Columbia University
Lady Blue Hen Invitational
Shen Earns Top 10 with Sensational Final-Round 68
10/22/2023 7:13:00 PM | Women's Golf
Lions battle to a tie for sixth at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Less than 24 hours after carding the lowest round of her collegiate career, Columbia women's golf sophomore Emma Shen did it again. This time, she posted a final-round 4-under-par 68 to surge up the leaderboard and earn her first top-10 individual finish on Sunday at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational. The two-day, 54-hole event took place Saturday and Sunday at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.
Shen earned a tie for sixth at 4-over-par for the tournament (81-71-68—220). She was on fire on Sunday, starting with a birdie right off the bat at the 140-yard, par-3 10th. A birdie at the 12th moved her to 2-under, helping her make the turn in 34. After bogeying the par-4 second, Shen birdied the par-3 third and par-5 fourth to move to 3-under. She bogeyed the seventh but closed with back-to-back birdies at the par-4 eighth and par-5 ninth to finish off yet another collegiate-low round.
"We had to deal with difficult winds again today but Emma mentioned that she felt like she managed her putting routine very well," Columbia head coach Amy Week said. "Being able to do that translated into scoring."
Led by Shen's performance, the Lions climbed into a tie for sixth for the tournament (322-298-300—920). Sophomore Yoko Tai had another solid day to card a final-round 76. She earned a top 25 in a field of 66 players. Allison Paik (78) and Angela Zhang (78) combined with Shen and Tai as the Lions' top-four scorers of the day.
"We have one senior in the lineup and this is just her third year in college golf," Weeks added. "It's obviously still a really young squad. Considering all of the tournament and practice rounds we've missed this fall due to rain, I thought we continued to improve. There hasn't been as much of a dispersion in our scoring and I'd like to continue to see that gap get narrower throughout our lineup. The narrower that gap gets, the better chance we have to compete."
The Lady Blue Hen Invitational wraps up the fall season for Columbia. The Lions will train and be back in action for the spring season, which begins when they host the Columbia Classic, Feb. 10-12, at Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida.
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