Abby Arevalo, playing as an individual, assembled a one-over-par 73 on Monday to be in the upper half of the leaderboard after the opening round of the US NCAA Women’s Regional tournament at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California.
The 19-year-old Arevalo, the spearhead of San Jose State, couldn’t rescue par from the greenside bunker on hole No. 18 and signed for the last of two bogeys in a 35-38 card to be seven shots off the lead jointly held by Stanford’s Angela Lee, Colorado’s Brittany Fan and UCLA’s Mariel Galdiano.
Tied for 33rd, she is still the highest-ranked Filipino in the field, with LK Go, the wonder from Cebu, shooting a 74 for South Carolina, and Clare Legaspi firing a 75 for UCLA.
As an individual in the 96-player field, Arevalo can make the NCAA finals by finishing in the top three outside of the players who are playing for teams.
There are three other regionals going on simultaneously—in Texas, Wisconsin and Florida.
The top six teams and their respective members in all four regionals will advance to the final tournament slated May 18 at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Oklahoma.