High Point's Julia McLaughlin Wins 2025 Women's Golf Championship Medalist Honors
FRIPP ISLAND, S.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – High Point’s
Julia McLaughlin birdied her final two holes to regain the lead and complete a wire-to-wire victory and capture Medalist honors at the Big South Women’s Golf Championship with a 4-over par 220 (70-73-77) in the 54-hole stroke play event, which was contested at Ocean Creek Golf Course (par 72, 6,032 yards) on Fripp Island, S.C. McLaughlin, who entered the final round with a five shot lead, won by two strokes to become the third HPU golfer in six years to win the individual conference championship.
McLaughlin lost her lead midway through the final round to Charleston Southern's
Katie Stephens, but would be within a stroke or tied for the lead with Stephens until she birdied the par-4 17th hole. Playing in the same group, Stephens suffered a bogey on 17 before a par on 18. McLaughlin birdied her final hole to win by two strokes. She has secured automatic entry into the the NCAA Regionals with her victory.
Stephens finished runner-up at 222, one stroke ahead of 2024 Big South champion and teammate
Odette Font Garcia (223). Radford's
Grace Addison was fourth (225) and UNC Asheville's
Caroline Patterson placed fifth (226). All five players were named to the Big South All-Championship Team.
In the team standings,
Charleston Southern carded a 306 on Tuesday to finish with a team-aggregate 914 and vault from third-place to the top of the leaderboard in the stroke play portion, and will be the top seed in Wednesday’s Match Play Semifinal round. The Buccaneers, which won the Championship a year ago, finished one stroke ahead of
High Point (915).
Radford dropped two spots to third with a 917, while
UNC Asheville clinched the fourth and final Match Play berth with its fourth-place standing at 920. The Highlanders will make their first-ever appearance in the Big South Match Play round.
Wednesday’s Match Play Championship Semifinal round will feature Charleston Southern against UNC Asheville starting on hole one, and High Point vs. Radford beginning on hole 10. The winners of each match will play in the championship final Wednesday afternoon, with the champion receiving the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The Match Play round can be followed on Leaderboard King's
Live Scoring platform.