Lottie Woad leads FSU golf Into Second Place at NCAA Las Vegas Regional

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Florida State All-American Lottie Woad is in second place in the individual standings, and the No. 4 seeded Seminoles are in second place in the team standings after the first round of the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Las Vegas Regional Championship at the Spanish Trail Country Club. The Seminoles have two golfers (Woad and senior Alice Hodge) in the top five of the individual standings as they play to advance to the NCAA Championship Finals for the eighth consecutive year under Head Coach Amy Bond.

The top five teams and the top individual not on an advancing team, after three rounds of play at each of the six NCAA regional championships, will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals at the Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California (May 17-22). The Seminoles have advanced from the regional stage to the championship finals stage in the last seven years the tournament has been held.

No. 2 seeded and No. 9 ranked Arkansas was a combined total of 14 under par with 13 birdies and one eagle on the last five holes and took over the team lead from the Seminoles late in the round. The Razorbacks finished with an eight-under-par team total of 280. Arkansas leads Florida State by three strokes and Purdue by four strokes as play is set to begin in the second round on Tuesday. Kajal Mistry of Arkansas shot a career-low 6-under par score of 66, leading Florida State's Woad by one stroke in the individual standings.

"Each of the girls played really good golf today," said Bond. "They made tremendous adjustments today as the wind blew in a completely different direction than it did in our practice round yesterday. We have to continue to play one round at a time and continue to play Florida State golf for the next two days."

Woad, who was named ACC Golfer of the Year last week, continued her All-American season as she carded a 67 – her fifth consecutive below-par collegiate round. She came within two strokes of tying her career-low score of 65 – a total that also ranks as the lowest round in school history. Woad has now carded three consecutive rounds in the 60s while playing in a collegiate event this spring and is 54 strokes under par for her entire 18-tournament career at Florida State.

Woad carded six of Florida State's 17 birdies during the round as she began her second consecutive regional with a score of 67. She began the 2023 Raleigh Regional Championship with a 67 on her way to a tied-for sixth-place individual finish. In Monday's first round, she birdied her first two holes, made the turn at 3 under, and birdied two of her final nine holes, including her final hole, to move to 5 under par.

Including Woad's team-leading six birdies, the Seminoles totaled 17 birdies in the first round - second to only Arkansas' total of 19 birdies. The six birdies by Woad rank as the most in the first round by any of the 66 golfers in the regional field.

Hodge, meanwhile, is in a tie for fourth place in the individual standings with a 2-under-par score of 70. She totaled four birdies and was never above par during the round. She was one under par with one birdie and eight holes played at par on her first nine and totaled three birdies after making the turn. Following a top-20 individual finish in the ACC Championship, Hodge has carded three of her last four rounds at par or better and is a total of five strokes under par in her last three events.

With four birdies, Hodge tied for the fourth-highest total of birdies in the first round of play. She was also tied for the lowest cumulative score on the 10 par 4 holes on the course.

Senior Charlotte Heath and sophomore Mirabel Ting, two Seminoles who have earned All-American honors during their careers in Tallahassee, shot identical scores of 73 and are both tied for 19th place in the individual standings.

Florida State will play with Arkansas and Purdue as the top three teams in the standings in the second round. Sophomore Kathleen Cook is the first Seminole to tee off at 11:00 a.m.

2024 NCAA Las Vegas Regional Championship/May 6-8, 2024

Spanish Trail Country Club/Las Vegas, Nevada/Par 72

FSU individual standings

2.-Lottie Woad, 67

T4.-Alice Hodge, 70

T18.-Charlotte Heath, 73

T18.-Mirabel Ting, 73

65.-Katherine Cook.-83

Team standings

1.-Arkansas, 280

2.-Florida State, 283

3.-Purdue, 284

4.-UCLA, 291

5.-Baylor, 292

T6.-Arizona, 294

T6.-Oklahoma, 294

8.-Colorado State, 298

T9-.California, 301

9.-Kent State, 301

T9-.California, 301

11.-Dartmouth, 302

12.-Xavier, 310

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lottie Woad leads FSU golf in second place in regional