‘Beyond excited’: KU’s regional golf champs begin quest for NCAA title on Friday
Lindsay Kuhle left the University of Denver’s highly successful golf program for Kansas four years ago with lofty goals in mind.
“This is the reason I came to KU. This is the reason all the players on our team came to KU, to compete for a national championship. To get that opportunity means everything, and we’re beyond excited to have that opportunity,” Kuhle said last week in response to the Jayhawks placing first in the NCAA regionals at Ohio State.
The team title, KU’s first-ever at NCAA regionals, propelled KU to a berth in the NCAA championships for the third time in school history, first time since the 2014 season.
Sophomore Lyla Louderbaugh, the runaway individual winner at regionals — KU’s first regional champ in history — as well as senior Lauren Clark, the third Jayhawk to win three individual titles in a single season, hope to continue to achieve big things at the NCAAs, set for Friday through Wednesday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa Champions Course in Carlsbad, California.
The Jayhawks enter full of confidence as the country’s No. 21-ranked team.
“We are excited to travel with five of the same athletes in the lineup that won the regional championship last week,” said Kuhle. “We’ve had a great last week of practice and are super excited to represent KU by playing great golf.”
Clark and Buffalo, Missouri native Louderbaugh will be joined by senior Johanna Ebner, junior Amy DeKock and freshman Ebba Nordstedt in KU’s five-person lineup. Junior Anna Wallin is the alternate at the 30-team meet that includes Big 12 schools KU, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State.
“I think people are starting to hear about us and realize we’re a great team,” Kuhle said after the Jayhawks defeated 11 other teams at regionals. KU topped runner-up Arkansas by three strokes. Louderbaugh won the individual title by eight shots.
“But I didn’t really think it would happen this soon (in year four at KU), to be honest. Once you win, once you’ve got the belief that you can continue to do it … that is the confidence we have going into nationals.”
KU was so confident at regionals … “I think they (opposing teams) were a little scared of us to be honest. I think they saw the momentum we were building,” Kuhle said. “I think we were first in the country in the regular season with most team wins and under par rounds.”
KU’s six team titles during the 2024-25 school year were most in school history. The Jayhawks have had five individual medalists, most of any season in program history.
Clark, a native of Orlando and transfer from LSU, has led KU this season with a 71.9 scoring average. She leads the team in top-5 finishes (4), top-10 finishes (5), and top-20 finishes (7), while holding the lowest 54-hole score in program history — a 17-under-par 199.
Clark was named first-team all-Big 12 following the conference championships in which KU placed a disappointing 10th.
“She is like our assistant coach. She handles just the entire team extremely well and is helpful to everybody if they need it,” Kuhle said of Clark. “But she’s got this confidence about her. Winning three times in a row this spring, I don’t think it’s ever happened, at least this year. She’s got this confidence and belief, not only in herself, but the team, and she shares that with her teammates and encourages them and supports them and is extremely helpful,” added Kuhle, who in nine years at Denver won seven conference team titles with berths in the NCAAs each of the eight seasons a postseason tournament was held.
Louderbaugh, who shot a final round 7-under-par 65 at regionals, has the team’s second-lowest stroke average at 72.1. She has five rounds in the 60s this season. DeKock, a native of Palm Desert, California, enters the NCAAs with a 72.5 stroke average. She has seven top-20 finishes, including four top-10 and two top-5 finishes.
Ebner, a native of Villach, Austria, has played in 10 events and is coming off a 12th-place finish at regionals. She has a scoring average of 72.7 with six top-20 finishes. Nordstedt, a native of Gantofta, Sweden, has averaged 72.4 strokes per round. She has recorded five top-20 finishes.
Wallin, a native of Heisinborg, Sweden, has competed in three events with finishes of 19th, 37th and 55th.
Participating teams at nationals are: KU, UNLV, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Virginia, Wake Forest, Florida, Florida State, Ole Miss, Georgia Southern, Michigan State, Texas, Northwestern, Iowa State, Arizona State, UCLA, Ohio State, CSU Fullerton, Stanford, South Carolina, Oklahoma, LSU, USC, Arkansas, Oregon, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
The format is four days of stroke play followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and championship of match play.
“This group is extremely confident and competitive and we know that our goals are to compete for a championship this week, so we are excited to get the tournament underway,” Kuhle said.
The Golf Channel will provide live broadcast coverage of the match play portion of the NCAA championship on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 8:58 PM with the headline "‘Beyond excited’: KU’s regional golf champs begin quest for NCAA title on Friday."
