(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
In the penultimate tournament of its fall season, the Arizona State women’s golf team earned a second-place finish at the Abilene Christian Intercollegiate behind strong performances from second-year Amelia Wan and fifth-year Patience Rhodes.
The Sun Devils — who are No. 18 in the Clippd poll — finished with a -14 combined team score over the three-day tournament. This was good enough to earn them a tie for runner-up on the final leaderboard with No. 14 Tennessee.
The 5th-ranked Oregon Ducks took the first-place finish with an impressive -28.
Amelia Wan led the way for ASU, finishing tied for fourth-place with a -6. This earned Wan her second top-5 finish of the fall after claiming 5th-place at the Mason Rudolph Championship in September.
In round 1, Wan bounced back from three bogeys with two birdies on the front nine and then finished with a birdie on the 18th hole to keep her even for the day.
Wan’s biggest moment came on the back nine of the final round when she walked toward the tee box on the 17th hole with an even score. She went on to birdie the final two holes of the tournament to push her up the leaderboard with a -2.
Patience Rhodes added another strong performance for ASU, finishing in 6th place with a -5. The fifth-year player has finished top-10 in each of the Sun Devils’ three tournaments so far this fall.
Rhodes got off to a hot start with five birdies on day one, but struggled in round 2, posting five bogies, including four on the back nine. She entered the final round in 15th place with an even scorecard.
The veteran Sun Devil and reigning Big 12 Player of the Year came roaring back on the back nine on day three, scoring an eagle on 13 and then birdying four of the final five holes to finish five under par.
Rounding out the rest of the squad for the Sun Devils were second-year players Fai Rubrong and Kate Dillon and first-year Natalia Aparicio. Third-year player Isabella Cioe also competed independently.
Rubrong and Dillon both posted one-unders in the final round and made up ground on the leaderboard. Rubrong climbed six spots on the third day to finish tied for 14th and Dillon rose five spots to end in a tie for 24th.
As for the rest of the field, the story of the tournament was the Oregon Ducks, who ran away with the lead and finished the tournament 14 strokes ahead of runner-ups ASU and Tennessee.
Oregon’s performance included a -10 scorecard from individual winner Celina Yeo. The first-year player posted a three-under through the first two days and then climbed to the top of the leaderboard on day three with -7 that included eight birdies.
Yeo finished the tournament with 16 birdies overall.
Other standout performances came from Arizona’s Kinley Ni, who finished in second place with a -9, and Oregon’s Tong An, who posted a -8 on the first day and then cooled off in the final two rounds to finish in third.
This tournament marked the inaugural showcase for the Abilene Christian Intercollegiate played at Halbert National Golf Club in Granbury, Texas. The host school ended the tournament in last place with a combined score of 38 over par.
ASU’s women’s golf team has now earned top-10 finishes in all three of their fall tournaments, including another runner-up finish at the Mason Rudolph Championship in September. It’ll look to secure its first victory when they close out its fall season next week at the Nanea Invitational in Kona, Hawaii.
