USC heads north this week with plenty to measure itself against at the Stanford Invitational, a three-day event set for Oct. 16-18 at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif.
The No. 2 Trojans enter a field that brings six teams ranked inside the top 25 of the latest Scoreboard rankings, giving this stop an unusually stacked feel.
USC’s biggest tests figure to come from No. 4 Virginia, No.
8 UCLA and No. 12 Stanford.
It also serves as a kind of NCAA Championship rematch, with USC and Stanford meeting again after facing off in last season’s match play finals.
There’s more attached to the event than golf alone. The Stanford Invitational is also the PlayForHer tournament, a Breast Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser held every year.
Fans can pledge for every birdie made by USC or by the full field, and flat donations are also accepted. All proceeds go to support breast cancer research, and the team with the most birdies over the three rounds will be recognized at the awards ceremony.
USC arrives after posting the best tournament in program history. The Trojans carded an 817 (-47), breaking the school record by two shots and, at the time, standing as the best team score in the country this season. Three Trojans finished in the top 10: Jasmine Koo tied for third, Sarah Hammett tied for fifth, and Kylie Chong tied for 10th.
This week’s USC lineup will feature Bailey Shoemaker, Kaili Xiao, Kylie Chong and Elise Lee. It’s the first time that exact group has been used this season. Chong, Hammett and Lee are among the players from last year’s trip to this event, when USC finished third and Catherine Park shared second.
The Stanford Golf Course will play to 6,278 yards with a par of 71 in a 5-count 4 format. Live scoring will be available through Scoreboard.
The rest of the field includes California, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado, No. 17 Iowa State, No. 24 Kansas, Michigan, Northwestern, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Jose State, Santa Clara, SMU, UC Davis and the three other ranked powers in the event: Stanford, UCLA and Virginia.
Round 1 and Round 2 will both begin with tee times at 7:30 a.m. PT on Friday and Saturday.
Sunday’s final round will start with an 8:30 a.m. PT shotgun, followed by the awards ceremony.
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USC QB Publicly Stands Up For Lincoln Riley As Pressure Builds
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Maiava said the outside criticism can serve as motivation for the group, a stance that fits the broader mood around a team trying to push through scrutiny rather than retreat from it. Riley, for his part, recently praised Maiavas poise and confidence in the Penn State game, a sign that the quarterbacks voice and presence carry real weight in the locker room. Whether that support is enough to quiet the bigger questions around the program is another matter, but it is clear the conversation around USC is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]
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Lincoln Riley Outsmarted Penn State When USC Needed It Most
With USC clinging to its lead late against Penn State, Lincoln Riley turned to a formation that did more than just keep the offense on the field. The unusual look created enough confusion to force Matt Campbell to burn a timeout on fourth down, a small detail in the moment that carried real weight in a game where every possession felt strained and every decision mattered.
The sequence only got better for USC a short time later when Christian Pierce forced a fumble and the Trojans recovered it, setting up the closing stretch they needed to drain the clock in a 31-23 win. Riley's call was the kind of late-game chess move that can tilt a tight matchup, and on this night it helped USC finish the job when Penn State needed one clean stop and could not get it. [Read more 🡒]