SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – California women's golf senior Marthe Wold got into a rhythm on the final nine holes as she finished the NCAA San Francisco Regional in a tie for third place to earn an individual berth at the NCAA Championship.
 
"She's been playing really well, really free," head coach Nancy McDaniel. "She started to get on a roll with her putter and saw the line very clearly. She made four birdies on the back nine which is stuff you have to do to be the first individual to make it to a national championship. I'm really impressed with her game. We need to get excited about the national championship for her, because she is playing well."
 
Wold started the day with two bogeys and was 1-over after the first five holes after starting on the tenth hole. She remained one over after completing the first nine, but her final nine holes saw Wold turn the tables. When Wold got to the second hole, she hit a birdie. She followed that by saving par with a long putt on the fourth green. The senior then knocked in back-to-back long putts on the fifth and six holes for two more birdies. She capped her scoring by capitalizing on the par-3 eighth hole with her final birdie of the afternoon.
 
"I just stayed patient," Wold said. "In all of my rounds I was one over through five. I just knew from the previous rounds that I would get it back if I stayed patient and stuck to my routine. The birdies rolled in on the back nine, so that was fun."
 
Wold finished the day with a 3-under 69 her best score of the tournament in which she has gone under par in all three rounds. Wold finished tied for third with two other players. With the rest of the leaderboard starting on the first hole, they had to deal with the trickier back nine at the end of the day, which helped Wold make up ground. She was the top individual finisher on a team that did not qualify for the NCAA Championship, which booked her a spot at the NCAA Championship.
 
"She's been in such a healthy mode of being a senior," McDaniel said. "Her energy has been nothing but live each day fully and she did that here. Her attitude played a huge part in her success. Her talent and her hard work contributed, but it's really what her mind is doing at the time which pulled her through."
 
Wold was faced with potentially playing her final tournament as a member of the Cal women's golf team, but the senior came through with her best career score and finish in a tournament. Wold finished 6-under par for the tournament with a 54-hole score of 210. Her previous best was a fourth place finish at the BYU Entrada as a freshman when she shot a 3-under 213. This is also the first tournament of her four-year career with three consecutive rounds under par.
 
"Marthe is a team player first and foremost," McDaniel said. "The first thing she's asking when she comes off the green is 'how did the rest of the team do?'. We thought it was a long shot, but if everyone shot like Marthe did, we would have had a chance. There is a lot of pain for her with the rest of the team not going."
 
The Bears shot 2-over 290 on the final day of competition as they moved up one spot in the standings to finish 12^th overall. The top six teams qualified for the NCAA Championship. Cal missed the cut by 10 strokes.
 
Marianne Li returned to the negative side of the ledger after not recording a bogey the entire day. The junior notched birdies on the 11^th and 18^th holes as she finished 2-under 70 on the day. She lowered her tournament score to 3-over as she passed 20 people on the final day to finish in a tie for 33^rd.
 
"Marianne's consistency has been amazing this year, she just didn't happen early enough here," McDaniel said. "It's not because she hasn't worked hard, and all of her work will pay off, it just didn't pay off this particular time. She's going to go after it and as a senior next year, it's going to be scary what Marianne can do."
 
Cindy Oh wrapped up her best 54-hole tournament as a Cal student-athlete as she shot a 3-over 75 to finish 5-over. Oh opened her scoring with a birdie on the 14^th hole, but was back to even at the turn. She was cruising until a double bogey on the penultimate hole dropped her down the leaderboard. However, Oh was fantastic all week as she displayed consistency throughout the course leading to her best 54-hole score this year.
 
"Cindy got a feel for championship play at Pac-12's," McDaniel said. "She's really proud to be at Cal, she plays for a bigger reason, it's bigger than herself because she's playing for the team. That really motivates her, she's also learned a ton just from the five days we've been here. Her learning curve and her coachability is huge. That shows us as coaches that she wants to be back next year as one of this team's leaders."
 
Jiyoon Jang and Sofia Lundell rounded out the Cal lineup. Jang finished tied for 77^th as she shot 13-over for the tournament. The sophomore was 4-over for the second consecutive day despite recording two birdies. Lundell finished the tournament tied for 95^th after shooting a 10-over 82 on Wednesday.
 
Wold will continue her season at the NCAA Championship from May 18-23 at Karsten Creek Golf Club, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The championship will be hosted by Oklahoma State and the final three days of the championships will be televised live by the Golf Channel.

TEAM
12. California +15 (297+292+290=879)
 
INDIVIDUAL (Par -72)
t3. Marthe Wold -6 (71+70+69=210)
t33. Marianne Li +3 (75+74+70=219)
t40. Cindy Oh +5 (74+72+75=221)
t77. Jiyoon Jang +13 (77+76+76=229)
t95. Sofia Lundell +27 (82+79+82=243)