Purdue Women’s Golf Reaches Final Round of NCAA Championships

The career of Purdue women’s golf coach Devon Brouse is coming to an end this year. After 25 years he is retiring, and he has built the program into one of the nation’s best. Under him Purdue has reached the NCAA Championships in 19 of the last 21 seasons. once there, Purdue has done some damage too. Maria Hernandez was the individual NCAA champion under him, and the team has had a pair of runner-up finishes to go with the 2010 National Championship.

Today the ladies completed their third round at the NCAA Championships in Arizona, and they currently sit in 11th place. That is good enough to reach the fourth and final round tomorrow, limited to just the top 15 teams after three rounds. What’s more impressive is that of the 24 teams in the championships, Purdue was the lowest ranked team at 45 nationally coming in. Now they have made the cut and if they can reach the top eight (they are currently only five strokes back with a team score of 893), they will go to the match play tournament to determine the team championship.

Today’s round was a solid 293, the team’s best of the championships so far. Purdue is just one stroke behind Georgia and USC and five behind San Jose State and LSU, who hold the last two play spots.

On the individual leaderboard Inez Wanamarta is tied for 11th at 2 over par. She fired a two under 70 today to pace Purdue. She is pat of a crowded field that has only four strokes separating second and 11th place.