2022 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship: Preview, schedule, how to watch, course details

The top teams in college golf head to the Arizona desert this week for the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf National Championships, where 24 teams and 12 individuals (not on qualifying teams) will compete for the titles at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, May 20-25.

This year’s field features each of the top 10, and 19 of the top 20 teams in the Golfstat rankings (only No. 12 Florida is missing). Nine previous national champions (Alabama, Arizona State, Purdue, San Jose State, Stanford, TCU, UCLA, Georgia, Southern California) are in the field, which also features four teams from both California and Texas – the most of any states. Missing this week is defending champion Ole Miss, marking the first time the defending champ has not returned to the NCAAs since Washington won in 2016 and failed to qualify in 2017.

However, 17 of last year’s 24 teams are back, including three of the eight teams that advanced to the match play. Of note, the Stanford Cardinal come in as the No. 1 ranked team, while the Southern California Trojans arrive at Grayhawk off a record 14th regional title win. The Oregon Ducks, making their second straight and 12th overall championships appearance, captured their first regional title in Albuquerque, with junior Briana Chacon earning the program’s first individual title by four shots. Purdue, currently ranked 45th in the Golfstat rankings, is the lowest-ranked team to qualify for the tournament.

Stanford’s Rachel Heck, the 2021 individual champion, is aiming to become the first woman to claim multiple individual titles, although four schools – Arizona (1990-1991), Arizona State (1994-1995), Duke (2001-2002) and USC (2013-2014) – have had different players win in consecutive editions.

An additional 12