Tiffany Chan finished first out of 124 golfers at the Illinois Wesleyan University Fall Classic. (Ashtin Elder | Courtesy of WashU Athletics)

The No. 10 Washington University women’s golf team played at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio at Elks Run Golf Course on Sept. 9 and 10. WashU then traveled to the Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) Fall Classic in Normal, Illinois at Ironwood Golf Club, where they defeated 18 other schools to win the stroke play tournament on Sept. 14 and 15. After missing the 2024 NCAA tournament in the spring, the team looks to establish a new reputation: one of a focused, motivated group whose talent can overcome any obstacle.

The UAA tournament is a match play format, consisting of the four UAA universities that have women’s golf teams: WashU, No. 1 Carnegie Mellon University, No. 2 Emory University, and No. 17 New York University (NYU).

Monday’s matches featured WashU against Emory and NYU against Carnegie Mellon. The two winners of these matches would then face off on Tuesday to decide the winner of the tournament and the two losers would play for third place. Although WashU lost the Monday match to Emory 4-1, their sole win came from junior Tiffany Chan. Chan showed her resiliency by coming back from an astounding four down in the match to win in a playoff on the 19th hole. On day two, the Bears bested NYU with a 3-2 win, with senior All-American Sydney Kuo, sophomore Amy Beanblossom, and first-year Mabrie McMahan all winning their matches.

The Bears (581 total strokes) took home gold at the IWU Fall Classic, as they finished on top with a massive 12 stroke lead over second place IWU. Chan, finishing in first place in the tournament for her first collegiate win, was WashU’s top performer with a remarkable two-day total of 142 strokes.

 “On individual performance, I reminded myself to take it one stroke at a time on the course, tried to not get ahead of myself and to only focus on my own game,” Chan said. “I felt like this was a big factor that impacted my performance over the weekend, and my putting game was also great which was definitely a contributor to the low scores.”

The Bears took home silverware in their second tournament of the year. (Ashtin Elder | Courtesy of WashU Athletics)

Other standout performers in Illinois included Beanblossom (t-2nd), first-year Nicole McGuire (7th), Kuo (t-10th), and sophomore Reagan Robinson (t-14th), out of a 124-player field. 

The team was “pretty pumped about Tiff winning solo,” according to Robinson. She added that “the energy’s really good. [We are] super excited and motivated after not going to the NCAA last year. [We have been] putting a lot more time into the short game so we can win more tournaments,” she added.

This victory gives WashU momentum as they head into the Montgomery Country Club Women’s Intercollegiate in Montgomery, Alabama on Sept. 22 and 23. Head coach Dave Reinhardt, who has held the role since 2021, is optimistic about the team’s future, as the Bears have added lots of promising young talent in the past couple recruiting classes. Because of the team’s absence from the 2024 NCAA Championship, Reinhardt described this year as a “refresh year,” in which the Bears will look to get back to the success of the 2023 season where they finished national runner-up. 

The team is “definitely a top 5-10 team in the country,” Reinhardt said. “If we play to our potential we can finish first or second in every tournament. We feature a group of 10 looking to push each other to be better in our fall and spring tournaments this year.”

Though the national championships aren’t until the spring, the fall season gives the Bears a chance to test themselves ahead of the spring season. WashU will look to Kuo, the former 2nd place finisher at the NCAA Championship.

A leader in the clubhouse, Kuo expressed her high expectations for the season to come, saying that her “personal goal is to try and have the team make it to nationals, but also to compete well and finish in the top five at the NCAA tournament. It’s just a matter of seeing how things go, but putting in the work, time, and effort, and you have to trust the fruits of your labor will show.”

According to Coach Reinhardt, Kuo is a “phenomenal player” who “drives the bus of our program.”

Team success will not come, however, without the help of WashU’s highly touted young core headlined by Beanblossom (2023-24 WGCA Central Region Team), Robinson, McMahan, and McGuire, who Reinhardt described as “gritty” and “determined.”

Top-to-bottom leadership on the parts of players like Kuo and Robinson have helped build the exceptional group chemistry, which the team exhibits.

Robinson said that she is “pumped for the season. Everyone got better…All our captains are really good at keeping the energy up during morning lift or early tee times.”

A few weeks into the fall season, the Bears are laying the framework for a spring season that will have lots of potential for team and individual success.

“Our team is in a really good spot this semester. We’re all hungry to redeem ourselves after last year having not been at nationals,” Kuo said. “We’re going to show up this year and compete against the best teams and show that we deserve to be here.”