San Jose State stuns No. 1 Stanford at Lamkin San Diego Invite

February 15, 2022 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

Courtesy of San Jose State Athletics

Spartans overtake top-ranked Stanford to win their first event of the season while Rachel Heck picks up her seventh career win

In a heavyweight field that featured nine teams ranked inside the Golfweek/Sagarin Top-25, including top-ranked Stanford, it was 13th-ranked San Jose State that emerged victorious Tuesday afternoon at the Lamkin San Diego Invitational held at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

The Spartans finished at 9-over 873 on the demanding layout outside of San Diego to earn a three-shot win over the top-ranked Stanford, which was looking for its fifth consecutive win of the season.

San Jose State, which has won three NCAA championships and produced LPGA Tour stars such as Juli Inkster, Pat Hurst, Patty Sheehan and Janice Moodie, among others, began the day in second-place behind Stanford. The Spartans preceded to shoot a final-round 293 (+5) to overtake the mighty Cardinal, which finished 11-over 299 on Tuesday and 876 (+12) for the tournament.

It turned into a two-team race between the two schools which are located a little more than 20 miles apart, as Arizona State finished a distant third, 11 strokes off the pace at 20-over 884.

CHAMPION!#SpartanUp pic.twitter.com/PvSfZb9F9w
— San Jose State Women's Golf (@SanJoseStWGOLF) February 15, 2022

Kajsa Arwefjäll, who helped Sweden to a third-place finish at The Spirit Invitational, led San Jose State's final-round comeback, carding a 2-under 70 to move 18 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for sixth place. San Jose State also counted a pair of 74s by Natasha Andrea Oon and Lucia Lopez-Ortega along with a 75 from Antonia Malate. Oon and Malate will be participating in the Augusta National Women's Amateur at the end of March.

The victory was no fluke for Dana Dormann's Spartan squad, which had chalked up a trio of second-place finishes in its four fall events heading to The Farms.

"It's amazing," said Dormann, who was a three-time All-American for the Spartans before playing 10 years on the LPGA Tour. "We beat the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and a whole lot of other ranked teams. It was a total team effort."

This is the first tournament win for San Jose State since the 2018-19 season when the Spartans won two tournaments – Minnesota Invitational and The Gold Rush.

Stanford's Rachel Heck, who won six events last year as a freshman on her way to landing the ANNIKA Award, notched her seventh career win with a 5-under total of 211. The world's third-ranked female amateur posted rounds of 70-73-68 to earn a three-stroke victory over Ashley Menne of Arizona State, who finished at 2-under 214.

Oon was the only other player in the field who managed to break par at The Farms, finishing at 1-under 215 for a third-place finish.

Stanford freshman Rose Zhang, the top-ranked female amateur in the world who had won each of her first three collegiate events, finished tied for fourth at 1-over 217 on rounds of 69-73-75.

USC's heralded freshman Amari Avery, who joined the Trojans after the fall season, tied for sixth in her first collegiate stroke play event at 3-over 219.

Results: San Diego Invitational

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Rachel Heck	Memphis, TN	700	70-73-68=211
2	Ashley Menne	Surprise, AZ	500	68-74-72=214
3	Natasha Andrea Oon	, Malaysia	400	69-72-74=215
T4	Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen	, Denmark	400	69-74-74=217
T4	Rose Zhang	Irvine, CA	400	69-73-75=217