New NCAA format for women’s golf is drawn-out mess
The NCAA women’s golf championships used to be a simple thing. Play four rounds. The lowest total team score wins. That’s how the Wildcats won the national title under Rick LaRose in 1996 and Todd McCorkle in 2000.
But now the NCAA has packaged its championships with Golf Channel and it has become a potentially exhausting, eight-day, medal-and-match play marathon.
If the Wildcats finish among the top 15 teams at the conclusion of Sunday’s medal play — and they should — they will play Monday in an attempt to get into the top group of eight. Those eight teams will then engage in 36 holes of team match play Tuesday. The made-for-TV finals, also match play, will pair two survivors Wednesday. Maybe the tournament should be called “Dual Survival” (but that’s already taken).
If Arizona makes it to the finish, it means it will have spent eight days (practicing and playing) in Bradenton, Florida, where temperatures are in the 90s and humidity is off the charts.
There’s got to be a better way.
