DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. – For the first time in program history, the No. 14 Wesleyan women's golf team took a flight to compete as a team in a tournament, with the Cardinals flying down to Georgia for the Deb Jackson Invitational hosted by Emory. Competing against a host of ranked teams, the Cardinals tied for fifth out of 10 with a 303-323-626 (+58). No. 1 Emory won with a +9 while No. 3 Carnegie Mellon was the runner-up at +21.
Playing with only four golfers after
Amanda Phillips '28 suffered an injury, the Cardinals were well positioned after round 1, shooting +19 as a team to find themselves in fourth place in the team standings, ahead of No. 16 Mary Hardin-Baylor, No. 24 Sewanee, No. 26 UC Santa Cruz as well as the B teams for national powers WashU and Emory.
Mia Rodgers '29 shot a weekend-best 74 (+3) on Saturday in a round that saw her shoot bogey or worse on just three of the 18 holes. Rodgers piled up 14 pars with one birdie, shooting par on eight straight holes from the 1
st through the 8
th. She followed with an 81 (+10) in difficult Sunday conditions, birding the par 4 6
th hole to finish in a tie for 21
st place on the player leaderboard.
Mia Holbrook '27 was steady throughout the 36-hole tournament, shooting 77 (+6) on both Saturday and Sunday to finish in a tie for 18
th place. Holbrook moved up nine spots on the player leaderboard on Sunday as her 77 in round 2 was one of the best performances on the day. Holbrook totaled 12 pars in each round, giving her 24 for the weekend.
Grace Wu '29 was right with Holbrook in a tie for 18
th on the player leaderboard, as the first-year fired in a team-leading five birdies on the weekend to shoot 75-79 (+12). Her 75 (+4) on Saturday featured three birdies in a six-hole span on the front 9 as she birdied the par 5 4
th, par 4 6
th, and par 4 9
th holes. Wu added two more birdies on Sunday to land a Top 20 finish.
Rounding out the lineup for the Cardinals was
Kayla Howell '26 who went 77-86 (+21), tallying 11 pars and one birdie on Saturday before adding one more birdie on Sunday.
Wesleyan finished fifth-best among the teams in the field on par 3's for the weekend (3.33 average score) while the Cardinals were the third-best team on par 4's (4.35) and Wesleyan had the third-fewest bogeys (42).
The Cardinals have a full week to prepare for the 2026 NESCAC Championship which will take place from May 1-3 at the Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
