The Amherst women’s golf team found redemption this past weekend against rival Williams in the Jack Leaman Invitational at Hickory Ridge Golf Club. Finishing the tournament with a total score of 637, Amherst claimed first place, beating out the Ephs by a solid 18 strokes.
Having finished second behind Williams the weekend before in the Vassar College Invitational, the purple and white made a strong case for themselves as the best team in the NESCAC with this definitive win.
“We were really excited to put two good scores in a row together,” Gracie said. “We’ve had a couple of good tournaments where we have been close after day one but then fallen back on day two so to beat Williams was awesome.”
Amherst finished at the top of the pack after day one of the tournament with a combined score of 317. Jamie Gracie ’17 and Kate Weiss ’19 led the purple and white with impressive two-over-par 76 performances, which garnered them each a share of first place among individual scorers.
Zoe Wong ’18 was also a major contributor to Amherst’s day one success, as she finished a mere five strokes behind Gracie and Weiss. Maggie Schoeller ’19 finished the day with a score of 84 to help Amherst secure its first-place spot, and she was notably the only player on the course to shoot an eagle in the first round.
Gathering momentum from her stellar outing on Saturday, Gracie had a fantastic performance on day two of the tournament and finished five strokes under par. Her day two score of 69 was seven strokes better than her score from the previous day, and it earned her the title of top individual scorer of the tournament.
“I played literally the best round of my life on Sunday,” Gracie said.
Over the two days, Gracie recorded nine birdies and 23 pars. Weiss had another strong showing on Sunday as well, scoring 85 and finishing fifth among the top individual scorers. Wong took eighth among individual scorers with a combined score of 164, and Schoeller shot a solid 83 to improve her previous day’s score by one stroke.
The purple and white will continue their impressive NESCAC campaign in the Williams College Invitational this weekend.
