May 25, 1996: Arizona wins women’s NCAA golf title on Marisa Baena’s sudden-death eagle
Details that have been forgotten over the last 20 years: On the final hole of regulation at the 1996 NCAA women’s golf championship, Arizona’s Marisa Baena missed a birdie putt that would’ve made the Wildcats national champions.
After four days and 72 holes, Arizona and San Jose State ended in a tie, each with 1,240 strokes. There was some confusion as NCAA marshals ordered four Wildcats and four Spartans to play an aggregate, sudden-death playoff.
On the first extra hole, Arizona’s Heather Graff, Krissie Register and Jeanne Anne Krizman combined for 13 strokes. The San Jose State foursome shot a combined 16.
Baena, a freshman who had already won the NCAA individual title by a whopping seven strokes, stood 147 yards away from the 18th green, ready to hit her second shot. Just at that moment, the TV crew following Baena did an untimely personation of the Keystone Cops.
She stepped away from the ball four times as cameramen scrambled for a better angle. Anyone else might’ve freaked out, but the freshman from Pereira, Colombia, thought it was funny. She chuckled.
“Marisa’s a world-class smiler,” UA coach Rick LaRose told me. “If she was nervous, you couldn’t tell.”
Baena’s 7-iron shot bounced onto the green at the La Quinta (California) Dunes Course and into the cup for an eagle. The Wildcats won the NCAA title by a stroke.
“That’s probably the greatest clutch shot in collegiate golf history,” said LaRose, who also coached Arizona to the 1992 men’s national title. “Given the pressure and the circumstances, I can’t think of anything to top it.”
Arizona’s women’s golf program has been stocked with star-level players, from Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa, to LPGA majors winner Christa Johnson and NCAA individual champions Susan Slaughter and Jenna Daniels.
But you can make a case that in 1996 and 1997, Baena was best of all, spending time ranked as the No. 1 female amateur in the world, finishing second at the U.S. Women’s Amateur and being selected the NCAA Player of the Year both years.
Baena won 10 tournaments in her three seasons at Arizona, even though her final year 1997-98, was marred by a serious shoulder injury (thoracic outlet syndrome), which kept her idle for five months and probably damaged her future years on the LPGA Tour.
But what she accomplished at the 1996 NCAA finals ranks as one of the most singular moments in UA sports history. An eagle to win the national title? C’mon, who does that?
Baena was an exchange student, attending Dixie High School in St. George, Utah, when LaRose began to recruit her. She had won the Junior World championship in 1991 and 1993 and wanted to move to the United States to learn English and prepare for a life on the LGPA Tour.
She hoped to attend UCLA but when she called Bruins coach Jackie Steinmann, the Bruins said they didn’t have an available scholarship. Even LaRose was slow to recruit her.
“We didn’t know if she could handle (the English) language,” LaRose told me. “When she got to high school in Utah, she could barely speak a word.”
As it turns out, Baena became a personality like few others on the UA campus. She was an upbeat, glad-to-meet-you charmer. She liked the UA and Tucson so much that her sister, Cristina, moved to Tucson and led Canyon del Oro High School to the 1997 state championship. Cristina was part of the UA’s 2000 NCAA championship team.
Where is she now: Marisa Baena’s pro career included just one LPGA victory, the 2005 HSBC Women’s World Match Play, in which she won $500,000, then the largest winner’s check in tour history. She earned $1.98 million as a pro and effectively quit playing regularly in 2008 after she married Colombian businessman Juan Aristizabal. She has two children, lives in Dallas, and does charity work for junior golfers.
How she did it: “I never take golf as an obsession,” Baena told Sports Illustrated in 1997. “My life and my golf game I like to keep separate. If I win or lose on the course, I like to live like everyone else. I am not somebody who spends four hours on the driving range,” she told the magazine.
“When the coach says, ‘Take a day off,’ I will. I’m gone.”
