Women’s golf deserves an NCAA bid and building program validation the right way

Gallery: (4/26/2023) Women’s Golf, 2023 NCAA Selection

After earning the program’s first NCAA regional bid in 11 years, when most of the lineup was in elementary school, the USF women’s golf team was rewarded with a spirited session of table tennis?

“We’re going to hit the release valve and let it breathe a little bit,” the Bulls coach Erika Brennan said. “Later, we crunch the numbers, look at the field and plan.

“Right now we’re going to enjoy this.”

The good times started rolling last Wednesday afternoon when the NCAA Women’s Golf Tournament bids were announced on the Golf Channel. With players and coaches watching the confidence, nervousness and excitement, four of the six regional fields had already been revealed.

The wait was endless.

The fifth place was the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens.

It was quiet at first. Then there was a huge roar, a few tears of joy, the players jumped into each other’s arms.

The Bulls were in!

For the first time since 2012 and 15th time overall, USF women’s golf is headed to the postseason. The Bulls are the number 10 seed 8-10. for the May event in Palm Beach Gardens, joining a 12-team field paced by No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Northwestern.

The 72-team NCAA field featured 27 automatic qualifiers and 45 at-large teams. The top five teams in each region advance to the 19th-24th. to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona in May.

Bulls junior Melanie Green, who was recently named first-team All-American Athletic Conference for the third time, went to the NCAA Regionals as an individual last season. He was assured of another personal berth this time. But Green said it was “indescribable” to express his emotions knowing his team would be involved this time.

“The postseason is a whole different ball game,” Green said. “That’s what everybody’s shooting for and that’s why we play. Last year I was happy to go, but I missed my teammates. So it’s so great that we all get to represent USF.

“Our program is definitely on the rise. This kind of thing happens every year now. Ever since I got here, there’s been constant improvement. It’s a great milestone and we’re very excited. But we’re not done yet. We want to get to Palm Beach Gardens, play the best golf and we’re confident to their possibilities.

Brennan, in his fifth season, said USF’s NCAA at-large bid is “the ultimate validation of the way we try to do things, which is not an easy way.”

Brennan said USF’s program has been built methodically, with great care and planning. He said it is now built to last.

“You can do it faster if you take shortcuts, but when coach (Dalton) Stevens and I got here, we were committed to doing it in a sustainable way,” Brennan said. “That’s the way it is. You’ve got to get the right girls here. Every year we’ve been here has built up to this moment.”

And when that historic moment came? Once Brennan saw the joy and excitement on his players’ faces?

“The amount of adversity, the amount of sadness, the amount of really tough life things that these girls have shared experiences with are really what allowed them to have this mountaintop moment,” Brennan said. “This is a team that will forever be the catalyst that kicks off what we’ve always known it could be from a recruiting standpoint.

“It’s a proof of concept because we’ve always shared the message in recruiting that we do it differently here and we don’t take shortcuts. We’re not going to score you after one round because we really care about the whole person. For our team to achieve the way we did this year, it’s a proof of concept for recruiters and a lot of chilling for parents. They know their kids are being taken care of.”

With the usual green configuration Lauren Heinlein, Leonor Medeiros, Juliana Camargo and Alizee Vidal, the Bulls earned the No. 5 seed in the AAC Championships and finished fifth (the third time in the last four AAC tournaments that USF finished in the upper half). The Bulls finished the tournament with the best round (5-par 283).

Coming off a fall streak, USF finished sixth or better in nine of its 11 tournaments.

“I think we had one bad tournament and played well in the rest of them,” Green said. “Coming into the facility, I said to myself, ‘We’re going to the NCAAs for sure.’ I think we’ve earned this.”

Brennan said USF’s weekend national ranking of No. 57 led him to believe the Bulls had a spot in the field. But he took nothing for granted.

“I haven’t slept well the last couple of nights,” Brennan said. “You weren’t positive how it all shook out. It felt good, but when you introduce the selection committee, you never know. I’ve always believed that we deserved and we did what it took to earn this spot, so I think we deserved it.

Brennan said he didn’t care about USF’s regional target as long as the Bulls got in.

“People kept asking me where we wanted to go, and I just said, ‘Yes.'” Brennan said with a laugh. “But if we had a choice, we would have chosen Palm Beach Gardens. We’re familiar with the speed of the greens, the location, the heat, the humidity, it’s done for us. We can reduce some variables, fine-tune some things and be ready to go.”

Before I turned my attention to Palm Beach Gardens, however, there was table tennis. There was team coordination. And Green understood that he and his teammates are on the ground floor of something special.

“This is my family, my golf family, and it’s an honor to go on this adventure with them,” Green said. “The best part is knowing that long after we’re gone, this program will continue to go to regionals and be successful. Every year we take another step. We’re by no means done, but we’re very proud of this moment.

#GoBulls