The switch to match play was designed to inject energy and excitement into the NCAA championship.
Tuesday afternoon's semifinals provided plenty of both, and also assured the sport of a new national champion.
Baylor freshman Lauren Whyte defeated Duke's Lisa Maguire on the sixth extra hole at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., to give Baylor a 3-2 win and a berth in Wednesday afternoon's national championship match. Whyte and Maguire finished last and second-to-last through four rounds of stroke play but went hole-for-hole for 24 holes before Whyte dropped in a bogey putt on the 15th hole—the sixth playoff hole—to clinch the win.
With Maguire's loss, Duke—which at one point held a 2-0 lead in the match—falls just short of a shot at a second straight national title.
On the final playoff hole, Maguire's tee shot had sailed into the hazard area but did not trickle into the water, giving the advantage to Whyte, who hit the middle of the fairway. Maguire chipped out, but her third shot sailed to the back of the green, unable to recover from the errant first swing.
The duo had traded leads throughout the afternoon, but Whyte headed to the 17th tee box leading by two holes with just two holes remaining in regulation. A series of errors by the Baylor freshman kept the door open for Maguire, and after Whyte was forced to take a drop on the 18th hole, the Duke freshman nailed a putt to send the match to extra holes.
Maguire had a birdie putt to win the match on the third extra hole but came up short. After Whyte's third shot on the fourth extra hole hit a camera and rolled into a drainage area, the freshman made an excellent shot to get back on the green and knocked in a clutch par putt to put the pressure on Maguire, who had missed a birdie putt for the win. But the Cavan, Ireland, drilled her four-footer to extend the match to a fifth extra hole.
On the fifth playoff hole, it was Maguire who was forced to recover from an error. After finding the bunker off the tee, the freshman sent her second shot to within two feet of the hole. After Whyte missed a long birdie putt, the tap-ins were conceded to move to the sixth extra hole.
After cruising past Texas Tech 4-1 in the first stages of match play Tuesday morning, Duke looked poised to get past Baylor and have a chance to defend its national title. But the Bears had other ideas.
Sandy Choi staked Duke to an early lead, getting off the course quickly after winning her match against Baylor's Giovana Maymon. The sophomore sprinted out to a four-hole lead through the front nine, and the match was abandoned after the 13th hole with Choi holding a commanding six-hole lead.
Junior Celine Boutier added to the Duke lead with a three-hole victory against Hayley Davis. But the Bears mounted a comeback in two other matches, as Laura Lonardi overcame a one-hole deficit against freshman Gurbani Singh to lead the entire back nine to close the gap to 2-1.
Leona Maguire held an early two-hole lead against Dylan Kim after the sixth hole but lost back-to-back holes to return the match to a deadlock. Kim picked up a win on the 17th hole and held on on the 18th green after Maguire's putt hung on the cusp of the hole but did not fall. Kim's victory against the top-ranked golfer in the nation evened the score at 2-2.
All eyes then turned to the pairing of Lisa Maguire and Whyte for the decisive battle that finally finished on the duo's 42nd hole of the day.
Baylor advances to play Stanford in Wednesday's championship match, which begins at 3 p.m.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.