SMU women’s golf is tied for second at the ACC Championship after 36 holes, with Grace Jin, Celine Chen and Mackenzie Lee leading the push.
DALLAS - SMU women’s golf is right where it wants to be at the ACC Women’s Golf Championship.
Entering Friday’s final round of stroke play, the Mustangs are tied for second at 12-under and firmly in the hunt for a top-two finish that would send them straight to the semifinals of match play.
That’s a major position for SMU women’s golf in one of the deepest fields in college golf.
The Mustangs opened with a sizzling 13-under team round, then followed it with a steady 1-under effort to stay near the top of the ACC Championship leaderboard.
Only No. 1 Stanford sits ahead of SMU, while the Mustangs are level with No. 10 Duke and ahead of a field packed with ranked programs.
The balanced scoring has been the story. Grace Jin and Celine Chen led the way Thursday, and both enter the final round tied for sixth individually at 4-under.
Jin posted rounds of 69 and 71, and her opening round was especially sharp with no bogeys. She finished the day with six birdies.
Chen was even more explosive early, firing a 68 in round one before adding a 72. She piled up 10 birdies across the two rounds and gave SMU another reliable scorer near the top of the board.
Mackenzie Lee also delivered another big performance. She sits ninth at 3-under after rounds of 69 and 72, continuing one of the most consistent careers in program history.
Lee also pushed her career scoring average down to 71.54, extending her own school record, and now sits one birdie shy of 500 for her career.
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Emily Odwin added rounds of 71 and 72 to put herself in a tie for 16th at 1-under, while freshman Kirra St-Laurent is at 5-over.
Now the path is clear for SMU. Stay in the top two, and the Mustangs earn a direct pass to Saturday’s semifinals. Slip to third through sixth, and they’ll need to survive the quarterfinals first.
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