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NCAA Championship Today's golf finals - Printable Version

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Today's golf finals - Hulk01 - 05-23-2018

For those curious and/or watching some or most of today's Arizona/Alabama final.

Like Northwestern's coach, Alabama's blundered in the pairings.  There is no way he should have ended up pairing his number 2, Gillman, against Arizona's weakest player, Gigi Stoll.  He should have matched Gillman (-1 for the stroke play and averaging 70.7 on the season) against anyone but Stoll, who ended stoke play at 27-over.

A prediction.  Alabama wins 3&2 in the first group and 6&5 in the second.  And then things, because of this error,  get interesting. 

Cheyenne Knight and Arizona's one have an epic battle in spot three.  

In another close one, Arizona wins the 4th pairing.  Alabama's #4, who's playing in this spot. isn't strong,

And the final pairing goes to Arizona's number one Haley Moore, who's been erratic in this tournament--some very bad holes--but gets lots of birdies. 

Alabama has more talent.  And if Knight pulls out a win at #3, the Bama coach's blunder won't matter.  Bama by a net +4 to net +7 seems the better bet.

RE: Today's golf finals - Viking_Guy - 05-23-2018

Hulk might be on to something :).

As the teams take the turn to the back nine, Arizona is up 3-1-1.  They're up 1 in each match they lead, and Stoll is 3 down through 9 to Gillman.

6&5 definitely a possibility at #2.

VG
(05-23-2018, 02:50 PM)Viking_Guy Wrote:  Hulk might be on to something :).

As the teams take the turn to the back nine, Arizona is up 3-1-1.  They're up 1 in each match they lead, and Stoll is 3 down through 9 to Gillman.

6&5 definitely a possibility at #2.

VG

Arizona now 1-up in all but #2.

RE: Today's golf finals - Spiny_Norman - 05-23-2018

Definitely a surprise in the 1st match. Hou is 4 up on Stephenson with 5 to play.

RE: Today's golf finals - Viking_Guy - 05-23-2018

Stephenson (Zona) and Gillman (Bama) both dormie - 4 up with 4 to play.

Both finish 4&3.

Bama up 2 after 13 at #3.  Zona up 3 after 12 at 4. All square at 5.

VG

RE: Today's golf finals - Spiny_Norman - 05-23-2018

Looking like will come down to the final match - senior Abe vs junior Moore.  They are all square after 11.

RE: Today's golf finals - 2006alum - 05-23-2018

Fascinating. Zona's Moore is both more highly ranked than Bama's Abe (28 vs. 54), but also finished a whopping 11 strokes lower in the team stroke play portion. Moore finished tied for 56th and Abe finished 75th, 9 places out of dead last. Given how much better Bama is as a team, Zona has to love their chances if it comes down to that match.

RE: Today's golf finals - 2006alum - 05-23-2018

Wow. The two split the first four 2-2 and now Moore and Abe are A/S at 19 in sudden death playoff holes. Talk about pressure!

RE: Today's golf finals - Spiny_Norman - 05-23-2018

Tremendous final match between Moore and Abe. Abe had to take an unplayable lie penalty on 17 after an errant approach to go 1 down. But she hit her 2nd shot on the par 5 18th about 12 feet for eagle. When Moore missed her birdie (which had a chance until it turned at the very end), Abe needed only 2 putts to force extra holes.

The 19th hole was playing 18 again.  Both barely missed the green with their 2nd shots. Abe nearly holed her bunker shot which ran past about 8 feet. Moore hit her chip about 5 feet away. Abe just missed her putt. Moore was dead center. Arizona is the national champion!

RE: Today's golf finals - Viking_Guy - 05-23-2018

Arizona wins a thriller, with the last two matches being 1-up for Arizona, with Nordass hanging on at #4 after leading all day. Her opponent had birdied 17, one of the hardest birdies on the course, to pull within 1 down.

Final came down to Moore.  All square going to 17, both shooting for the green, her opponent, Alabama's Abe, sprayed her second shot right into the thigh-high third cut of rough behind a tree.  Moore, shooting after her, nearly put hers in the water to the left.  Abe tried to hack out, then took relief from an unplayable lie, and chunked a shot to the edge of the green out of a part of that third cut that had been tramped down a bit by all of the looking at her previous lie (I actually found that a bit strange, but the rules official was right there).  She then sent the ball past the cup by a good thirty feet, and conceded the hole.

Abe recovered from that by bombing a driver down the left side of 18, while Moore played a safe shot well off to the right, in the fairway but 40 yards short of Abe.  Moore, shooting first, laid up about 70 yards short.  Abe hammered a low screamer that hit the front fringe, bounced once or twice, then softly landed on the green and rolled to about 15 feet.  Moore's chip in was fine, to about 18 feet, but she missed the birdie putt, and Abe's eagle attempt ended up about 8 inches past the hole.  Conceded, all square.

Replaying 18, both players bombed away, Abe to almost the same spot, but on the fairway fringe, and Moore much more directly on line than her first shot.  Both went for the green - Moore just left, on the slope down to the water, and Abe in the front bunker, a fairly easy up and down.  Abe hit hers straight at the cup, but it rimmed out and ran by to about 7 feet, and Moore chipped just inside of her, a really good shot out of a very awkward upslope stance.

Abe hit it a little too soft, and her putt broke just right of the cup.  Moore punched hers straight in.  Go Pac 12.

Really fun ending to the championship.

VG

RE: Today's golf finals - 2006alum - 05-23-2018

Always happy to see a non-Californian PAC-12 school take home a championship if it can't be us. And I've held a permanent grudge against Bama ever since their 2nd round upset of us in the MBB NCAA's in 2004 when we were a #1 seed, so I'm particularly glad they didn't get a championship here! Also means four different PAC-12 teams have won the past four national championships.

RE: Today's golf finals - Hulk01 - 05-24-2018

it's great television, great watching. 

That final match, on paper, was a mismatch that Alabama's coach all but conceded by choosing that matchup.  Their coach figured that her  Stephenson would make up for it with a predictable and clear win at #1.  

Need to wait for the pro announcements to handicap next year, but we'lll be a preseason top five.

RE: Today's golf finals - Spiny_Norman - 05-24-2018

(05-23-2018, 06:55 PM)2006alum Wrote:  Always happy to see a non-Californian PAC-12 school take home a championship if it can't be us. And I've held a permanent grudge against Bama ever since their 2nd round upset of us in the MBB NCAA's in 2004 when we were a #1 seed, so I'm particularly glad they didn't get a championship here! Also means four different PAC-12 teams have won the past four national championships.

Stanford has never lost to a non-P12 school in match play. Each of the last 3 years, they lost to the eventual NC - Washington, ASU and Arizona.

RE: Today's golf finals - BostonCard - 05-24-2018

(05-24-2018, 09:29 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:  
(05-23-2018, 06:55 PM)2006alum Wrote:  Always happy to see a non-Californian PAC-12 school take home a championship if it can't be us. And I've held a permanent grudge against Bama ever since their 2nd round upset of us in the MBB NCAA's in 2004 when we were a #1 seed, so I'm particularly glad they didn't get a championship here! Also means four different PAC-12 teams have won the past four national championships.

Stanford has never lost to a non-P12 school in match play. Each of the last 3 years, they lost to the eventual NC - Washington, ASU and Arizona.

Also, since the championship has gone to match play format in 2015, it has never been won by a non-Pac12 team:
2015: Stanford
2016: UW
2017: ASU
2018: UofA

BC

RE: Today's golf finals - M T - 05-24-2018

(05-24-2018, 09:42 AM)BostonCard Wrote:  Also, since the championship has gone to match play format in 2015, it has never been won by a non-Pac12 team
2015: Stanford
2016: UW
2017: ASU
2018: UofAz

Just removing the ambiguity of this year's winner...

Mostly I don't watch sports unless I care about some of the participants, and I find golf, uh, slow.  But I enjoyed the last 4+1 holes of the finals (yes, I was cheering for Az) late night on the Golf Channel. [Ok, so I was time-sharing with two other TV programs, thanks to TiVo].

A couple of things to note: 

Arizona's Haley Moore does not fit our (or at least my) usual stereotypes of physique for most athletes.  Her performance might encourage others to participate at high levels when they might not otherwise.

Did you see the other Alabama players in a group hug with Lakareber Abe after her loss?  While we can hope that we someday see this only in terms of good sportsmanship, I still noticed it.

RE: Today's golf finals - 2006alum - 05-24-2018

(05-24-2018, 01:54 PM)M T Wrote:  Arizona's Haley Moore does not fit our (or at least my) usual stereotypes of physique for most athletes.  Her performance might encourage others to participate at high levels when they might not otherwise.

Golfweek had a really compelling piece on her this morning. Apparently she was pretty cruelly teased and bullied starting in middle school, primarily for her weight. Really nice to see her have such a story of redemption.