CARLSBAD, Calif. – “Welcome to the club.”
Those were the congratulatory words from LPGA and Arkansas legend Stacy Lewis to current Razorbacks sophomore Maria Jose Marin, who on Monday evening outlasted a star-studded field at Omni La Costa to become the program’s third NCAA women’s individual champion, joining Lewis and Maria Fassi.
When Lewis won her national title in 2007, Marin was still a newborn. Twelve years later, Fassi triumphed in front of a home crowd at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, while back in Cali – Colombia, not California – a nearly teenage Marin, also an avid swimmer and ballet dancer, was left inspired.