South Carolina earns top seed in NCAA women’s golf regional

South Carolina earned a No. 1 seed and Clemson received a No. 3 in the NCAA women’s golf regionals that provide a path to the national championship tournament.

The Gamecocks, ranked second nationally, will compete in the Auburn Regional, and Clemson, ranked No. 17, will be in the field in Bryan, Texas. Both 54-hole, stroke-play events are scheduled for May 6-8.

The top five teams in each of the six regional tournaments will advance to the national championship, set for May 17-22 in Carlsbad, California.

One of the premier women’s golf programs nationally under coach Kalen Anderson, Carolina will be the top-seeded team in a regional for the fourth-straight year. Overall, this will mark the team’s 25th consecutive regional appearance.

The Gamecocks won four tournaments against one of the toughest schedules in the country this season and will be looking to make the nationals for the 11th time in 14 years. USC has played in the nationals 12 times in Anderson’s 17 seasons.

The Gamecocks tied for fifth in the nationals a year ago.

All-Americans Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist lead the Gamecocks, who won the stroke-play portion of the SEC Championship before dropping a 3-2 decision to LSU in match-play.

No. 7 Auburn, playing on its home course, is the second seed in USC’s regional with No. 14 Oregon third and No. 23 Georgia fourth. The Gamecocks edged Auburn by three shots in the stroke play competition in the SEC tourney.

Clemson will making its eighth consecutive regional appearance and will be facing some familiar teams in the Bryan Regional. No. 1 seed LSU, No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 4 Vanderbilt, Ohio State and Maryland all competed in the Clemson Invitational in March.

Nationally, LSU is ranked fifth with Texas A&M at 12, Clemson at 17 and Vanderbilt at 20.

Chloe Holder, Annabelle Pancake and Isabella Rawl lead the Tigers, who come into the regional after finishing second in both the stroke play and match play portions of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

In the match-play finals, play ended due to darkness with four of the five matches still on the course. Wake Forest had won the only completed match, and each team led in two of the remaining matches.

The ACC tournament rules award the championship to the higher remaining seed if a match-play event cannot be completed. Wake, No. 3 nationally, entered the finals seeded No. 1 with the Tigers No. 2.

Playing as individuals in the Auburn regional will be a pair of Furman players, Anna Morgan and Audrey Ryu, and the College of Charleston’s Viktoria Hund.

Chip shots. Aiken’s Kevin Kisner will join Max Homa and Tom Kim on Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club that will compete in TGL presented by SoFi, the prime-time golf league scheduled to begin play in January. Matches will be televised on ESPN. ... USC stalwarts Louise Rydqvist (Sweden) and Hannah Darling (Scotland) have been selected to compete for Team International and Anna Morgan (Spartanburg/Furman) will be on the U.S. squad in the 2024 Palmer Cup, scheduled for July 5-7 In Lahinch, Ireland. ... Clemson’s men finished 10th in the ACC Championship at Charlotte CC. ... USC took the team title and Frankie Harris shared medalist honors in the Wofford Invitational, the Gamecocks’ final tourney prior to the SEC Championship that ends Sunday. ... Jack Nance, executive director of the Carolinas Golf Association since 1992, will retire at the end of the year.