Medalists David Ford of North Carolina and Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest will lead their respective teams into Wednesday's championship matches at the second annual Jackson T. Stephens Cup being held at the venerable Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.
Both players finished off wire-to-wire victories on Tuesday, with Ford winning the men's title at 16-under 200 and Kuehn taking women's medalist honors at 10-under 206.
A second-round 62 which featured a run of eight consecutive birdies gave the Tar Heel sophomore a six-stroke lead heading into Wednesday's final round and a 2-under 70 over the final 18 holes secured Ford his first collegiate individual title.
Jonas Baumgartner of Oklahoma State closed with a 6-under 66 to climb into second place at 12-under 204 while Brett Roberts of Florida State finished five back at 11-under 205.
Kuehn fended off hard-charging Carla Tejado of LSU to pick up the women's individual title, however, her march to the winner's circle wasn't as easy as Ford's.
The two-time Curtis Cup team member started her final round with a two-shot lead on the field but Tejado, playing a few groups ahead of the leader, drew even at 8-under par with a birdie on her final hole to cap off a final round 68.
The LSU junior from Castellon de Plana, Spain held the clubhouse until Kuehn regained the lead with back-to-back birdies on hole Nos. 15 and 16 to move to 10-under. She then nailed down her fifth collegiate title with routine pars on 17 and 18.
"Rachel works so hard and really thrives off her teammates' success just as much as her own," said Wake Forest head coach Kim Lewellen. "She is extremely competitive and wants to win for herself but also for the team, they are all very close and play for each other. Her play down the stretch today really showed what kind of competitor she is, and we are very happy for her to get the individual win today."
North Carolina, which is coming off a win at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational a week ago, will face ACC rival Florida State in the men's championship match while the top two women's teams in the country, No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Wake Forest, will square off in a much-anticipated women's title match.
Lewellen is looking forward to facing the top-ranked Cardinal on Wednesday.
"We have a very experienced team, and they have all played a lot of high-level golf," she said. "These are the moments and tournaments we train for all year, so we are very pleased with the top seed heading into tomorrow. Stanford is obviously an extremely talented team and it's an honor to play against them. We will go in tonight and get some rest and be ready to bring our best game to the match tomorrow.
The women's championship match features seven players listed in the top-50 of the women's World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) in Rose Zhang (1), Rachel Heck (3), Megha Ganne (27) and Brooke Seay (36) of Stanford and Kuehn (10), Emilia Migliaccio (22) and Carolina Lopez Chacarra (22) of Wake Forest.
GOLF Channel will carry both championship matches live on Wednesday beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.
ABOUT THE
Stephens Cup
Debuting in 2021, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup is an
annual collegiate golf
tournament named in memory of the late Augusta
National Chairman, Jackson T.
Stephens. The tournament is a four-day stroke play-
match play event featuring
NCAA Division I National Championship contending
men’s and women’s teams.
The tournament format will be 54 holes of stroke
play setting the field for a final day
of match play based on the stroke-play team finish;
the final day of match play will
be 18 holes. The event will also recognize its 54-hole
winners upon completion of
stroke play.
View Complete Tournament Information