ASU Women’s Golf: Monica Vaughn takes home NCAA individual title

Monica Vaughn didn't know the score, and she might not have believed how the final hour unfolded that enabled the Arizona State senior to capture the NCAA women's golf title on Monday.

In a stunning turnaround at Rich Harvest Farms, Vaughn made up a four-shot deficit with four holes to play with two birdies and a lot of help from Wake Forest sophomore Jennifer Kupcho, who led the entire final round until a triple bogey on the 17th hole.

"It's a great way to go out my senior year," Vaughn said after closing with a 1-under 71 for a one-shot victory.

She became the sixth Sun Devil to win a women's individual golf title and the first since Azahara Munoz in 2008.

On a streak to end her senior year, Vaughn earned the title after winning the NCAA Lubbock Regional individual title two weeks ago as ASU also won the team title.

As a team, the Sun Devils shot the second best round of the day, a one over 289, to move from a tie for ninth all the way to the third seed. This earned ASU a spot in Tuesday's match play quarterfinals.

All five Sun Devils shot their best rounds of the tournament thus far.

"The goal was to stay present, stay relaxed, and we tried to just enjoy ourselves out there," head coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "We worked hard at not talking about this being [Monica's] last tournament here… Arizona State and me are really going to miss this young lady. We finally figured out that pars were really good on this golf course and I think we did a much better job with that today, and our play reflected that."