Greg Hansen: Arizona women’s golf title in 2018 wasn’t a fluke — and Cats are out to prove it | Wildcats

“That will be a good problem to have,” he said. “I look forward to it.”

Progress on NCAA championships slowed considerably and the sun-beaten banners faded and lost their shine. The school that won 14 NCAA championships from 1991-2008 has since won but two: Andy Lopez’s College World Series baseball title of 2012 and Laura Ianello’s inspiring burst to the 2018 NCAA women’s golf championship.

None of the 21 banners are on display today; all were removed by crews building the $15 million Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center.

But by the time the construction crews tidy up and vacate the street adjacent to Arizona Stadium, the UA women’s golf team will be well at work on No. 22.

Ianello’s team returns virtually intact and is ranked in every top 10 poll in women’s golf. The first of five tournaments leading to the Pac-12 championships begins Sunday in Los Angeles and the Wildcats won’t be just another pretty face.

“I feel like a lot of eyes are on us,” Arizona senior Desiree Hong said Wednesday.

“People notice the ‘A’ a little bit more now when they’re walking around golf tournaments,” said assistant coach Justin Bubser.

It’s not that the Wildcats are new to the business of contending for golf championships. The school that produced LPGA legends Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa won NCAA titles in 1996 and 2000 and finished in the top 10 at the NCAA six times in the last nine years.

Women’s golf has surpassed softball as Arizona’s most successful sports program of the last decade.

Ianello all but smacks her lips at the prospect of opening the season among the game’s heavyweights. “Our goal is to win it again,” she said.

She says this fully aware that the degree of difficulty in NCAA women’s golf is unrelenting.

The current ANNIKA Watch List, the women’s golf equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, starts this way:

1. Patty Tavatanakit, UCLA

2. Albane Valenzuela, Stanford

Arizona’s four leading players are considered LPGA Tour prospects, but its first name on the ANNIKA list is sophomore Yu-Sang Hou, at No. 16.

Two of Arizona’s regulars — Hou and senior Haley Moore — were recently invited to the inaugural, 70-player Augusta Women’s Amateur. But the Pac-12 is so loaded that USC will have three players at Augusta: Alyaa Abdulghany, Jennifer Chang and Allison Corpuz.

“We’re ranked No. 9 in one poll — behind six teams from our conference,” said Ianello.

To Ianello’s credit, she was able to keep 80 percent of her starting lineup intact after winning the NCAA championship. Gigi Stoll, who generally played in the No. 4 or No. 5 slot, chose to turn pro.

Moore, whose steely 5-foot putt won the NCAA championship, eschewed yet another chance to become a pro, saying “when I first stepped on campus I knew I wanted to stay here four years; I’ll need to have your college education someday.”

Senior Bianca Pagdanganan, whose 30-foot eagle putt saved Arizona from elimination at the NCAA Tournament, played in an LPGA Tour event last summer and several international championships for her native Philippines, also chose to return for a final college season.

“I still think I have a lot more I can learn in my last semester of college,” she said.

With that type of approach, the Wildcats aren’t likely to be awed by anybody, especially since they beat No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Alabama and No. 4 Stanford in last year’s NCAA match-play finals.

How good can this team be?

Arizona won the Pac-12 Preview in November, a mini-NCAA Tournament in itself. Hou not only won that event impressively, shooting 6-under par, she was second in October’s prestigious East Lake Cup.

Junior Sandra Nordass, whose clutch play was a key part of the NCAA victories in Oklahoma, was strong in the fall, finishing third overall in the Windy City Classic. She was the UA’s No. 2 finisher in the Pac-12 Preview.

No one kicked back and gathered dust.

Ianello spent an early January week in South Florida scouting junior tournaments for Class of 2019, 2020 and 2021 prospects. Moore played in the 2019 Australian Masters of the Amateur. Pagdanganan and Hou were contenders in the Hitachi Ladies Classic in Taiwan. When all returned to Tucson, the UA women’s golf team drove to Sabino Canyon and hiked 10-miles to Seven Falls and back.

A view from the top never gets old.