The No. 2 ranked Emory University women's golf team concluded play at the Golfweek October Classic in Destin, Florida on Tuesday. The three-round tournament was held at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.
As has been the case all fall, the University Athletic Association power trio of Emory, WashU and Carnegie Mellon battled each other through the end of another closely contested tournament. The Bears and Tartans each shot under par on the final day in Florida with both teams over taking the Eagles who had seized the tournament lead on day two. WashU claimed the team title with a score of 868 with Carnegie Mellon finishing second at 870. Emory dropped to a third-place finish at 877 following a third round where they shot a 13-over 301 as a team. The Eagles, who tied a program record with their second round score of 283, will enter the program record books with their three-day score which represented the third-lowest total across three rounds in team history.
Freshman Zimo Li was the tournament standout as she captured the first individual title of her young career. Li shot under par in each of the three rounds in Destin and finished with a six-under 210 to win by four strokes over WashU's Sydney Kuo. Li's third round scorecard of 71 featured a phenomenal 17 pars as well as a birdie on hole 13. Her three-day total of 210 matches the program record which had been set twice previously by senior Sharon Mun at the Deb Jackson Invitational last spring and at the Golfweek Preview in 2022.
Outside of Li, senior Ellen Dong and freshman Covi Yan were the next highest performers for the Eagles with both golfers tying for 18th on the player leaderboard. Dong was three-over on Tuesday with a final round that saw 13 pars and one birdie. Yan had nine pars and a team-high four birdies through 15 holes but a triple-, double-, single-bogey on her final three holes brought her third round score to a four-over 76.
Sophomores Esther Jung and Carys Code each carded seven-over 79s on Tuesday to conclude the Emory golfers on the course. Jung recorded 12 pars and one birdie to tie for 26th overall while Code had three birdies and nine pars as she tied for 32nd.
The Eagles are finished for the fall season and are set to return in the spring as they look to gear up for a NCAA tournament run.
