UK Women's Golf qualifies for first NCAA Championships since 1992

Photo via UK Athletics

After nearly three decades, the UK Women’s Golf team is heading back to the NCAA Championship after punching their ticket at the Columbus NCAA Regionals earlier this week.

The Wildcats shot 2-over-par 290 in the final round, holding off the competition to earn a fourth-place finish in Columbus.

Guess what #BBN … pic.twitter.com/oPEiSb7xcd

— Kentucky Women’s Golf (@KentuckyWGolf) May 12, 2021

pic.twitter.com/0A6JWZ7qRp

— Kentucky Women’s Golf (@KentuckyWGolf) May 12, 2021

Now, they set their sights on Scottsdale, Arizona, where the Wildcats will join 23 other teams in search of a national title.

Here’s the tournament’s structure:

The NCAA Championships will feature both stroke and match play. Teams will first compete in three 18-hole rounds of stroke-play competition. Following the third round, the field will be cut to the top 15 teams and top nine individuals not on an advancing team.

From the fourth round, the top eight teams from the 72-hole total scores will move on to the match-play bracket, which will be seeded in order of finish in stroke play. An individual champion will also be crowned after stroke play.

A knockout match-play competition will then take place to determine the team national champion.

UK’s best finish in an NCAA Championship came back in 1986, when the team came in fifth place. They went on to compete in five of the next seven tournaments, but haven’t been back to one since 1992.

This season the team has been rewriting the history books. They’ve gone somewhere few before them have been, and this week they will have a chance to further their legacy.

The tournament runs May 21-26. Best of luck to the Wildcat golfers!