Four years ago, Mackenzie Cohen had the good fortune to win titles both individually and team-wise (with her Cherry Creek cohorts) at the 5A state high school tournament in Colorado.
On Friday, she almost duplicated that accomplishment at the college level as the junior’s Memphis-based Rhodes College team claimed the women’s NCAA Division III championship and Cohen finished third individually at Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston. (Cohen, at right in photo, pictured with her teammates.)
Friday’s fourth round of the scheduled 72-hole event was eventually canceled due to the weather. Though most players were at least halfway into the round, all scores reverted to where they were through 54 holes.
Cohen, a third-place finisher in last year’s CWGA Stroke Play, followed up rounds of 75 and 78 with a tournament-record-tying, personal-season-low 3-under-par 69 in Thursday’s third round to end up at 6-over 222, four strokes behind champion Caroline Ordian of the University of Redlands.
Meanwhile, Rhodes won the women’s DIII national title for the second time in three years, but for the first time with Cohen as a competitor. The Lynx, who came in as the top-ranked women’s DIII team in the nation, lived up to their billing in winning by 15 strokes over runner-up Texas-Tyler. Rhodes carded the lowest single-round team score in tournament history on Thursday (294) and the best 54-hole total ever (904).
