Women’s Golf Championship - Division 1

The NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship kicks off today and AJGA Alumni from Asia are competing alongside their teammates after advancing from regional qualifying. The top 24 qualifying teams and top 3 individuals from non-qualifying teams are geared up to compete at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma including Arkansas, Texas, Auburn, Florida, Baylor, Oklahoma, Duke, Virginia, Southern California, Arizona State, Ohio State, Northwestern, Stanford, UCLA, Ole Miss, Louisville, Kent State, Colorado, Alabama, Florida State, Furman, Arizona, Washington, and Wake Forest. Come Wednesday, a Team Champion and an Individual Champion will be awarded. AJGA Alumni from Asia that will be competing in the Division I Women’s Golf Championship are featured below:

University of Oklahoma’s Karen Arimoto is from Kyoto, Japan and currently resides in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. She is the lone competitor from Asia to qualify with the Sooners at the Austin, Texas regional site. Arimoto is an AJGA Alumni sporting a commendable junior golf record. She had three AJGA victories including the 2012 TaylorMade-adidas Golf Junior All-Star at Château Élan, the 2012 Junior All-Star at Fieldstone and the 2012 Junior All-Star Invitational. To top it all off, Arimoto was named second-team Rolex Junior All-American in 2012. She is currently a Junior at the University of Oklahoma and has a T3 finish at the 2017 O City Classic under her belt.

Duke University’s Miranda Wang is from Beijing, China, and currently resides in Pleasanton, California. She had two AJGA victories including the 2016 AJGA Reno/Tahoe Junior at ArrowCreek and the 2016 Yani Tseng Invitational presented by the Swinging Skirt. She also was named First Team Rolex Junior All-American in 2016. Competing alongside Wang for Duke is Jaravee Boonchant. She is from Bangkok, Thailand, and currently resides in Bradenton, Florida. She was champion of the 2016 Annika Invitational. Like Wang, Boonchant was named First Team Rolex Junior All-American.

Northwestern University’s Monica Matsubara is from Singapore. Matsubara had seven AJGA top-10’s in her junior career including a 2nd place finish at the Evitt Foundation RTC Junior All-Star. Mastubara is currently a junior at Northwestern and won the California Women’s State Championship in 2016.

Stanford University’s Ziyi Wang is from Beijing, China and finished first in two AJGA events in her junior career including the 2013 AJGA Junior at Centennial and the 2012 AJGA Junior at Ruby Hill. She finished fourth at Pac-12 Championships this year and holds the record for being the youngest winner on the China LPGA Tour.

UCLA’s Clare Legaspi is from Quezon City, Philippines, and had three AJGA victories in her junior career including the 2016 AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior,  the 2014 PING Phoenix Junior at ASU Karsten, and the 2014 AJGA Junior at Gainey Ranch. Competing alongside Legaspi at UCLA is Patty Tavatanakit. Tavatanakit has made a name for herself in her first year as she already has four NCAA victories. She finished her junior career with four AJGA victories and was named First Team Rolex Junior All-American in 2016 and 2017.

The University of Washingtons has four AJGA alumni from Asia competing including Wenyan Ma of Guangdong, China, Christina Wang of Guangdong, China, Karen Miyamoto of Chiba, Japan, and Rino Sasaki of Tokyo, Japan. Ma and Wang have pairs of AJGA top-10s in their junior careers. Miyamoto had two AJGA in her junior career including the 2015 Natural Resource Partners Bluegrass Junior and the 2015 PDQ / Philadelphia Runner Junior. Sasaki won the 2016 Natural Resource Partners Bluegrass Junior hosted by J.B. Holmes and has 3 NCAA top 10s.

Competing for the University of Arizona is Yu-Sang Hou from Taipei, Taiwan. Her best AJGA finish was second place at the Rolex Tournament of Champions in 2016. She is currently a freshman at Arizona and finished T2 at the Ping ASU Invitational and 5th at the Wildcat Invitational this year.

The University of Alabama, UCLA, and the University of Arkansas make up the top three in the rankings. Will Alabama maintain their position and win the National Title, or will an underdog capture the victory?