Lucy Lunceford closes out EMCC golf career as two-time NJCAA Championship participant
Lucy Lunceford closed out her successful East Mississippi Community College golf career in her hometown by tying for 49th place at this week’s NJCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship played at Tuscaloosa’s Ol’ Colony Golf Complex.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Lucy Lunceford closed out her successful East Mississippi Community College golf career in her hometown by tying for 49th place at this week's NJCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship played at Tuscaloosa's Ol' Colony Golf Complex.
A product of Northside High School, Lunceford participated in her second straight national championship as an at-large tournament selection from first-year head coach Mark Furnari's EMCC Lions golf program.
Lunceford's up-and-down week on her home course consisted of an 87 and 86 on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, mixed in with Wednesday's 94 and a 92 on Friday to close out the week with a four-day total of 359.
Lunceford's best round of the week came on Thursday with a 42 on the back nine while adding a 44 on the front nine to close out Round 3 with an 86. She had six pars on the day along with her lone birdie of the week on the par-3, 120-yard 17th hole.
The Tuscaloosa native initially stood in a seven-way tie for 35th place among the 89-player field after carding an 87 during Tuesday's opening round. After making the turn at +10 on the back nine, she improved five strokes to finish the day with a 5-over-par 41 on the front nine which included four straight pars on holes 5-8.
The next day, Lunceford battled back following a rough start to Wednesday's second round. After struggling through the front nine and during the first two holes of the back nine, she settled in to shoot 3-over-par across the last seven holes with four pars.
Friday's final round of her EMCC playing career was slowed by three multi-bogey holes that otherwise consisted of five pars and 10 bogeys.
Lunceford received one of the remaining individual invitations by virtue of her No. 40 national ranking in the current National Collegiate Golf Rankings by Scoreboard as powered by Clippd. During regular-season competition this past year, she posted five top 20 finishes in eight tournaments played, highlighted by her runner-up finish in the EMCC Women's Fall Invitational played at EMCC's Lion Hills in Columbus.
As a freshman during EMCC's inaugural women's golf season in 2024-25, Lunceford placed no lower than 21st throughout the 10 tournaments leading up to last year's NJCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship. She made her collegiate debut for the Lions by claiming low medalist honors during the season-opening EMCC Invitational played at Tunica National. Lunceford capped her freshman campaign by finishing 38th at nationals held at Cedar Pointe Golf Club in Boone, Iowa.
In team competition this past week in Tuscaloosa, the hometown Lady Bucs of Shelton State (320-317-321-315—1273) led wire-to-wire to successfully defend their national championship with a 12-shot victory over runner-up Murray State (321-325-325-314—1285) of Oklahoma.
Medalist honors were earned by Mallory Brooks (79-75-79-71—304) of third-place Wallace State (AL), who claimed the individual win over Shelton State's Katie Hallmark (78-76-73-77—304) on the second playoff hole.