretch of three straight birdies from holes 2-4. Heo finished T6 for the tournament with a one-under par 71 final round. Heo has six rounds this season at par or better.
• Bentley Cotton shot the best Texas round of the day with a two-under par 70, her eighth round of the season at par or better. Cotton made three birdies and one bogey on her round and was two-under-par on the back nine.
• Bohyun Park made two birdies and carded a two-over-par 74 final round of the regional.
• Sophie Guo made three birdies, including a birdie on the 17th hole in her final round of the tournament. Guo shot a two-over-par 74 final round.
• Cindy Hsu made two birdies and carded a round of three-over-par 75.
Texas Head Coach Ryan Murphy
"It was definitely a team effort. It took all five of them to get through and it wasn't easy. It was a really difficult golf course with a finish that is designed to punish players. We handled it really well and I could not be more proud and excited that we'll be in Scottsdale next week!"
Texas scores
T6 Angela Heo 74-72-71 (+1)
T9 Bentley Cotton 75-73-70 (+2)
T28 Bohyun Park 71-79-74 (+8)
T36 Sophie Guo 79-73-74 (+10)
T36 Cindy Hsu 78-73-75 (+10)
Players Mentioned
