CARLSBAD, Calif. – “Welcome to the club.”
Those were the congratulatory words from LPGA and Arkansas legend Stacy Lewis to current Razorbacks sophomore Maria Jose Marin, who on Monday evening outlasted a star-studded field at Omni La Costa to become the program’s third NCAA women’s individual champion, joining Lewis and Maria Fassi.
When Lewis won her national title in 2007, Marin was still a newborn. Twelve years later, Fassi triumphed in front of a home crowd at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, while back in Cali – Colombia, not California – a nearly teenage Marin, also an avid swimmer and ballet dancer, was left inspired. Maybe she’d be like Fassi one day.
A few years later, when Marin opened her recruiting, her first call was from Arkansas head coach Shauna Estes-Taylor. Unfamiliar with the process, Marin and her family initially thought it was a prank. Estes-Taylor ended the conversation, Marin recalls, with, “Please remember that I was the first one to call.”
What Estes-Taylor saw then was a high-character girl with a personality and smile that transcended Marin’s 5-foot frame. She didn’t possess the power of a Fassi, but she more than made up for her average length with precision and persistence.
“She also had ice in her veins,” Estes-Taylor added.
Still does.
Marin began Monday’s final round with a mere one-shot advantage over Stanford’s Paula Martin Sampedro, a fellow top-10 college player whose Cardinal were orchestrating a record stroke-play performance that ended Sunday evening with the lowest 72-hole score in championship history, 27 under, which shattered USC’s previous low mark of 19 under set in 2013. The rest of the contenders read like a who’s who of women’s college golf – Florida State teammates Mirabel Ting and Lottie Woad, the top two amateurs in the world, respectively; USC’s Catherine Park; Stanford’s Kelly Xu; all All-Americans hungry to chase down Marin, the gifted ball-striker with wear patterns on her irons that would make any player jealous.
The Arkansas sophomore, who had shot under par in each of her first seven career rounds at La Costa, did her best to block out the opposition. But even Marin’s icy veins, which she says she inherited from her father Jose, were put to the fire on this final day.
“It was nerve-racking, I’m not going to lie,” Marin said. “It was hard not to look at the leaderboards out there. I was playing really good golf, but this was a big, big deal to win. I was trying to believe on every shot. I trusted myself and I trusted my golf, so I knew a good result was going to come my way. It was just hard to not look at what everyone was doing.”
Marin birdied her opening hole from 15 feet and would never relinquish her solo advantage. She slipped up but once, missing a shortie for par at No. 13, and instead opted to let others make the costly mistakes.
Sampedro carded just one birdie.
Woad made a double bogey at the par-4 seventh after birdieing four of the five previous holes.
Xu also had a rally-killing double, at the par-3 16th, after she had gotten to 10 under earlier on her back nine.
Park closed with back-to-back bogeys.
Ting had two bogeys on her front, but the likely Annika Award winner, who won five times this season and was playing alongside Marin and Park on Monday, turned into Marin’s biggest threat on the back nine. She birdied five holes coming in, including the par-5 18th, to shoot 4-under 68 and finish at 10 under. After Estes-Taylor finally told Marin where she stood in the middle of the 18th fairway, Marin also closed with birdie, her 15-footer polishing off a final-round 69, and eighth straight under-par round here, and 12-under winning score.
“I knew I was capable of a great round, and it was,” Marin said.
Arkansas, meanwhile, were sixth as a team and will face Northwestern in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals, one of four that also include Stanford-Virginia, Oregon-Texas and Florida State-USC. Marin will face Hsin Tai Lin in the anchor match, right where Estes-Taylor wanted her leader, both physically and emotionally, to be. This is arguably the deepest team Estes-Taylor has ever had, but they still are led by a superstar.
In just her second start as a freshman, Marin beat then-No. 1 amateur Julia Lopez Ramirez by three shots to claim Arkansas’ home tournament at Blessings. She finished her freshman campaign with a couple runners-up, plus top-10s at regionals and nationals. She seemed poised to break out further last summer at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, though an injured left knee forced her to forfeit her semifinal match.
Luckily, there was no structural damage, only swelling, and Marin, armed with a new appreciation for post-round recovery, showed little effects of the injury in starting last fall with a second at Pebble Beach and another win at the Blessings, this time by six over Lopez Ramirez. Sure, Marin placed outside the top 30 again at the SEC Championship, but she also was recognized as the SEC player of the year.
“She works so dang hard, and she deserves it,” Estes-Taylor said. “She’s put in the work, and I’m really happy for her. I know she had a little bit of a lull in the middle of our spring, but she’s continued to work her butt off and put herself in a position today.
“If she’s got the lead, she’s a tough one to chase down.”
Marin proved it Monday on the NCAA’s biggest stage and against its biggest stars – and as a result, her name is forever etched in history, alongside Lewis and Fassi. Though it’s highly likely those two didn’t celebrate with this victory treat of choice: a chocolate-chip cookie skillet topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel drizzle and potato chips.
If only that 12-year-old Marin could see herself now.
