Kentucky women’s golf wrapped up the season with its competition in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship in Carlsbad, California for the first time since 2021.
The 30-team field played 54 holes of stroke play over the first three days of the tournament. Following the third round, the top 15 teams advanced to a fourth round of stroke play, with the top eight then moving on to match play to determine the national champion.
Day three of the tournament is where the Wildcats ended their season, as Kentucky didn’t make it in the top 15 to advance into the next round. The team tied for 23rd out of 30 teams.
Day one began with the Wildcats being paired with University of Virginia and LSU on hole one. The starting five lineup included two juniors, Cathryn Brown and Samantha Paradise, and three sophomores, Raleygh Simpson, C.A. Carter and Karlie Campbell.
The Cats put together a 10-over-par team total in the opening round, tying for 25th place with Michigan State.
Brown was the first Wildcat to tee off for Kentucky and opened the tournament with a strong round, shooting one-under-par 71 to place inside the top 25 individuals rankings. Despite three bogeys, the junior was able to offset them with four birdies.
“Yeah, I think overall I played really solid. I was kind of steady. I kind of came out definitely nervous, for sure, on the first few holes, made some pars, rolled in a couple of birdies early, kind of hit a road block, but road block has never stopped any of us,” Brown said. “So we kind of kept plowing through the day, and just to get a nice birdie to finish was – it was really nice.”
Simpson and Campbell both shot 3-over-par 75s. Simpson had a strong run on the front nine, shooting even-par, two birdies and just one bogey on hole nine. The back nine turned out to be more difficult than the front, where Simpson suffered with four bogeys. She did, however, earn a birdie on a par-4.
Campbell had an up-and-down day, but did manage to have four birdies during the first round.
Carter started off strong with a birdie on hole one. The sophomore is coming off a career performance, shooting a 65 at the NCAA Regionals tournament. She ended the first round shooting 5-over-par 77.
“Yeah, I think that the greens are going to firm up and definitely it’s going to get windier, and I think the conditions will be harder. So, I think the scores will definitely go up. It’ll be interesting to see this afternoon what happens, and we can kind of watch these last few groups and see what the course is doing. But I think that we’re going to really get a game plan going into tomorrow,” Brown said following the first round.
Kentucky teed off in the afternoon to kick off the second day. The weather for day two presented a new challenge for the Cats, where the temperature dropped and the wind picked up by the time they reached the back nine.
Both Simpson and Carter shot even-par 72. Carter had a great start off the first nine, where she shot seven straight even-pars, paired with back-to-back birdies. The next nine holes were more difficult, where she bogeyed two holes, but bounced back making even-pars on the rest of the holes.
“It was a pretty steady day for the most part, I got off to a lot of pars and just found my rhythm out there. I didn’t feel the most comfortable with my swing today, but we just found a way to score and get the ball in the hole. Finally made some birdies coming down the front nine, and made the turn, finally getting back in a rhythm, and it definitely – the course got tougher as the afternoon went on. But just tried to stay patient out there, and giving myself birdie looks definitely started to leak a little bit coming down the stretch, but you know, we’re just excited to have one more day at it tomorrow,” Carter said.
Simpson started off the first nine shooting a double on a par-5, but then bounced back, shooting even-par and five birdies to end day two.
“I came in today not feeling the greatest, kind of been having some swing issues, and we worked out on the range for over an hour yesterday to figure it out. Started out rough with a double on the first one, and well, my assistant coach just goes, all right, it’s a new round,” Simpson said. “Started over, then went 2-under from there and shot even. So yeah, I mean, working through a little bit, smooth stuff, but overall a pretty decent day.”
Brown shot 3-over-par in round two of the competition, where she had three bogeys but secured a birdie on the ninth hole. At that point in the competition, Brown led the team with 2-over-par overall, tying for 46th place individually.
“I think keep the same game plan, trusting the process, knowing that we have a really good strategy for this golf course, and just plotting our way around keeping the ball in play, and just trusting that the putts are going to fall, and just get some good recovery tonight,” Carter recapped following the second day.
The Wildcats continued day three of stroke play teeing off in the early afternoon with Texas Tech and Oregon State.
Simpson led the team at the end of the tournament tying her second-best career finish. The sophomore shot a 75, 72 and 71 during the tournament, and wrapped up the third day shooting five birdies and finishing in a tie for 44th place out of 156 other golfers in the field.
Campbell went 1-under in the final round, where she started off with two birdies and four pars on the front nine. Campbell ended with four birdies to finish shooting a 71, finishing in 117th place on the individual leaderboard.
Both Brown and Carter ended the final round going 1-over-par 73. Brown shot even-par on the front nine, then finished up her season on the back nine with two bogeys and a birdie.
Carter had a rough start on the first few holes, bogeying back to back, but clutched a birdie on hole nine. She totaled three birdies this round and ended in 83rd place on the individual leaderboard.
Below are Kentucky’s scorecards for the entire weekend, which can also be found through UK Athletics women’s golf webpage.
Day one scorecard
Cathryn Brown 71 (-1)
Karlie Campbell 75 (+3)
Raleygh Simpson 75 (+3)
C.A. Carter 77 (+5)
Samantha Paradise 80 (+8)
Kentucky 298 (+10)
Day two scorecard
T46 Cathryn Brown 71, 75 … 146 (+2)
T64 Raleygh Simpson 75, 72 … 147 (+3)
T94 C.A. Carter 77, 72 … 149 (+5)
T143 Karlie Campbell 75, 80 … 155 (+11)
152 Samantha Paradise 80, 81 …161 (+17)
28 Kentucky 298, 299 … 597 (+21)
Day three 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)
