A day after Arizona won the NCAA women’s golf championship, the Wildcats caught a flight to Phoenix and drove to Tucson in luxury-sized black SUVs with “National Champions” logos affixed to the front doors.
For UA coaches Laura Ianello and Derek Radley, it was the first day of the rest of their lives. At some point soon, they’ll begin working to keep the gang together.
Juniors Bianca Pagdanagan and Haley Moore will surely explore the possibility of playing in the revamped LPGA Qualifying School in the fall. So, too, might freshman standout Yu-Sang Hou.
Elite college golfers are no different than top college basketball players. The retention rate of golfers such as Pagdanagan, Moore and Hou — keeping them for a full college career — is minimal.
But on the drive from Phoenix to Tucson, Radley got a call from Ya-Chun Chang, the No. 3 overall recruit in the Class of 2018 according to Golfweek’s analytics.
Chang, from Chinese Tapei, committed to the Wildcats last month and on Thursday told Radley she will indeed enroll at Arizona and play for the 2018-19 Wildcats. How good is Chang? She finished second, at 12-under-par, in the LPGA’s January Hitachi Classic in Taiwan. Chang has played golf and studied at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for the last three years.
“Her nickname is ‘Money,’” Radley said with a smile. “No kidding. Money. It fits. She’s terrific.”
Ianello knows how fluid a college golf roster can be. Over the holidays in December, Arizona’s No. 2 player, Krystal Quihuis, left school to play on the Symetra Tour, which is the LGPA’s version of the men’s Web.com Tour. Further, junior Gigi Stoll, whose clutch play helped Arizona upset UCLA and Stanford during the NCAA finals, also informed Ianello she planned to leave Arizona. Stoll began looking for another school at which to complete her eligibility.
Fortunately, Stoll and Ianello came to an agreement that allowed Stoll to remain on the UA roster.
If all goes well — if Pagdanganan, Hou, Moore, Chang, Stoll and Sandra Nordaas are on Arizona’s roster when play resumes in September — the Wildcats are almost certain to open the year ranked No. 1.
Stay tuned.