Migliaccio, U.S. team bring home gold medals at Pan-Am Games

At the start of the week at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, Emilia Migliaccio’s name was conspicuously missing from the tee sheet. The rising Wake Forest junior had decided to don her country’s colors this week instead, heading to Lima, Peru as part of the team that represented the U.S. at the Pan-American Games.

As it turns out, it was a good decision. Migliaccio, one of the top female amateurs in the game, came home with a pair of gold medals. She won the women’s individual title and helped the American team to the top of the leaderboard, too.

Migliaccio shot under par in all four rounds at the Lima Golf Club to finish the event at 8 under and take the women's individual title. Her rounds of 70-68-68-70 gave her a four-shot victory as she was one of just three women to finish the event under par.

Migliaccio teamed with Rose Zhang, Brandon Wu and Stewart Hagestad to lift the United States to a five-shot victory in the mixed team competition. She becomes the first American, male or female, to win a gold medal in golf at either the Pan American Games or the Olympics since the event was reintroduced to the games in 2015.

"Peru has been an amazing experience," said Migliaccio. "The organizers were incredible and it was an honor to play one of the best courses in South America. Representing the United States at the Pan Am Games has given me lifelong memories."

As for Wu and Hagestad, the following 24 hours will be a bit of a scramble. The pair are both entered in the U.S. Amateur, which was slated to begin at Pinehurst the day after the Pan-Am Games ended in Peru. Fortunately, both men drew an afternoon tee time on MOnday.

For Hagestad, the chance to wear red, white and blue made the decision a no-brainer, even if it did set up a tight travel schedule.

“I’ll never get to play in the Olympics but when you get a call from the U.S. Olympic committee, that’s awesome. That’s so cool,” Hagestad earlier this summer at the Players Amateur. “I’m willing to put my body and everything through hell and back to play in something like that.”

Quotes and information from Wake Forest Athletics used in this report