Wildcats Record Their Best Round of the NCAA Championship on Sunday
CARLSBAD, Calif. – While the University of Kentucky women’s golf team’s season came to an end Sunday, it was not without another highly competitive final round similar to what it experienced at the NCAA Regional.
The Wildcats – who went +10 in the first round and +11 in the second round – shot an even-par in their final lap around the golf course at the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship in Carlsbad, California. The Cats turned in a 21-over tournament total and improved six spots on the team leaderboard to find T23 out of 30 teams.
That finish is two spots better than their seed ranking, which was 25th going into the tournament.
With a pair of under-par rounds from Raleygh Simpson and Karlie Campbell on Sunday, four different players turned in a par-or-better round at least once this week, a testament to the depth and versatility of the young team.
Simpson, just a sophomore from Kerrville, Texas, led the team at the conclusion of the tournament, stringing together a 75, 72 and 71 for a 2-over-par 218, tying her second-best finish of her college career. In fact, her last three tournaments of the season, she has put up her top 54-hole tournament totals of her college career, also including her 2-over at the Terps Invitational and her 1-over at the NCAA Regional.
Simpson, who collected five birdies across her round today, including three straight down the stretch, finished tied for 44th place out of the 156-person field.
As fate would have it, she led her team for the first time this season, an honor her teammates – Cathryn Brown, Karlie Campbell and C.A. Carter – also have enjoyed at least once each in 2025-26.
Campbell, a sophomore from Ethridge, Tennessee, also rolled in a 1-under in the final round. She got off to a hot start with two birdies and four pars through hole No. 6 before falling back to even-par just before the turn. She kept a steady hand after making the turn, though, and then rallied a birdie-bogey-birdie-par series on her last four holes. With her 1-under, Campbell climbed more than 25 spots up the individual leaderboard to land in a share of 117th place.
Bluegrass natives Cathryn Brown and C.A. Carter recorded a pair of 1-over-par 73s on Sunday.
Brown penciled in pars on her first nine consecutive holes – the entire front nine – before suffering a couple of bogeys on the par-5 No. 10 and the par-3 No. 12. However, she bounced back with a birdie on the par-4 No. 15, that was very agreeable with the Wildcats in the final round.
Four of the five players earned a birdie on that hole Sunday.
Brown, a junior from Eddyville, Kentucky, finished her time at the championship with a 3-over-par 219 for T51.
Carter had a rough go to start, sitting at 3-over through eight holes. But on the ninth hole, she recorded a dramatic chip-in from a bunker hugging the left side of the green for birdie, which was the first of two more birdies she would earn in the final round. The sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky, assembled a 6-over tournament total for a share of 83rd place.
Samantha Paradise, a junior from Tampa, Florida, who is competing in just her third lineup with the team this season, earned a 9-over in the final round and went 26-over across the weekend to land in 152nd place.
The top 15 teams after 54 holes will advance to the fourth and final round of stroke play Monday. Golf Channel will pick up coverage at 5:30 p.m. ET. The top eight teams after that will advance to match play.
Scorecard
T44 Raleygh Simpson 75, 72, 71 … 218 (+2)
T51 Cathryn Brown 71, 75, 73 … 219 (+3)
T83 C.A. Carter 77, 72, 73 … 222 (+6)
T117 Karlie Campbell 75, 80, 71 … 226 (+10)
152 Samantha Paradise 80, 81, 81 … 242 (+26)
T23 Kentucky 298, 299, 288 … 885 (+21)
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
