Cal women’s golf wraps up regular season with 13th-place finish out of 16
Over this past week, Cal women’s golf tied for 13th place out of a 16-team field at the Silverado Showdown. While San Jose State ultimately took the win in Napa, the blue and gold faithful saw mental pivots, resilience and some noteworthy golf by the Bears.
“It feels pretty good because we had a good round and was one of the top six rounds of the day in a really packed field,” said head coach Nancy McDaniel. “Our learning curve was high from the beginning to the end, and we’re encouraged by that. Resilience was really huge for this team.”
Junior Tzu-Yi Chang’s performance was notable as her swinging helped the team place 13th. She tied for 28th place out of 90 total players. The Bear with the next-best finish was Katherine Zhu, who placed 38th alongside nine others.
“Tzu-Yi was our top finisher, she had a real turnaround in her first round from the first nine to the second nine,” McDaniel said. “Another big turnaround from yesterday to today is with Katherine Zhu and there was just good mental pivot there for her.”
When asked if there is anything that the team could have worked on for a better overall result, McDaniel’s response was telling. Both mentality and physical well-being is important to McDaniel — two tangible ways the team is striving to improve on one invitational at a time. She also mentioned that the team’s goal is to get to the 2022 NCAA finals in May.
However, Cal may be better off saving the travel time to Arizona by staying home. At the Silverado Showdown, the Bears did play six of the nation’s top-15 teams, but a 13th-place finish out of a field of 16 doesn’t exactly put Cal in solid standing for the postseason.
We will see more of the Bears in Oregon at the Eugene Country Club, where they will play in the Pac-12 championships. Though underwhelming performances have been routine, fans hope to see the team showcase its resilience sooner rather than later.
Anahi Tabares covers women’s golf. Contact her at atabares@dailycal.org.