Stanford climbs to the top at the Nanea Pac-12 Preview

November 1, 2022 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

Rose Zhang (Stanford Athletics photo)

Top-ranked Cardinal opens a nine-stroke lead on the field at Nanea Golf Club while Rose Zhang takes over the individual lead

The scoring conditions weren't nearly as favorable for the second round of the Nanea Pac-12 Preview as they were on Monday and that seemed to play right into the hands of top-ranked Stanford, which managed to turn a four-shot deficit into a nine-stroke lead by days end.

The Cardinal was just one of two teams along with Oregon to come in under par on Tuesday, as both squads shot 1-under rounds of 291 to take over the top two spots on the leaderboard. At 14-under 591, Stanford holds a comfortable nine-stroke lead over the Ducks, the team it defeated to win last year's national championship in Scottsdale.

Arizona (-4; 580) is the only other team under par at the 36-hole mark of the tournament.

First-round leader Arizona State, which blazed through Nanea Golf Club in record-setting fashion at 17-under on Monday, gave all of those strokes back and then some after a 19-over 311 second round.

Stanford's Rose Zhang, who is bidding for her seventh career individual title, took over the individual lead from Arizona State's Ashley Menne after the top-ranked female amateur in the world carded a 3-under 70.

At 9-under 137, she will take a two-stroke lead into Wednesday's final round over Oregon's Ashleigh Park, who turned in the lowest round of the day with a 4-under 69 to move 24 spots up the leaderboard into second at 7-under 139.

Gile Bite Starkute of Arizona and UCLA's Zoe Campos are within striking distance of the lead at 6-under 140.

Stanford freshman Megha Ganne also turned an under-par round on Tuesday with a 1-under 72 to move into a tie for sixth place with teammate Brooke Seay at 3-under.

After 20 players managed to break par on Nanea's par-73, 6449-yard layout in the first round, only 10 were able to finish in the red on Tuesday.

Wednesday's final round will be a shotgun start at 10:30 a.m. PT/7:30 a.m. HT. The Cardinal will be paired with Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State.

Results: Pac-12 Women's Preview

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Rose Zhang	Irvine, CA	700	67-70-71=208
2	Ashleigh Park	Irvine, CA	500	70-69-72=211
3	Gile Bite Starkute	, Lithuania	400	70-70-72=212
T4	Caroline Canales	Calabasas, CA	400	70-73-70=213
T4	Ashley Menne	Surprise, AZ	400	66-77-70=213

View full results for Pac-12 Women's Preview

About the Pac-12 Women's Preview

Stanford climbs to the top at the Nanea Pac-12 Preview

The Pac-12 members get together to hold a conference championship preview as the fall season nears its conclusion. Team (best four scores out of five players) and individual competitions.