South Carolina women’s golf won the 2024 Therese Hession Regional Challenge. (Photo: SC Athletics)
The Therese Hession Regional Challenge is one of the premier women’s college golf events on the calendar and an excellent preview of what’s to come in the spring season for many of the top teams across the country.
The field was loaded, including defending national champions and No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 USC, No. 6 South Carolina, No. 7 Oregon, No. 8 Texas and No. 10 Florida. All in all, there were 13 teams ranked in the top 26 in the 16-team field.
However, just a couple days before the event, it was switched from a 54-hole stroke-play tournament to a match-play bracket. The reason behind the change was the major storms hitting the Los Angeles area last weekend, meaning the event at Palos Verdes Golf Club may not have been completed if played like originally scheduled. In fact, even after the change they weren’t able to get every round of match play in.
South Carolina was awarded the team title, the 25th victory for the Gamecocks under coach Kalen Anderson. Junior Hannah Darling earned a sponsor exemption into the LPGA’s Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship in March at Palos Verdes Golf Club. It will be her professional debut.
Another possible reason for the change from stroke play to match play? Under Mark Broadie’s new ranking system for college golf, match play has minimal impact, good or bad. That means in events like bad weather, the chance of negatively impacting a team’s rating drops significantly.
Ultimately, losing all of your matches could have less of an effect than finishing near the bottom of 16 teams in a stroke-play competition.
When the change was made, it sparked conversation among numerous folks in the college golf community. Georgia women’s coach Josh Brewer was one of those who spoke out and voiced frustrations.
So many questions about happens today 1. Can anyone let me know if special approval must be granted to change from stroke play to play match format? 2. Was our new ranking system contacted to explore pros and cons of decision?
— Josh Brewer (@CoachJoshBrewer) February 4, 2024
On the surface it sure appears that rankings had to be a part of the decision since match play has less variance. Oh to a be a fly on the wall of that decision.
— Josh Brewer (@CoachJoshBrewer) February 4, 2024
Thank you to everyone who has sent me messages about the format change questions. I wish you would make your comments public; however, I understand why the silence. I will gladly be the voice for us who care about the integrity of our sport.
— Josh Brewer (@CoachJoshBrewer) February 4, 2024
In later tweets, Brewer even mentioned his speaking up could cost his team a few invites to tournaments, but as mentioned above, he didn’t want to stay silent.
Ohio State is the host team for the Therese Hession, and coach Lisa Strom responded Wednesday with a statement explaining the decision to change from stroke play to match play.
“Our decision was driven by the desire to ensure all 16 teams and 8 individuals who traveled from across the country were given the opportunity to play as much golf as possible,” the statement reads.
— Lisa Strom (@lisastromgolf) February 7, 2024
In the new Broadie points-based system, there’s a metric called “Event rank impact,” which measures how a teams rank would change if that event was removed from their record. Up two spots means the event was good and moved the team up two spots, and so on.
For the Therese Hession, South Carolina had a +2 rank impact, which was similar to Texas, Florida, UCLA and Arizona State. The biggest movement up was Georgetown at +9, with the Hoyas being the lowest-ranked team in the field. The biggest drop was Mississippi State at -6.
Broadie was also a part of discussion on social media this week.
Actual ranking movement depends on the results of all teams in a week. A team could play well and not move up if the teams ahead also played well.
Event rank impact holds everything constant except for removing the one event result from the one team in question.
— Mark Broadie (@MarkBroadie) February 7, 2024
Ultimately, Strom and the coaches at the Therese Hession made the change to try and get as much golf in as they could, including starting a day earlier (Saturday) and playing two rounds that day. Even with an early start on Sunday for the third round, the rain eventually came and the tournament was called with South Carolina and Texas being 3-0 in match play.
Weather affects golf tournaments nearly day somewhere across the country, but this sudden change from stroke play to match play has many wondering whether the Therese Hession will be the first tournament of many to do so in the future.
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