Pac 12 Women's Championship: USC repeats, Stanford's Heck medals

USC posted three steady rounds and fended off Stanford and Arizona State on Sunday to capture their second straight Pac-12 Women’s Golf Championship at Stanford Golf Course.

The 10th-ranked Trojans strung together rounds of 283, 287 and 279 to finish at 3-under 849 at venerable Stanford Golf Course to earn a five-stroke win over the host Cardinal (854) while Arizona State finished a distance third at 8-over 860. It marked the Trojans fifth Pac-12 title in the last 10 years and eighth overall.

Behind sophomore Brianna Navarrosa’s second round 69, USC entered the final round with a four-stroke cushion over Arizona State and were five clear of host Stanford. The Cardinal closed to within two strokes midway through the final round but strong finishes by Garvey (70), Nam (69) and senior Alyaa Abdulghany (70) netted the Trojans their second straight conference title.

"I'm so happy for this group to be rewarded with a Pac-12 Championship," said USC third-year coach Justin Silverstein. "This golf course provided an extremely tough test and we were able to survive by playing really smart and disciplined golf.”

Stanford freshman Rachel Heck shot a 2-under 69 on Sunday to win individual medalist honors with a 54-hole score of 7-under 206, which was good for a two-stroke victory over Amelia Garvey (208) of USC and three clear of Trojan Malia Nam and YuSang Hou of Arizona, who finished at 4-under 209. The first-year player from Memphis, Tenn. began the day one stroke behind UCLA’s Emma Spitz, who was at 6-under at the 36-hole mark following a pair of 68s. However, Spitz shot a 7-over 78 on Sunday to fall out of contention, leaving the door open Heck to win her third tournament of the season and become the first Stanford player to be crowned conference champion since Mhairi McKay in 1997.