2026 NCAA Women's D-I Golf Regional fields selected: Who's in, who's out?

Stanford, USC, Florida, Texas A&M, Texas and Arkansas each earned No. 1 seeds as the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee announced its selection of 72 teams and 36 individuals to participate in the 2026 NCAA Women’s D-I Regionals, being held May 11-13.

Thirteen schools from the SEC earned spots into the regional fields, the most of any conference, followed by 11 from the Big 12, 10 from the ACC and nine from the Big Ten.

For the fifth time, there will be six women’s regional tournaments, each scheduled for 54 holes. And for the fourth year, five teams will advance from each regional to the NCAA Women’s Championship, aligning it with the number of men’s teams that qualify.

Teams earning at-large bids were required to have .500 or better head-to-head winning percentage against their opposition during the 2025-26 season. (This is the second year of the rule for the women after it being in place for men's D-I regionals since 2008.) This notably left out three schools from Regionals who would likely have been in the postseason field in previous years: South Carolina, the 24th ranked team in the latest Scoreboard rankings, Cal-Berkeley and San Jose State. (Four South Carolina players earned spots individually into the NCAA regional fields.)

Each regional site has 12 teams and six individuals competing. In addition to the five teams qualifying for nationals, the low individual golfer not on one of those teams will also be moving on to nationals, which take place for the third straight year at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., (May 22-27). The North course, renovated by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, hosts the women's and men's NCAA finals through 2028, with discussions going on that it could become the permanent home for the event.

The format for the national championship includes a stroke-play segment to determine the individual champion (72 holes) and whittle the field down to eight schools who then compete in a head-to-head match-play bracket to determine a team champion. Thirty-one programs have advanced to match play since the format was adopted in 2015, with Stanford being the lone school that has reached match play all 10 times (NCAA finals were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID) while USC has reached eight and Duke has reached five.

Stanford comes into this year’s NCAA postseason as the favorite, having won six times during the 2025-26 season, including most recently at the ACC Championship. Cardinal coach Anne Walker’s squad has five players in the top 18 of the Scoreboard individual rankings: Paula Martin Sampedro (4), Andrea Revuelta (6), Megha Ganne (9), Mega Ortengren (13) and Kelly Xu (18). Stanford has won two NCAA titles in the last four years and three since 2015.

Last year, Northwestern upset Stanford in the finals to claim its first NCAA women’s team golf title. No school has repeated as team champions since Duke in 2004-05. Maria Jose Marin of Arkansas won the individual title a year ago and is back again this spring at Regionals after capturing the last month’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur crown as well.

Here's the breakdown of all six Regional sites:

STANFORD REGIONAL Stanford Golf Club, Stanford, Calif.

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

Stanford (ACC)

Pepperdine (West Coast)

Vanderbilt

Arizona State

Missouri

Arizona

Cal State Fullerton

Illinois

Oregon State

Cal Poly (Big West)

South Dakota State (Summit)

Navy (Patriot League)

Individuals

Emma Bunch, New Mexico State

Leia Chung, Boise State (Mountain West)

Kelsey Kim, Santa Clara

Adora Liu, California

Eva Pett, San Francisco

Madison Le, Long Beach State (Big West)

WACO REGIONAL Ridgewood Country Club, Waco, Texas

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

Texas A&M

Oregon

Tennessee (SEC)

SMU

Baylor

LSU

TCU

Tulsa (American)

Colorado

Northern Arizona (Big Sky)

Tarleton State (Western Athletic)

Prairie View A&M (SWAC)

Individuals

Ryann Honea, Abilene Christian

Grace Quintanilla, Texas State

Malisone Chanthapanya, North Texas

Yvonne Chamness, Texas State

Bouquet Subsomboon, North Texas

Sara Pihlajamaki, Houston Christian (Southland)

TALLAHASSE REGIONAL Seminole Legacy Golf Club, Tallahassee, Fla.

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

Florida

Wake Forest

UCLA

Florida State

Eastern Michigan

Kentucky

Purdue

Clemson

ULM (Sun Belt)

North Florida (Atlantic Sun)

Little Rock (Ohio Valley)

UTRGV (Southland)

Individuals

Vairana Heck, South Carolina

Natachanok Tunwannarux, Alabama

Molly McLean, South Carolina

Vanessa Zhang, Harvard

Isaki Sakashita, Stetson

Carmen Fletcher, Alabama State (SWAC)

CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL UNC Finley Golf Course, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

Texas

North Carolina

Mississippi State

Oklahoma State

Kent State (MAC)

Virginia

Michigan State

N.C. State

High Point (Big South)

Furman (Southern)

Richmond (Atlantic 10)

Howard (Northeast)

Individuals

Pinky Chaisilprungruang, Charlotte (American)

Thanana Kotchasanmanee, Princeton (Ivy League)

Victoria Levy, UNC Wilmington (Coastal Athleti)

Zoe Duval, Appalachian State

Caroline Patterson, UNC Asheville (Big South)

Norah Seidl, Montana State (Big Sky)

LOUISVILLE REGIONAL University of Louisville Golf Club, Simpsonville, Ky.

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

Arkansas

Auburn

Iowa State (Big 12)

Mississippi

Houston

Virginia Tech

Kansas State

Indiana

College of Charleston (Coastal Athletic)

Xavier (Big East)

Western Kentucky (Conference USA)

Murray State (Missouri Valley)

Individuals

Eila Galitsky, South Carolina

Barbara Car, Old Dominion (Sun Belt)

Maylis Lamoure, South Carolina

Maria Jose Barragan, BYU

Isabella Johnson, Middle Tennessee

Sloane Biddle, Belmont (Missouri Valley)

ANN ARBOR REGIONAL University of Michigan Golf Course, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Teams (listed by seed; conference champions in parenthesis)

USC (Big Ten Conference)

Duke

Central Florida

Oklahoma

Ohio State

Northwestern

Kansas

Texas Tech

UNLV (Mountain West)

Columbia (Ivy)

Quinnipiac (Metro Atlantic Athletic)

Oakland (Horizon)

Individuals

Trinity Beth, Georgia

Isabella McCauley, Minnesota

Mariana Mesones, Minnesota

Alexis Vakasiuola, Grand Canyon

Lauren Sung, Michigan

Yanah Rolston, IU Indy (Horizon)