ABILENE - Abilene Christian's
Ryann Honea will return to the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships with an individual berth in the Lubbock Regional, the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee announced on Wednesday. Regional play will tee off on May 5-7 at The Rawls Course, hosted by Texas Tech.
Honea earned a bid to postseason play for the second year in a row after representing the Wildcats at the 2024 NCAA Bryan Regional, where she finished 50th overall to close out the program's debut season.
"I'm excited," Honea said. "I think that course fits my game really well and I've played there a lot, so I think knowledge is key going into regionals. I have high expectations. It'll be fun. ... I play well in the wind, and it typically blows hard in Lubbock, so I think that's something."
The highest-ranked golfer in the Western Athletic Conference at No. 81 by Clippd, Honea looks to advance to the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, Calif. on May 16-21. After three rounds, the regional's lowest-scoring individual not on an advancing team will move on to the national championships.
The Lubbock Regional features 12 teams in No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Wake Forest, No. 18 Arizona, No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 30 Iowa State, No. 31 Tennessee, No. 43 Purdue, No. 49 Campbell, No. 57 UC Davis, No. 73 Florida Gulf Coast, No. 118 Tarleton State and No. 227 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Honea joins a six-individual field including Chantal El Chaib of Georgia, Klara Hurtova of Texas Tech, Kara Kaneshiro of Colorado State, Yvonne Chamness of Texas State and Julia McLaughlin of High Point. Honea is the highest-ranked golfer in the group.
Honea came in second place at this year's WAC Championship in Litchfield Park, Ariz. on April 14-16, a season removed from capturing the individual title at the conference tournament. She was one of just two golfers to close out under par and recorded the lowest tournament score in program history at 6-under 210. With a 5-under 67 second round, she also tied the lowest-scoring round in ACU history.
ACU competed at The Rawls Course on Sept. 24-25, 2024 for the Red Raider Invitational, where Honea shot 3-under to place eighth as the Wildcats' leading scorer.
Honea added to her trophy case with a pair of tournament victories in back-to-back outings this spring. She tied for first place at the BGSU Women's Intercollegiate at 5-over 218 before capturing the title at the inaugural West Texas Classic. Honea carded a 2-under 138 as the only golfer to finish under par at Abilene Country Club.
The San Angelo product was named the Jersey Mike's A Sub Above WAC Women's Golfer of the Week after both tournaments. Honea was again recognized with the honor in her third consecutive outing at the Riverbend Intercollegiate, where she recorded a runner-up finish with a 5-under 211 to lead the Wildcats to second place.
Honea opened the 2024-25 campaign with second place at the Boilermaker Classic in West Lafayette, Ind. with a 3-under 213. She capped the regular season with fourth place at Texas A&M's "Mo" Morial Invitational as ACU came in third as a team.
