No. 1 OCU to host women's NAIA National Championship

No. 1 OCU hosts NAIA Nationals

by ken macleod

The PGA Championship is not the only national event taking place in Oklahoma in May.

The NAIA Women’s National Golf Championship will be held May 24-27 at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma. Host school Oklahoma City University will be the heavy favorite, having beaten most of the other top schools it has faced throughout the season decisively.

All it took for coach Marty McCauley’s team to advance from contenders to favorites was the addition of his best recruiting class in his 11 years at the school, which include winning national titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

Maddi Kamas and Reagan Chaney both could have signed to play Division I golf but chose OCU, mainly since McCauley had been recruiting them from their junior days.

Add Texan Page Wood to holdovers Natalie Gough, Morgan Palermo, Lauren Behnken and Rachel Eckert, and you have a team that had won six of nine events through early April while not losing to any NAIA teams.

Chaney, a powerful player and great athlete, won her first event and then set a school record in the third event, shooting 11-under to win the Rose Creek Invitational. Kamas nearly equaled that with a 10-under showing at the Sydney Cox Invitational, notching her first win while Chaney took second.

Gough and Wood won the next two events. Chaney and Kamas both finished in the top five in a largely Division I tournament at South Dakota State, then Kamas and Chaney finished 1-3 in the Kyle Blaser Invitational at Gaillardia.

“I don’t think there’s much chance of a letdown with this group,” McCauley said. “As good as Reagan and Maddi have been, their best golf is in front of them. They are all working hard.”

The national championship will be open to the public at no charge. Spectators will not be allowed to rent carts.

Left to right, Paige Wood, Maddi Kamas, Rachel Eckert, Reagan Chaney; back row, from left, Natalie Gough, Lauren Behnken, Morgan Palermo, Meghan Charles, Jamie Welsh.