Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn earns LPGA Tour exemption with victory

Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn will have to make some room in the trophy case, and on her calendar, after capturing the title at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club. 

Kuehn finished at 10 under for the event, five shots clear of Virginia’s Beth Lillie.

This victory comes with a little something extra for Kuehn: an exemption into next month’s JTBC Championship at Palos Verdes on the LPGA Tour. It will be her first start on the LPGA Tour. 

Kuehn earned second-team All-America honors in 2021 as a sophomore and followed up her stellar season with medalist honors at that year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur. 

This continues a remarkable start to the spring for Wake Forest, which already had two team titles prior to a second-place finish at Palos Verdes. As for individual titles, the Demon Deacons are a perfect three-for-three. 

True freshman Carolina Lopez-Chacarra opened the spring season with a win at the UCF Challenge, which included a final-round 62. She backed that win up with another victory at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. 

Neither Kuehn nor Lopez-Chacarra has finished worse than T-13 as an individual this spring. 

The Demon Deacons look like a force to be reckoned with as the march to Grayhawk continues.