May 12, 2012

ERIE, Colo. - The No. 9 California Golden Bear women's golf team's season came to a close on Saturday afternoon when Cal finished in a tie for ninth place at the NCAA West Regional in Erie, Colo., finishing three strokes behind eighth-place Oklahoma. Senior Daniela Holmqvist was one stroke shy of qualifying as an individual.

The Golden Bears came into the final round of the NCAA West Regional, being played at the par-72, 6,575-yard Colorado National Golf Club outside of Boulder, Colo., ranked in eighth place in the field of 24 teams. The Bears would need to finish among the top eight teams to advance to the NCAA National Championships.

The Golden Bears were one of the first teams to tee off, and one of the first to come in. The Bears got birdies from two of their seniors in the final two holes with Joanne Lee birdieing 17 and Holmqvist making a very long, very curvy putt to birdie 18 to finish the tournament at +29 overall.

The Bears then had to sit back and wait. One of the final teams in the morning session, Texas Tech, had the chance to mathematically eliminate the Bears (becoming the eighth team finished with a lower score), but all four of their scoring players bogeyed the final hole (the ninth hole as they had teed off on No. 10), to fall into a tie with the Bears at +29.

Both teams then had to wait and watch the teams with the late tee times add strokes to their scores. All the teams ahead of the Red Raiders and Bears eventually passed the +29 score, except Oklahoma. After the Sooners' Jackie Marshall had back-to-back bogeys on 15 and 16, Oklahoma dropped to +27, two strokes ahead of dropping into a tie with Cal and Texas Tech. The Sooners rallied with Marshall getting a birdie on 17 and Chirapat Jao-Javanil getting a birdie on 16. After the second to last Oklahoma golfer bogeyed 18, Oklahoma again had just a two stroke lead with Cal needing a double bogey from Jao-Javanil to force a playoff. She instead birdied 18, with Oklahoma carding an impressive 289 in the final round to earn the final berth at the NCAA Championships.

"We are very disappointed," said head coach Nancy McDaniel. "I still can't fathom that we didn't pull it together and play better. We stumbled early in today's round and that put us in a vulnerable position. We couldn't get the putts to fall. We are a strong enough team that we shouldn't have been in a position where we needed that to happen. It is very tough to get through regionals. You have got to bring it and be firing on all cylinders. We were not and other teams were. I am very sorry that our three seniors will not be closing out their careers at the NCAA Championships."

The top two individuals who aren't a member of the top eight teams also advance to the National Championships. Texas Tech's Kimberley Kaufman advanced with a score of +1. Texas Tech's Gabriella Dominguez and UC Davis' Amy Simanton both finished at +3 and had to go to a playoff to determine the final individual qualifier, with Dominguez winning the playoff hole and earning the spot in the Championship field.

The Bears' Daniela Holmqvist missed being part of that playoff by a single stroke, finishing at +4, tied for 16th place. Holmqvist, with her clutch birdie on the 18th hole, finished the final round with a two-over 74.

Senior Joanne Lee had the low round for the Bears in the third round, carding a one-under 71. She had three back-nine birdies in the final round of her collegiate career.

UCLA and LSU tied for first among the teams with nine-over 873's. Catherine O'Donnell of North Carolina was the individual medalist, fishing at seven-under.

The 2012 NCAA West Regional was the 13th consecutive year that the team had earned a bid to the post season. They had been trying to advance to the National Championships for the second straight year. This was the second time the team finished in a heartbreaking tie for ninth place, one place shy of advancing. The Bears suffered a similar fate in the 2009 season at the West Regional held at in Tempe, Ariz.

California Scores

T9 	California 	296 	301 	296 	893
T16 	Daniela Holmqvist   	71 	75 	74 	220
T45 	Joanne Lee      	80 	74 	71 	225
T57 	Nicola Roessler  	74 	75 	78 	227
T61 	Jaqueline Williams  	74 	80 	74 	228
T86 	Emily Childs     	77 	77 	77 	231

Team Scores

T1 UCLA
	+9 	F 	  -1 	290 	296 	287 	873
T1 LSU
	+9 	F 	  +4 	291 	290 	292 	873
3 Pepperdine
	+11 	F 	  -9 	297 	299 	279 	875
4 Colorado
	+13 	F 	  -9 	297 	301 	279 	877
T5 Baylor
	+15 	F 	  -2 	300 	293 	286 	879
T5 Stanford
	+15 	F 	  +11 	287 	293 	299 	879
7 North Carolina
	+16 	F 	  +6 	288 	298 	294 	880
8 Oklahoma
	+26 	F 	  +1 	305 	296 	289 	890
--------------------------------------------------------------------
T9 Texas Tech
	+29 	F 	  +11 	300 	294 	299 	893
T9 California
	+29 	F 	  +8 	296 	301 	296 	893
11 UNLV
	+32 	F 	  +5 	302 	301 	293 	896
12 UC Davis
	+33 	F 	  +9 	305 	295 	297 	897
13 Tulsa
	+35 	F 	  +11 	297 	303 	299 	899
T14 Illinois
	+36 	F 	  +14 	296 	302 	302 	900
T14 TCU
	+36 	F 	  +6 	302 	304 	294 	900
T14 Iowa State
	+36 	F 	  +8 	302 	302 	296 	900
17 San Jose State
	+39 	F 	  +15 	302 	298 	303 	903
18 New Mexico
	+49 	F 	  +15 	303 	307 	303 	913
19 Denver
	+51 	F 	  +12 	304 	311 	300 	915
20 Kennesaw State
	+60 	F 	  +16 	309 	311 	304 	924
21 Missouri State
	+64 	F 	  +19 	314 	307 	307 	928
22 Oregon State
	+72 	F 	  +17 	313 	318 	305 	936
23 Northern Colorado
	+75 	F 	  +16 	311 	324 	304 	939
24 Jackson State Univ.
	+166 	F 	  +39 	348 	355 	327 	1030