Leslie Cloots could hardly revel in her career-best performance before flying to her next challenge.
Moments after the North Carolina golfer — who shot a career-low 68 in the final round of the Ruth's Chris Invitational — walked off the UNC Finley Golf Course, she prepared to board a plane to Houston, Texas, to represent the Belgium National Team in the Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship at Whispering Pines on Monday.
But before taking flight, Cloots soared to a 4-under-par finish to tie for third-place overall, leading the Tar Heels to eighth place in the final team standings.
"I was playing well, just struggled in the end ..." she said. "I had two not so great drives and it cost me four shots."
Despite finishing with a couple of errant shots off of the tee, the junior notched five birdies on the day and punctuated her strong performance with a birdie on the par-5 17th hole to propel herself to a top-three finish.
UNC was also aided by a career performance from Lexi Harkins. The sophomore shot 1-under-par on Sunday to end the tournament one shot over par, earning her a sixth-place finish — the highest of her collegiate career.
The two Tar Heels lifted their team in an impressive field featuring nearly 100 collegiate golfers and 13 teams ranked in Golfweek's Top 50 rankings.
"Overall, I thought they did well," Coach Jan Mann said.
"You can always look back and see where we left some shots out there. But we worked hard the last couple of weeks about having determination and keeping your head up after a bad shot or a bad hole, and I thought they really did well with that."
