All eyes were on No. 26 ranked Wolfpack freshman Marie Eline Madsen as she took the lead 11 holes into her first round of the NCAA National Championship, carding five birdies and an eagle early.
Her win at the NCAA Charlottesville Regional earned her a spot in the championship field in Carlsbad, California, and she ran with the opportunity out of the gate. But as the four-day tournament progressed, Madsen could not maintain her blistering start.
By the 54th hole, she sank to the bottom half of the leaderboard finishing at 6-over-par, coming up short of the cut and out of the final round.
Players making the cut included the top nine individuals not already on a team in the top 15, with the cut line for Madsen effectively being 4-over-par. Even with her meteoric rise in the first round, she fell two shots back, cutting her championship run short.
Madsen’s rise should come as no surprise to the NC State faithful. She has put together a historic season breaking the program’s single-season stroke average record with a mark of 70.97, 1.2 strokes ahead of the previous record. She is also the first Wolfpack golfer to shoot under-par through the season and the first freshman in program history to win twice.
Madsen was nearly flawless through her first 12 holes, sitting at 6-under-par and atop a field featuring 161 of the nation’s best women’s collegiate golfers. But her round quickly began to unravel as she finished the final six holes of Round 1 at 4-over-par, moving back to tied for 10th through 18 but staying within reach.
In the final two rounds, she could not right the ship, posting a second-round 77 and third-round 75. With more birdies in the first round than she had in the final two, she couldn’t recover enough ground to stay in contention. Five bogeys and a double bogey plagued her scorecard in Round 2, and in Round 3, she posted three bogeys and one double bogey.
Arkansas sophomore Maria Jose Marin hoisted the individual trophy in the end, and Northwestern won the team national championship.
Madsen was the first NC State women’s golfer to win an NCAA Regional and the first to compete as an individual at the NCAA Championships since 2008. While her season has come to a close, she has already staked her claim as one of the greatest in NC State women’s golf history.
