Wildcats ready for NCAA Regionals after trying 2021 season

The UA women’s golf team is back where it wants to be — playing for a shot at another national championship.

Arizona will tee off Monday in the NCAA Regionals, which are being held at Stanford Golf Course. The sixth-seeded Wildcats playing a course they are very familiar with, having played the Pac-12 championships there two weeks ago and finishing fourth. Two UA golfers, senior Yu-Sang Hou (third) and sophomore Vivian Hou (10th), finished in the top 10.

Arizona won its last NCAA Regional at Stanford in 2010, holding off an early challenge from UCLA. This time around, the Wildcats will face top-ranked Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, USC, Virginia Tech and Stanford, among others.

“We just played it a few weeks ago so I think the course condition will be pretty similar,” Yu-Sang Hou said. “ …There are a few really tricky holes and there’s a few holes, you just have to hit perfect tee shots. The last time we played there the wind is all around and we definitely need to figure that out when we go back. There are a few par fives that we have to make birdie (on), so I think we will focus on course strategy, too.”

To help the Wildcats prepare for the course this week, coach Laura Ianello tried to replicate certain shots here in Tucson. That meant going to private courses around Tucson that grow grass — like Tucson Country Club, The Gallery and Stone Canyon.

“We’re just trying to replicate the lies that we see — working on a lot of uneven lies, uphill lies, ball below fee, because Stanford is a very hilly golf course,” Ianello said. “We’re trying to play the courses here in town that are going to simulate the lies that we’re going to see in the fairways as well as the thick rough around the greens and fast greens. Stanford’s greens are fast. We can’t replicate the cool temperatures of the Bay Area. But you know, it is what it is. And it feels nice and cool to us. We’ll be fine.”

Ianello also met with each golfer individually to go over course management.

It’s been a season like no other for the Wildcats, and it was one of the hardest Ianello has coached.

The Wildcats had just three players on campus in January — too few to compete as a team in tournaments. The Hou sisters and Ya Chun Chang were home in Taiwan. Their parents were concerned with the high numbers of COVID-19 cases.

All of them eventually returned, with the Hou sisters arriving in mid-February and Chang following a month later.

The challenges continued once the Wildcats began playing in tournaments, as evidenced by the inconsistent finishes anywhere from second place to eighth. Ianello said she “gained five pounds and lost five pounds about four times in the last three months” over stress.

“If that doesn’t tell you … with the team success and everything … I’m an emotional eater,” she added.

On top of all this, Vivian Hou has been playing with a torn hip labrum.

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“She has been gutting out this entire season playing every round of golf, every step and a lot of pain,” Ianello said. “It shows you how much heart there is that these ladies want to compete, and they want to compete for a championship.

“ … I was almost at the point where … I was like, ‘Vivian, you need to just go ahead and have your surgery. It’s not worth you playing (for) the next four months in pain, just so we can have a team that’s not even going to be competitive.’ It was a tough spot.

“But then when ‘Money’ (Chang’s nickname) came back and we had all five, it was such a relief. But, it was really scary there for a while. I really thought we were going to have to opt out of the entire season.”

Fortunately, they didn’t.

This will most likely be the last go-around for the Hou sisters. The two are as close as sisters could be, and are best friends off the course.

They compete on the course every day, with the loser having to pay for Starbucks or dinner or do laundry.

In September, Vivian Hou was the top amateur in the world and this past week Yu-Sang Hou missed out on qualifying for the U.S. Open by just a few shots.

Yu-Sang Hou, a senior, played on the 2018 national championship team, winning four consecutive holes to win her match 4&3. The very next season, she played in the semi-finals winning her match 1 up. Vivian Hou, a sophomore, will be playing in her first NCAAs as it was canceled last year because of the pandemic.

“It was something really special and I can’t describe the feeling (sharing this experience with her older sister),” Vivian Hou said. “In her first year, I watched the national champion(ship) on TV. I think it’s unreal. It feels really cool that I’m actually on the team right now and then play. It feels amazing.”

The Wildcats know that this is their time to peak and put it all together.

Ianello said she’s confident the Wildcats can win, “because I know that we are that good.”

Ianello doesn’t have any special message to motivate her golfers this week, but it didn’t hurt that the men’s team won the Pac-12 title.

“That was just tremendous,” Ianello said. “Our ladies were so excited for them. I felt like that was a big boost of momentum, not just for our men’s team, but also for us to say like, ‘Hey, come on ladies, we can do this. We got this. Nationals are going to be in here in Arizona. Let’s go, let’s do this.’”