BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Spiders freshman
Rory Weinfurther won the individual title at the Patriot League Championship Sunday at Saucon Valley Country Club, shooting a 2-over 74 in the final round to finish the 54-hole event at 227, 11 strokes over par and one shot in front of Boston's Flair Kuan.
Weinfurther finished her round with a par on the ninth hole to post her total of 227 (+11) and then watched Richmond's final two pairings finish. As the Spiders arrived on the 18th green following a short van ride across the course, Kuan's par putt on 18 burned the edge, pushing her score to 228 (+12), one shot behind Weinfurther, who arrived at the 18th hole thinking she had finished second in the field of 35. Instead, Weinfurther became second golfers in program history to win an individual conference title, joining 2018 Patriot League Champion
Sophie DiPetrillo.
"It feels awesome," said Weinfurther. "This was definitely one of my individual goals. I'm just really happy with how I played."
With the knowledge that she would need to wait 30 minutes or more after she completed her round for final results, Weinfurther said she "tried to think of every putt coming down the stretch as a putt that could be for the championship."
Weinfurther's final putt of the day was a four-footer on the ninth hole that she drained after chipping up to the pin from the front fringe.
"My putting was really good this week, today especially," said Weinfurther. "I was able to get up and down from pretty much anywhere which was amazing and I drove the ball really well so I hit a lot of fairways and I was really happy with that."
As a team, Weinfurther and the Spiders finished third at 932, 68 strokes over par. Richmond was nine strokes behind Boston and 11 strokes behind Navy, who won the Patriot League for the first time in program history.
Junior
Emily Ward was named First Team All-Patriot League after finishing tied for fourth place with a score of 230, 14 strokes over par. Sophomore Vicky Zhu earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors for her 10th-place finish with a score of 235 (+19).
Sophomore
Muskan Uppal tied for 14th at 241 (+25), six shots in front of junior
Naomi Mitchell, who tied for 17th. Playing in her final collegiate event, senior
Ally Steffen tied for 21st with a total of 251 (+35).
Richmond's team score of 311 (+23) on Sunday was a three-shot improvement from their 314 in the second round on Saturday afternoon but not enough for the Spiders to gain any ground on Navy and Boston, who entered the final round tied for the lead.
As the individual Patriot League Champion, Weinfurther will play at one of four NCAA Championships regional sites on May 10-12 with a chance to qualify to compete at the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz on May 21-24.
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