No. 24 Golf Wins Historic Hurricane Invitational Title
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Key 18th-hole birdies from junior Dewi Weber and sophomore Renate Grimstad secured the University of Miami golf team the Hurricane Invitational title on the final day at the Biltmore Golf Course Wednesday afternoon.
Despite trailing late in the day, No. 24 Hurricanes won their third title this spring after shooting a final round of 292 and a tournament total of 866. Miami held on to its three-stroke lead over Oklahoma going into the final day after the 16th-ranked Sooners shot a 292 final round. OU completed the tournament with a score of 869, besting Coastal Carolina (290 on the day) by one stroke.
“It was a wish come true today that we win our third out of four tournaments,” said Miami head coach Patti Rizzo, who has now led the program to 42 top-five finishes since taking over in 2010. “When you are a coach, you always ask yourself, ‘When is it going to be my turn? When are things going to go my way? When is my team going to get it together?’ So far, it has been great.”
The painfully close individual competition was won by Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Bose, who had a total score of 210. She shot under-two on the final day of the 72-par, 6,150-yard course to help the 45th-ranked Hokies to a day-best 289 round. As a result, Virginia Tech upended Maryland to jump into fourth place in the final standings with a score of 882.
Thanks to her strong finish, with a final score of 211, No. 76 Grimstad found herself in a three-way tie for second place with Rylee Pedigo and Valerie Tanguay of Oklahoma. Tanguay competed as an individual and earned the feat after shooting a day-best five-under par on the final day.
No. 20 Weber fought to another top-five finish, ending the tournament on a one-under par round for a final score of 213, tied for fifth with Coastal Carolina’s Sena Ersoy.
“Renate and Dewi are really maturing; they are playing like upperclassmen,” Rizzo said. “They’ve taken a lot of punches and they’ve learned through playing and competing. That’s usually what happens in college golf. Freshman year is total learning, sophomore year you realize you can do this, junior year you get confident and by senior year you are awesome and then you go turn pro.”
Sophomore Macarena Aguilera did not allow another late-day dropoff and remained consistent on the closing day, shooting her best round in the tournament with one-under. Aguilera completed competition with a total score of 218, tied for tenth with Mercer’s Lauren Lightfritz.
Freshman Serena Hou shot a final round of 86 for a tournament score of 243. Fellow rookie Roos Haarman, who shot 163 through 36 rounds, withdrew from competition Wednesday morning and did not compete on the final day.
“We have a month now to prepare for four more events,” Rizzo said. “I’m just super proud of the girls, they are holding on real strong. They are playing so well.”
The Canes will next compete at the Bryan National Championship April 6-8, which will be hosted by Wake Forest in Brown Summit, N.C.
