CURTIS CUPPERS PANCAKE (US) AND MEADOW (GBandI) HELP ALABAMA WIN NCAA WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA WEBSITE
(with some additional words by Colin Farquharson)
FRANKLIN, Tennessee (AP) - Alabama won its first women's golf title Friday, holding off two-time champs Southern California by a stroke on the 72nd hole in the NCAA Division I championship.
The Crimson Tide gave coach Mic Potter his first national title and first for a program in its eighth trip to the national tournament when senior Brooke Pancake rolled in a 4-footer for par on No. 18. It's the third national title this year for Alabama, which also won in football and women's gymnastics.
Alabama, who led almost throughout the 72-hole tournament but saw their lead diminish over the final 36 holes, finished at six-over 294 in the fourth round for a 19-over 1,171 total.
Southern Cal trailed Alabama by 14 strokes after 36 holes and by two going into the final round. The national champs in 2003 and 2008 tied the Crimson Tide five times atop the leaderboard and led by five strokes before losing the lead on the back nine. The Trojans shot 293 for a 1,172 total.
They were followed by Louisiana State (289-1,173) and Virginia (292-1,175).
The Albama line-up includes two players who will be on opposite sides in next month's Curtis Cup match at Nairn - Brooke Pancake (US) and Northern Ireland's Stephanie Meadow (GB and I).

Senior year student Pancake (pictured) led the way for the Crimson Tide in her last tournament for Alabama with a 2-under-par score of 286 which put her in second place behind individual champion Chirapat Jao-Javanil from Oklahoma, who finished with a six-under-par score of 282.

Third on 287 was Belgium's Laura Gonzalez (Purdue) who beat Kelly Tidy in the final of  the British girls open amateur championship at Monifieth in 2008. 
"I would take the team championship over an individual one every day," said Pancake. "It means the world, especially since I got to have a lot of my family and friends and such support. My grandfather got to be here. Yeah, it is amazing to have ended my college career like this."
Southern Cal had gone up by five strokes reaching 13 over with Alabama at 18 over. The Trojans had three bogeys after a couple shots bounced off the hard green into the water on the par-3 No. 16 and finished with eight bogeys and one double bogey in the final five holes combined to just come up short after Sophia Popov and Inah Park birdied No. 18.
Alabama sophomore Hannah Collier looked at a leaderboard on No. 16 and saw the Tide trailed by five.
"What's left to lose? Might as well swing freely, which Mic always tells me to do," Collier said.
She birdied Nos. 17 and 18 in helping swing the lead back.
After the back-and-forth of the final round, the championship came down to a dramatic final hole. USC's Inah Park rolled in a 5-footer for birdie on 18, pulling Southern Cal within a stroke of Alabama at 20 over.
Pancake laid up on the par-5 18th with her third shot landing in the trees just left of the fairway. Her shot onto the green wound up about 60 feet from the hole, a shot that would have been perfect for the third-round pin. Pancake hit the right side of the cup, and the ball looked like it might go in before going 4 feet past for par. She holed out the par putt to start Alabama's latest celebration.

Stephanie Meadow from Jordanstown, Northern Ireland but a resident of the United States for several years with her parents who sent her originally to a junior golf academy, started the championship well with rounds of 69 and 73 but she could not keep it up and closed with scores of 78 and 77 for a nine-over-par total of 297 and a share of 38th place. 
Stephanie (pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency) began with five straight bogeys in her final round before birdieing the long seventh and long ninth. She had three more bogeys after the turn, at the 10th, long 14th and short 16th but boosted her birdie tally to three with a 3 at the par-4 13th.
Scotland's Sally Watson (Stanford University), pictured below right, a GB and I Curtis Cup player in the 2008 and 2010 Curtis Cup matches, finished four shots behind Stephanie Meadow with ever-improving scores of 78-76-74-73 for a share of 63rd place

on 301 alongside Erica Popson (Tennessee), one of the seven US Curtis Cuppers for Nairn in the field of 126.
Former English champion Hayley Davis (Baylor) finished on 304 with scores of 74-78-79-73.
Hally Leadbetter (Arkansas), daughter of famous coach David Leadbetter, totalled 315 with scores of 79-80-79-77.
The best performance by one of the US Curtis Cup team was achieved by Lindy Duncan (Duke) who finished sixth on two-over 290 with scores of 70-75-75-70.

LEADING TEAM FINAL TOTALS
1171 Alabama. 1172 Southern California. 1173 Louisiana State. 1175 Viginia. 1176 South Carolina. 1179 Arizona State, Oklahoma. 1181 UcLA. 1182 Purdue. 1184 North Carolina.
Selected team totals
1192 Duke (15th). 1193 Baylor (T16).
22 Teams took part.

LEADING INDIVIDUAL FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72). Yardage 6264
+US Curtis Cup players for Nairn in black print
282 Chirapat Jao-Javanil (Oklahoma) 69 73 70 70
286 Brooke Pancake (Alabama) 68 70 75 73
287 Laura Gonzalez (Purdue) 67 76 74 70, Tessa Teachman (LSU) 69 74 7074
288 Katie Burnett (South Carolina) 74 67 74 73
290 Lindy Duncan (Duke) 70 75 75 70, Brittany Marchand (North Carolina State) 71 70 76 73.

SELECTED TOTALS
294 Lisa McCloskey (Southern California) 76 72 74 72 (T21)
295 Austin Ernst (Louisiana State 78 75 74 68 (T29).
296 Emily Tubert (Arkansas) 73 74 77 72 (T33)
297 Stephanie Meadow (Alabama) 69 73 78 77 (T38)
300 Tiffany Lua (UCLA) 75 73 82 70 (T59)
301 Erica Popson (Tennessee) 77 76 76 72, Sally Watson (Stanford) 78 76 74 73 (T63).
304 Hayley Davis (Baylor) 74 78 79 73 (T77).
315 Hally Leadbetter (Arkansas) 79 80 79 77 (T119).

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