Although the Irish didn't emerge with a first-place finish, they turned in a solid performance over the break at the Landfall Tradition on the Dye Golf Course in Wilmington, N.C. on Sunday. The Irish rose from seventh place on the second day of play to sixth on the final day, marking the lowest score by any team during the final round of golf.
"Although it wasn't our best performance, we managed to play through until the last shot," senior So-Hyun Park said. "We beat Duke, who is ranked fourth, by twenty stokes on the final day."
Junior Becca Huffer led the team throughout the tournament, finishing sixth out of 90 competitors with a final total of 218 strokes, ending two over par. She finished with a score of 73 on the final day of play on the 54-hole course, remaining consistent with her scores of 72 and 73 strokes during the previous two days.
Two freshmen stepped up to the plate, as Nicole Zhang and Kristina Nhim followed Huffer's lead. Despite being sick throughout the whole weekend, Zhang finished tied for 17th with a total of 224 strokes, progressing from 75 on the first day of play to 73 and 76 the following two days respectively. Nhim tied for 26th, just two strokes behind, carding scores of 75, 77 and 74 strokes during the three-day tournament.
Park and senior Katie Conway rounded out the scoring, finishing tied for 40th place with 230 total strokes. Park improved her game on the final day to boost the Irish, improving on her 77 stroke score from the first round to 75 on the third. Conway finished tied for 74th place with 240 strokes.
The Irish finished with 896 total strokes, good enough for 32 over par. However, the team's determination was clear on the final round of play, as they collectively carded a score of 296, just eight strokes over par.
"We had a team meeting the night before [the final round] just to go through our mistakes and what we needed to focus on going into the last day," Park said. "We all seemed to have troubles around the greens, so we talked about how to place ourselves better on the greens and to be especially careful with the green speed."
