And just like that, the first two months of the 2025-26 college golf season are in the books.
It seems like yesterday it was September and college golf teams were kicking off their seasons across the country. Now, outside of a couple tournaments, the sport is going dormant for the next three months until the spring season arrives and teams begin a four-month sprint toward the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.
There was no shortage of action from the fall, whether it was school records going down or teams asserting their dominance heading into the holiday break.
Here are some of the biggest stories from women’s college golf this fall, including the biggest winners from the first two months of the season and more.
Stanford is … Stanford
If there was one thing that was almost going to be a sure thing coming into the season, it was going to be Stanford was the team to beat. And, well, that’s still the case.
The Cardinal concluded the fall with a pair of 20-plus shot wins in the Stanford Intercollegiate and Nanea, continuing its stranglehold on stroke-play events dating to the 2023-24 season. Stanford has lost only once in stroke play in that time span, coming in second at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup this year before falling to Wake Forest in match play.
In 2025, Stanford lost to only four teams total, three of those coming at the hands of the Demon Deacons. But with four of the top five players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, including U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megha Ganne leading the way, Stanford had a fall that was expected, and it can be summed up in one word: dominance.
Who are the challengers?
As seen in the spring with Northwestern winning the championship, when it comes to match play, anything can happen. Wake Forest, even with a ninth-place finish at the Ruth’s Chris, has shown it can knock off Stanford in match play, doing it twice in the calendar year.
Then there’s old Pac-12 foe USC, which won the Golfweek Red Sky Classic and had three third-place finishes, including at the East Lake Cup. Oregon, which won the East Lake Cup, hasn’t finished worse than third in stroke play and is led by the world’s top-ranked amateur, Kiara Romero.
But perhaps the biggest challenger is Texas A&M, which has played four stroke-play tournaments and won every single one of them. The Aggies feature a deep lineup, even with the loss of No. 2 recruit Scarlett Schremmer, having three different highest finishers in their four victories.
Another team to not overlook is Florida, which has lost to only three teams in four events and collected a pair of victories, too.
Annika favorite?
Whereas there have been a handful of teams to have incredible falls, there hasn’t been one individual to have far-and-above better performances than her peers thus far. But across the board, the top players have had remarkable consistency.
Ganne’s worst finish is T-5 at last week’s Nanea, and she also had a win under her belt. Defending NCAA individual champion Maria Jose Marin has two runner-up finishes, a third and a fourth. Mississippi State junior Avery Weed won the Blessings Collegiate and also has a second, third and fourth on her resume. Romero has three runner-up finishes in stroke play and a third at the Annika.
Kent State junior Veronika Kendronova has a pair of wins, including the Landfall Tradition, and is ranked fifth in the NCAA golf rankings. Auburn junior Anna Davis shared medalist honors at the Nanea for her second victory of the fall.
As mentioned above, there has been remarkable consistency among the top players this fall, but the race for the Annika is wide open after the fall.
Slow start for defending champions
Northwestern shocked the college golf world in the spring with its national championship win against Stanford at Omni La Costa, but it has been a mixed bag of results to start its title defense.
The Wildcats shared medalist honors with Duke at its home event, the Windy City Collegiate, but in three other stroke-play events, their best finish is fourth. Northwestern finished T-12 of 19 teams at the Stanford Intercollegiate. Then last week, it finished runner-up at the East Lake Cup.
Newcomer Arianna Lau has been the Wildcats’ best player this fall, sitting at 24th in the NCAA golf rankings. Dianna Lee, who had the winning putt in May, has only one top-10 finish, though a T-53 at the Stanford Intercollegiate is affecting her ranking.
Ultimately, the fall portion of the golf slate is for fine-tuning things to head into the spring full steam ahead. Perhaps the runner-up finish at the East Lake Cup will provide a boost for the defending champs.
A historic debut
Going back to the first full week of the fall, Missouri freshman Ebba Liljeberg tied the NCAA record for 18-hole score in relation to par at the Sam Golden Invitational, signing for 11-under 61.
Liljeberg becomes the ninth player to shoot 61 in the history of women’s college golf. The others:
- 61 – Kendall Todd, Arkansas: Final round of the Clemson Invitational in Sunset, South Carolina, on March 30, 2025
- 61 – Avery Weed, Mississippi State: First round of The Ally in West Point, Mississippi, on Oct. 21, 2024
- 61 – Monet Chun, Michigan: Second round of the Chattanooga Classic in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Sept. 24, 2024
- 61 – Anna Zanusso, Denver: Second round of the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria, Arizona, on Feb. 23, 2020
- 61 – Julia Johnson, Ole Miss: Third round of the Battle at the Beach in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, on Nov. 3, 2019
- 61 – Bianca Pagdanganan, Gonzaga: Second round of the Pizza Hut Thunderbird Invitational in George, Utah, on March 17, 2017
- 61 – Esther Lee, Colorado: First round of the Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sept. 12, 2016
- 61 – Mariah Stackhouse, Stanford: Second round of the Peg Barnard Invitational in Stanford, California, on Feb. 17, 2013
Two years ago, N.C. State’s Lauren Olivares Leon shot 11-under 60, the only woman to shoot 60 in college golf history. There have been 21 scores of 60 in the history of college golf, but no one has broken into the 50s yet.
