In the Fall, her team won its first three tournaments straight out of the gate. In their fourth and final event before the break, freshman Zimo Li (below) claimed an individual win at the Golfweek October Classic in Florida, equalling the program record with her 54-hole score. 

“It was obviously a great season,” says Coach Fernandes. “The freshmen just really took off and that just helps to replace some seniors that we lost. Zimo Li finished the Fall at 71.5. She has the lowest scoring record right now in program history. We had over 15 under par rounds in the fall, so you can't be more proud of the team than that.”

At the end of her first season in charge, Liz and her Emory team stood on the brink of winning the 2024 DIII National Championship. While the final leaderboard points to a dominant win by the nation's top ranked team at the time, with Carnegie Mellon winning by 14 shots, the numbers fail to tell the story of a dramatic final day.

Due to five suspensions of play for electrical storms over Keene Run in Kentucky, several teams were forced to return on Thursday morning to conclude round two, which took more than 28 hours to complete. 

On that gruelling last day, some girls played as many as 29 holes. Emory held a 10-shot lead early in round three but ultimately ran out of steam over the closing holes as Carnegie Mellon mounted a rousing comeback.

“We didn’t have any seniors on that National Championship team [above],” Fernandes reflects. “I had 75% first time ladies traveling to Nationals. It’s a big step. It’s a big field. Even though it’s just another golf course and another day, it feels like a different environment. 

“Last season, I feel like we struggled more in the Fall to get settled. We didn’t have those wins happen until our home tournament, which was our last tournament before Nationals. So coming off a win and then a really large break, I think that really just hit us. It just didn’t come together. It wasn’t our day, but the rain and the delays, I don’t think helped us either.”

Liz explains that it took time for the whole team to get on her wavelength. “I feel like we now are all on the same page with one team, one goal,” she says. “We want to win. But that takes some time. We have to trust each other to be able to perform. We had to have that time to build that trust and build those relationships.”

On taking up her post at a school described as the “Stanford of Division III’, one of the first things the new head coach learned is that her players wanted to be challenged.

“We love being able to feel compared to Stanford,” she says. “The kids want to be the best in their field. They have that work ethic and demeanor. Anything to do with Emory is just excellent. We are not just good at golf, we’re good across the board.

She learned that her players wanted to play in more DI tournaments. “They wanted to have those 36-hole days. They wanted to have 54-hole events. They wanted to have those WAGR events that they can get points for. So we put those in place. We played at Columbia. We played at the University of Georgia. They played 36-holes on some of the hardest golf courses in the country and they were ready. We just didn't get all the way there mentally.”

This season, the Eagles are hoping to turn that experience into fuel. Emory has a roster of 12 players, equally split between freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. 

One of those seniors is First Team All-American Sharon Mun (above), who was a member of Emory’s 2022 National Championship-winning team, is a five-time individual medalist, and holder of multiple program records. Another is Ellen Dong (below), who was a Freshman winner of the NCAA DIII individual championship in 2022 and runner-up last year.

“My seniors obviously have a couple trophies under their belt,” smiles Fernandes. “With those girls being my last girls from that national championship team, they want it more and they’re really doing what they have to to make sure that they get it. 

“It makes it even easier when you have freshmen and a couple sophomores that are really right on their tails and pushing them to be better. But they really want it and they’re ready. When I say, hey, I need you, they will do everything in that grind to get there.”

Liz played college golf at Northern Kentucky, which included the “interesting experience” of the program transitioning DII to DI. Her time there was blighted by injuries and surgeries, which led her to focus on PTI and injury prevention in her coaching career as a PGA professional. She explains that this has opened doors in other areas, including the mental and the statistical sides of the game. 

“I think we do a good range of everything, along with body, spirit, performance and being in your current state, not too far along into the performance side of jumping ahead,” she explains. “We try to break that down when we can. We do a lot more mental preparation and body work. We do Tai Chi body and grounding every three weeks, a little bit more of that soul searching type feel.

“There are so many different avenues you've got to focus on when you’re a college coach. I think that every coach has a different perspective on what's important. Mine was more just making sure that we're prepared for that National Championship because we need to feel like we're able to handle that element of when you get to that point, how do you stay calm? 

This holistic approach is underpinned by the objective truths of data. “Even when I was teaching,” she adds, “there were a lot of technical teachers that I felt were not helping the student as much as they needed to. So you go technical, you go feel. Well I can go stats. I don't need to go technical to be able to see stats. We can get stats from you playing from 30 yards or the full distance. It's making people feel individual, whether it's teaching or it's coaching. It's really the same elements.”

Par-5 scoring was something she set as one of the statistical goals for the team at the start of the season. “We were really struggling on making good decisions, so every tournament we wanted to be even par on par-5s or under, and they accomplished that.”

She points out that the team’s putting stats have jumped up, too. “Across the board, their putting was at a pro level or better. It just shows we spend more than half our practice on putting or drills, whether that’s their own drills, drills they picked from using Clippd or things that I’ve had them do. If it’s too easy, they want it harder.”

And the ultimate goal? A National Championship, surely? “Always,” Liz replies. “But how do we get there? We just continue to do what we’re doing, which is they're striving to do what they can do individually and be the best they can be. The team aspect will come.”