After the opening round of the 2025 Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., the individual and team leaderboards are close at the top.
In the team competition, 2024 champion South Carolina and USC are tied for the lead after opening rounds of 2-under 282. South Carolina is defending its 2024 title, a tournament that was shortened and turned into a match-play event because of weather.
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Oregon is in solo third place at 1-under, Florida is in solo fourth place at even par, and California is in solo fifth place at 1-over to round out the top five.
In the individual competition, Siuue Wu of Florida and Kaylyn Noh of California are tied at the top of the leaderboard after rounds of 5-under 66.
Louise Rydqvist of South Carolina, Xin Kou of USC, Tong An of Oregon, and recent 2024 SALLY champion Kary Hollenbaugh of Ohio State are T3 at 3-under. Rydqvist is currently ranked No. 3 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Women's Rankings.
Eila Galitsky of South Carolina is in solo seventh place at 2-under.
This unique collegiate tournament was founded by Cathy (Hanlon) Marino, a member of the PVGC Hall of Fame, Therese Hession, Ohio State University Women's Golf Coach, and Sid Croft, a longtime PVGC member.
Marino and Hession were both former members of the Southern Methodist women's golf team and competitors on the LPGA Tour. In 1995, while Marino was the head coach at SMU and Hession was in her third year at Ohio State, they developed the idea of having a ladies collegiate event in Southern California early in the year to kick off the Spring season.
Marino had been a high school star at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, and she approached her good friend, Sid Croft, PVGC Board Counsel, about the possibility. Croft took the idea to the PVGC Board of Directors, which unanimously approved the idea, and the first tournament was held in February 1996.