Pro game beckons for Walsh after Wake Forest NCAA title

Ireland could have another runner in the races on the LPGA Tour shortly after Castlewarden's Lauren Walsh helped deliver Wake Forest University their first every NCAA Women's Golf Championship on Wednesday.

The Demon Deacons beat Southern California 3-1 in the Tournament final with Walsh closing out her match - and the championship itself - with a 16th-hole win over SoCal's Brianna Navarrosa at Grayhawk Golf Club, Arizona.

Wake Forest lost to Duke University in the 2019 final and had a school-record five tournament wins this season with a team led by 22-year-old Walsh, Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio.

"It's such a long, exhausting week," a delighted Walsh said. "We flew out last week; we've two practice days, and then four days of strokeplay and two days a matchplay with one of them being 36 holes.

"So it's something like eight rounds in seven days. And that's a lot of golf for us. But, you know, that's why we get up and work out every week. And that's why we practice every day. It makes all those hours we put into it, so worth it.

"Not only was it a long week, we're out here and it's 37-38 degrees Celsius every day. And that really takes it out of you as well. And obviously, being from Ireland, we're not quite used to those temperatures.

Walsh is currently ranked 48th in the world and is Ireland's top-ranked amateur and just the second to win the NCAA title, after Olivia Mehaffey won with ASU in 2017.

"They've worked hard, they have control of their golf ball," Wake Forest coach Kim Lewellen said of her team. "The past was the past and now this is the future."