Lynn Lim, 2025 Sea Island Women's Amateur Champion (Photo by Kevin Price)
Lynn Lim was hoping a breakthrough victory might be around the corner, but the Vanderbilt standout didn’t necessarily expect it to take place this week on the Georgia coast when opening her summer playing schedule in the Sea Island Women’s Amateur.Playing on the Seaside Course at the renowned Sea Island Golf Club, which annually hosts the SEC Men’s Golf Championships each spring, things fell into place for Lim this week on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, where she emerged as the champion Saturday afternoon in the fifth edition of this three-day event that is quickly growing in stature in the women’s amateur game.
“It’s a really big deal for me,” Lim said. “I’ve been knocking on the door but haven’t had a win in about two years. To be able to come out here with a strong field, play on a beautiful golf course, and perform the way I did this week—just being consistent and relentless—I’m really proud of myself. If nothing else, I proved to myself I can get back in the winner’s circle.”
Lim, who just wrapped up her junior season at Vandy, survived a final-round battle with playing partner and Oklahoma State golfer Grace Kilcrease to claim the winner’s trophy. The two players were deadlocked at the top of the leaderboard for most of the back nine Saturday afternoon before Lim surged ahead late with pars on the final four holes after both players made bogey on the par-4 14th hole, which plays along the Atlantic Ocean.
Kilcrease, meanwhile, made back-to-back bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes, which left her two down as the players walked to the last hole in the final pairing.
Lim ended up shooting 2-over-par 72 on the day to finish at 4-under for the three-round championship, while Kilcrease settled for a 74 in the final round and a 2-under total for the tournament.
Both players began the closing round at 6-under and trailed tournament leader Jessica Guiser by two shots. Guiser, who plays at Florida, opened with an 8-under 62 on Thursday to vault to the tournament lead and remained in front after Friday’s even-par 70.
Guiser faltered at the start on Saturday while also playing in the final group, making bogey on the first five holes and falling out of the lead for the first time since the end of Round 1. She went on to shoot 78 with four more bogeys and a birdie, finishing at even par for the tournament and tied for fifth overall.
Lim, from Gallatin, Tennessee, went to Vanderbilt as the 2022 Tennessee Golf Association Girls’ Junior Player of the Year and the 2022 Tennessee Women’s Amateur Champion. She was voted SEC Freshman of the Year after her first season with the Commodores.
She has yet to record a collegiate victory, but this season Lim led the team with 13 rounds at or under par and posted a third-place finish at a tournament played at Yale.
“This past year, I had a couple of opportunities to win, and I was disappointed,” she said. “But I didn’t stop believing in myself or quit pushing. I knew I could do it, it was just a matter of time.”
This week, she opened with a 66 in Round 1, making six birdies and two bogeys. She followed that with a 68 on Friday that included an eagle-3 on the par-5 15th hole.
In Saturday’s round, which featured difficult pins and gusting winds, Lim made her only birdie at the short par-4 8th hole. She had back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 9 and 10, which left her tied with Kilcrease. They remained tied until the 16th hole, when Lim just missed a long birdie putt before Kilcrease saw a par-save from six feet clip the left edge and spin out.
Kilcrease also bogeyed the par-3 17th, while Lim made an 8-foot par putt to head to the finishing hole with a two-shot lead over both Kilcrease and Megan Streicher, who closed with a 69 in the final round.
Streicher, who plays at North Carolina, had birdied the demanding 18th earlier and finished tied for second at 2-under.
Lim was congratulated by several Vanderbilt teammates after tapping in for par on the final green.
“The strength of my game is my ball-striking, and that really paid off this week, especially with the wind and some of the tucked pins,” she said. “Ultimately, it came down to those putts. being able to make those three to five-footers, especially when the conditions are hard like they were today.”
Chloe Schiavone, who played at Virginia this past season as a graduate student, finished solo fourth at 1-under. Mia Sessa, an Augusta, Georgia native and Yale golfer, tied for fifth alongside Guiser at even par.
Guiser’s opening-round 62 was one shot off the tournament single-round record.
The Sea Island tournament once again launched the Elite Amateur Golf Series for women, now in its second summer and featuring five of the premier events on the amateur circuit.
Final Top 10 Leaderboard
| Pos | Player | Hometown | R1 | R2 | R3 | Total |
|---|
| 1 | Lynn Lim | Gallatin, Tennessee | 66 | 68 | 72 | 206 (-4) |
| T2 | Megan Streicher | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | 70 | 69 | 69 | 208 (-2) |
| T2 | Grace Kilcrease | Springdale, Arkansas | 70 | 64 | 74 | 208 (-2) |
| 4 | Chloe Schiavone | Jacksonville, Florida | 69 | 69 | 71 | 209 (-1) |
| T5 | Mia Sessa | Augusta, Georgia | 65 | 72 | 73 | 210 (E) |
| T5 | Jessica Guiser | Hartland, Wisconsin | 62 | 70 | 78 | 210 (E) |
| T7 | Paula Francisco | Madrid, Spain | 74 | 72 | 66 | 212 (+2) |
| T7 | Sara Im | Duluth, Georgia | 73 | 72 | 67 | 212 (+2) |
| T9 | Sophia Burnett | Green Pond, South Carolina | 68 | 76 | 69 | 213 (+3) |
| T9 | Shyla Brown | McKinney, Texas | 66 | 73 | 74 | 213 (+3) |
About the Sea Island Women’s Amateur
Hosted on the championship Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club, the Sea Island Women’s Amateur is quickly becoming one of the elite stops in women’s amateur golf. Modeled after the Jones Cup Invitational, the event features a competitive 54-hole stroke play format and a field composed of top collegiate and amateur talent.
The tournament serves as the first event in the Women’s Elite Amateur Golf Series, a summer-long schedule of high-level events offering Elite Amateur Cup points and potential exemptions into USGA championships and professional starts.
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