What we learned from the women’s college golf season this fall 2024

In the past 18 months, Stanford has lost Rose Zhang, Rachel Heck and Sadie Englemann. But don’t blink: the Cardinal remain the team to beat.

Last season, Stanford won its final three tournaments to claim its third national championship. To start this season, the Cardinal have done the same, winning three straight tournaments and winning three match play events at the NB3 Match Play at Twin Warriors.

The six straight wins are the longest in program history. Stanford’s previous longest winning streak was five, which it did around the 2022 national championship and at the start of the 2022-2023 season. It is also the longest active range in the country.

Last week, Stanford capped its fall with a win at the Nanea Invitational in Hawaii, where Megha Ganne earned the second win of her college career.

The strength of this Stanford team is its depth. The Cardinal have six players in the top 76 of the NCAA golf rankings, four of which are freshmen. One of them, Meja Ortengren, leads the way at number 13, while sophomore Paula Martin Sampedro is number 18. Freshmen Leigh Chen (No. 30) and Nora Sundberg (No. 40) are also in the top 50.

Ganne wasn’t even in the last update, although that will change on Wednesday when new rankings are released.

Depth is a good problem for Stanford coach Anne Walker, who enters the spring looking to build on a record winning streak as she chases title No. 4.

Aside from Stanford, Arkansas had won three of four tournaments and is in second place. South Carolina, USC and Texas round out the top five.