Bulls are making back-to-back NCAA appearances for the first time since 2001-02.
TAMPA, FLA., April 24, 2024 – The USF women’s golf team earned an NCAA Regional bid when the NCAA assigned the Bulls a sixth seed in the Bermuda Run regional. The Bulls are making their 16th NCAA Regional appearance, the first in consecutive years since 2001-02.
In the previous 15 NCAA Regional appearances, USF has advanced to the championship round four times in its history, finishing in the Top 10 all four times, with a school-best fourth place finish in 1991.
The Bulls will play at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, N.C. May 6-8. Twelve teams and six individuals not on those teams will compete at the regional. The top five teams and the low individual not on an advancing team will advance to play advance to play in the championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California May 17-22.
“We like it, we like the fact that we can stay in the Eastern time zone and play at a course that we’ve scouted, and we think suits our game really well,” said head coach Erika Brennan. “The great thing about regionals is that it is the one tournament a year that you don’t need to go and win, your just have to finish in the top five to advance. That’s been the message, finish in the top half of the field, and that’s something we’ve done in every event except one this season. The team is hungry, there was definitely some disappointment coming out of the conference result but they’re using it as fuel. They’re using it as a comma, not as an exclamation point. I like where they are, we’re going to keep them as competitive as possible between now and when we leave. We’ll go up there and play some Bulls’ golf.”
The Bulls, the sixth seed, will compete in a 12-team field that includes 1. Wake Forest (ACC), 2. Texas (Big 12), 3. Ole Miss, 4. Mississippi State (SEC), 5. UCF, 6. South Florida, 7. Tennessee, 8. Oregon State, 9. North Texas, 10. Delaware (CAA), 11. Charleston Southern (Big South), 12. Navy (Patriot League).
In the record-setting 2023-24 season, the Bulls won three times and finished in the top four in nine of 10 events. The three wins are the most in a season since four 2011-12. USF finished third in the American Athletic Conference Championship, which equals the best finish in the tournament in program history.
The Bulls set program records, including low round 271 (-17), low 54-hole total 836 (-28), while matching the program record for 36-hole score (565) in the Westbrook Invitational. USF’s previous 54-hole record was 852 set last season.
In addition, at the FAU Paradise Invitational, the team won, and senior Melanie Green won the individual title, the first time since the 2020 Old Friends Invitational that the team won, and a player captured the individual title when Erika Smith was the individual winner.
The Bulls are led by senior Melanie Green, the AAC Women’s Golf Player of the Year. Green, ranked 21st nationally, has been selected to represent Team USA the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup and competed in the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Green has two wins on the season, at the Mountainview Collegiate and the FAU Paradise Invitational, and three in her career at USF. This season, she has finished in the top 10 in nine of the 10 tournaments and in the top four in eight events. She has shot par or better in 29 of 30 rounds. Green tied her career-best and program record round of 64 (-8) in the final round at the Westbrook Invitational and has earned AAC Women’s Golfer of the Week three times in the Spring. Green was named the AAC Women’s Golfer of the Month for September and October.
Joining the charge for the Bulls are senior Alizee Vidal, who posted her first top five and third top 10 finish of the season at the Chattanooga Classic, graduate transfer Alyssa Montgomery, who carded her lowest round as a Bull, a 68 (-4) in the final round to help the Bulls close out the win at the Mountain View Classic, freshman Emma Falcher who posted three top 10 finishes in her first season as a Bull, which included a ninth-place finish in the AAC Championship, and junior Leonor Medeiros, who has three top 10 finishes this season.
About USF Women’s Golf
The 2023-24 campaign will be the Bulls’ sixth full season under head coach Erika Brennan. South Florida is among the fastest-rising programs in the country, as they climbed 75 spots in the national Golfstat rankings following Brennan’s first season in 2018-19 and have captured five tournament titles under Brennan, while setting numerous program scoring records under her leadership. Senior standout Melanie Green has been an all-conference performer in each of her first three seasons, qualified for the 2022 NCAA Regional as an individual and was named a 2023 All-American Honorable Mention. Green and the Bulls reached the NCAA Regional as a team in 2023, marking the program’s first postseason appearance in 11 years.
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– #GoBulls –
