Baylor WGOLF Wraps Day One in 20th Place at the NCAA Championship

[Roberts, Matt]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 16, 2025

Baylor WGOLF Wraps Day One in 20th Place at the NCAA Championship
BU's BaiMai Seema shoots even-par 72 to lead the Bears at La Costa
For more information, contact: Matt Roberts, 254-227-2280, WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu<mailto:WM_Roberts at Baylor.edu>

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Baylor senior BaiMai Seema continued her strong play at La Costa on Friday with an even-par 72 to pace Baylor to a 20th-place finish on day one of the NCAA Championship.

Going out in the morning wave on No. 10, Baylor burst out of the gates, reaching 6-under as a team on its opening nine. Statistically, the harder nine during the morning, BU finished the back nine at 4-under par with a share of the lead. Its pace slowed a bit on the front nine, shooting 12-over as a team to finish the day with an 8-over 296. Just four shots separate positions No. 10-20, as BU will aim to position itself inside the top 15 by Sunday night to earn its way into the final round on Monday.

Bailey Davis of Tennessee shot a 5-under 67 to take the individual lead into the weekend. Seema finished tied for 30th, five shots off Davis’ pace.

THE RUNDOWN
Seema made it to 2-under after three holes before a bogey at No. 13 dropped her back to 1-under. A third birdie in five holes moved her back to 2-under, turning in 35 after a bogey at No. 18. A double bogey at No. 5 dropped her back over par, but a final birdie at No. 6 drew her back to even for the day.

Ashleen Kaur finished Friday in a tie for 46th on the heels of a 1-over 73. A quick bogey dropped her over par, but only momentarily, as she completed her opening nine with birdies at Nos. 13, 15, 16 and 18. The sophomore made bogeys on the inward half at Nos. 3, 5, 7 and 8 to finish the round.

Bridget Boczar shot a 3-over 75 to close the day in a tie for 78th. Pars at Nos. 10 and 12 book-ended a birdie at No. 12 and would be the last pars she made on her first nine. The junior transfer would follow with bogeys at Nos. 13, 14, 17 and 18 and back-to-back birdies at Nos. 15 and 16 to turn in 2-over 37. A 2-over second nine included bogeys at Nos. 4 and 9 to close out her career-first NCAA Championship round.

Silje Ohma concluded round one with a 4-over 76. A 1-over first nine included a couple of birdies at Nos. 11 and 14 around bogeys at Nos. 12, 13 and 15. Making the turn in 37, Ohma added three more bogeys at Nos. 1, 3 and 5 in front of a birdie at No. 6. One final bogey at No. 8 dropped her into a tie for 98th.

Malena Castro closed her NCAA Championship debut with a 4-over 76. A steady first nine was highlighted by a birdie at No. 11, en route to a bogey-free 35. The freshman stumbled a bit down the stretch with birdies at Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 to finish Friday in a tie for 98th.

HIGHLIGHTS

  *   The Bears finished Friday in front of two top-5 and three top-10 teams
  *   BU’s 15 birdies as a team tied for the third-most in the field on Friday
  *   In four team rounds at La Costa, Baylor’s 8-over 296 on Friday was its second-best score
  *   The 296 was BU’s 14th-best NCAA championship score in program history
  *   BaiMai Seema’s opening-round 72 marks three-straight seasons Baylor has had a player shoot par or better in the opening round of the NCAA Championship
  *   Seema has now tied a career high with seven rounds at par or better this season, and now has two in NCAA postseason competition
  *   In four-career rounds at La Costa, Ashleen Kaur has a stroke average of 73.5
  *   Kaur and Seema made four birdies each, which tied for the fourth-most in the field

STAT OF THE DAY

73.2 — In five-career rounds at Omni La Costa’s North Course, BaiMai Seema has compiled a Baylor-best stroke average of 73.2

QUOTABLE
Jay Goble on the team’s performance — "It is a tricky place, and as soon as the wind starts getting around 10 miles per hour out here, it gets tough because the landing areas are just not very big. On the front nine, we had low wind, and we were able to go through some of the more challenging holes in more favorable conditions. But as soon as the wind picked up and those landing areas got harder to hit, we ended up making a bunch of silly bogeys. I don’t think we played badly; we just had some missed up-and-downs and some missed putts, which led to higher scores on our finishing holes.”

Goble on the key to staying in the mix to advance on Sunday — “We’re doing a lot of short game work to get ready for tomorrow. I think it has a lot to do with getting those balls up and down around the green, which we didn’t really do today. Tomorrow afternoon is going to be similar to today, where the wind will pick up a little bit, so it's going to be more challenging. You are going to miss greens, so we have to be able to roll a few putts in and tidy up our short game, and then we are right there.”

On another solid round at La Costa from senior BaiMai Seema — “Yeah, there's definitely a love-hate relationship between BaiMai and this golf course. She converted some of those up and downs when she missed a green and made a few more putts than everybody else, which was the big difference today. But I love that she walks around this place confidently. It's almost like she thinks 72 is not good. She thinks she can do better, and I like that about her.”

WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor will play alongside Purdue and Cal State Fullerton in the second round beginning at 3:40 p.m. CT. A full list of tee times, live scoring and stats will be available at Clippd.Scoreboard.com.<https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/236560/scoring/participants>

For more information on Baylor Women’s Golf, follow @BaylorWGolf on X, Instagram and Facebook.


—BaylorBears.com—






Matt Roberts | Director of Athletic Communications (MBB/MGOLF/ WGOLF)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-227-2280
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