Women's Golf finishes second at NCAA Championships

Women's golf head coach Jay Goble joined Baylor in 2011 after three seasons as an assistant coach at Florida, one of the nation’s premier programs. It did not take Goble long to get the Lady Bears to the top of the leader board.

Baylor Women's Golf, which could not be found among the top 100-ranked NCAA teams as late as last fall, enjoyed the program's most successful season in 2015, falling on the first playoff hole in the final match against Stanford in the NCAA Division I national championship. It was only Baylor's third appearance in the NCAA Championship and eclipsed the program's previous best finish--16th in 2012, Goble's first year at the helm.

All-American Dylan Kim won her match against Stanford's Lauren Kim, and Giovana Maymon defeated Stanford's Quirine Eijkenboom. Meanwhile, Stanford picked up two wins Casey Danielson over Laura Lonardi and Shannon Aubert over Lauren Whyte.

It all came down to the final match, which pitted All-American Hayley Davis, Baylor's lone senior, against Stanford’s Mariah Stackhouse. Davis' remarkable approach shot from the mud on the 16th hole led to an eight-foot birdie putt, which she sank to go up two holes with two to play.

However, Stackhouse won each of the next two holes to force a sudden-death playoff. Stackhouse parred the first hole to Davis' bogey, giving Stanford the title.

"Since my freshman year when I came in at the same time as Jay, (we) changed the goals of the program, we need to be competing for a national championship," Davis said after the match. "It had potential, and that's why I came to Baylor because I knew it really could be like this. I'm really excited how it's going, and it’s only going to get better."

Baylor's run to the final match included a 3-1-1 win over Tennessee in the quarterfinals and a 3-2, come-from-behind victory against perennial power Duke in the semifinals. The Lady Bears trailed the Blue Devils in all five matches at the turn. Whyte defeated Lisa Maguire, one of the world's top amateur players, on the sixth playoff hole in the final match to propel Baylor into the championship.