Ole Miss finds footing in Vail to win Golfweek Conf. Challenge

Red Sky Golf Club in Vail, Colo., site of the Golfweek Conference Challenge, is a course unlike what many college teams will experience throughout the year. It certainly was foreign to Ole Miss. Regardless, the Rebels learned quickly, winning the event for the first time in its 10-year history.

This marks the fifth team title under head coach Kory Henkes, the last coming at the 2019 SEC Championship. The conference title was perhaps more celebrated, but in representing the SEC in Vail, Ole Miss got its season off to a solid start.

Ole Miss won wire-to-wire, despite the fact that the final round got off to a bit of a slow start. Rebel counters were 5 over on the first two holes, but rebounded to post an even-par 288 on the day. That left them at 15 under for 54 holes and eight shots ahead of Pepperdine, a longtime presence at this event. UCLA was third at 5 under, followed by Denver, the local team, which came in at 4 under.

The Rebels had a 12-shot lead at the start of Day 3.

"Today was a great day for our program," head coach Kory Henkes said. "The team played fantastic golf this week and the results showed. It was an all-around team effort the three days. I was proud of their ability to bounce back today after a rocky start to post a great round to cap off the win."

Individually, Denver player Anna Zanusso took advantage of familiarity with the region and posted three rounds in the 60s (68-69-68) to get to 11 under and claim a two-shot win over Pepperdine freshman Alexa Melton.

UCLA freshman Emma Spitz, the 2018 British Girls winner, was third at 8 under.

Quotes from Ole Miss Athletics used in this report