Oregon head coach Derek Radley was beaming.
Ducks junior Anika Varma stepped on the 10th tee Saturday morning at Omni La Costa with just six tournament rounds under her belt, three as part of Oregon’s starting lineup. She’d won a qualifier to earn the right to travel to Carlsbad as the Ducks’ sixth woman, and with freshman Tong An waking up too sore to compete after an opening 74, Varma was thrust into action in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
Varma responded with an even-par 72, tied for the team’s low round of the day. She even had it to 2 under at one point on her second nine.
“To throw her in second round of a national championship and for her to go out and do that, just awesome,” said Radley, whose Oregon team sits third at 1 over, six shots back of Stanford and just a stroke shy of Northwestern. “She really, truly is a mentally tough kid. She’s worked her freaking tail off, and I’m so proud of her for continuing to be engaged through this whole time and continuing to work hard in case we needed her, and I commended her on that.”
It was because of that dedication that Varma, who graduated this spring, was afforded the opportunity to play Darae Chung in an 18-hole qualifier last week at Emerald Valley, the team’s home course. Chung was coming off a second-round 85 at the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional before being subbed out for Karen Tsuru, who missed a few starts this spring with a back injury. Varma hadn’t performed much better in limited duty, tying for 43rd as an individual at the Windy City Collegiate last fall and then sharing 44th at the Silverado Showdown, where she took a resting Kiara Romero’s spot.
In three years at Oregon, Varma has posted three top-20s in 12 career events, all three coming as a freshman, when she went T-11 and T-15 before tying for ninth at the Pac-12 Championship. Yet, Radley went with his gut and gave the relentless worker a shot; Varma responded by making nine birdies to easily defeat Chung, and she followed that up with an impressive week of practice.
“She looked the best she’s looked in her time at Oregon,” said Radley, who also felt that La Costa, at just over 6,200 yards but extremely penal if off target, set up perfect for the short-but-accurate Varma.
“If there was ever a golf course that would fit her, it’s this one,” Radley added.
Varma took advantage of soft, morning conditions, carding just three bogeys and equaling her best round not just of this season, where she was a combined 22 over entering Saturday, but of the past two seasons. “I’m out here having a blast,” Varma told Radley after her round. “It’s my last go round, so let’s go get it.” Suvichaya Vinijchaitham and Tiffany Huang added 72s for Oregon, which advanced to the semifinals last year at La Costa. Romero was the throw-out score with a 74.
Most of the morning wave, comprised of the better ranked teams, climbed the leaderboard as well, including the top-ranked Cardinal, who shot 10 under after an opening 5-over round. USC and Florida State are tied for fourth at 3 over while Mississippi State is sixth at 4 over and Texas is tied for seventh with Oklahoma State, the only team in the top 12 that played in the afternoon, at 5 over.
The top eight teams after 72 holes qualify for match play, which begins Tuesday.
First-round leader Vanderbilt plummeted to T-13 at 12 over after an 18-over day. LSU (14 over), Ohio State (16 over), Wake Forest (+26) and Ole Miss (28 over) were the morning-wave teams who are outside the top 15 and will get bumped to the tougher afternoon wave on Sunday.
Mississippi State’s Avery Weed leads South Carolina’s Eila Galitsky by two shots at 7 under in the individual race. Florida State’s Mirabel Ting, the favorite to win the Annika Award, is tied for sixth at 3 under, two shots clear of her teammate Lottie Woad, thought to be her biggest challenger along with Romero.
