DU’s Emma Bryant matches her college career-best showing with runner-up in spring season opener
By Gary Baines – 2/4/2025
Emma Bryant has hit the home stretch of her college golf career, and she’d love to make it a memorable one from a performance standpoint.
To that end, the University of Denver senior, a graduate of Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, certainly started off impressively in DU’s tournament opener of the spring portion of the schedule.
Bryant, the winner of the 2018 5A state high school individual title and three Junior Golf Association of Colorado majors, finished second out of 78 competitors on Tuesday at the Florida Atlantic University Paradise Invitational in Boca Raton.
Bryant posted scores of 67-71-70 for an 8-under-par total, which left her three strokes behind champion Gracie Mayo of Oklahoma.
The runner-up finish matched the best college showing of Bryant’s career as she was also second in the 2024 Summit League Championship. She’s also posted top-10 finishes in two of her last three college tournaments as she was ninth in the Ron Moore Intercollegiate in October in Highlands Ranch.
Bryant finished the three rounds in Florida with 11 birdies and three bogeys.
Bryant, the sister of 2024 Inspirato Colorado Open champion and current DP World Tour card holder Davis Bryant, finished second at the CGA Women’s Stroke Play this past summer.
As a team in Florida, DU (1 over par overall) placed seventh out of 15 schools, with Oklahoma landing the championship at 28 under par after four Sooner players ended up no worse than tied for fourth place.
For all the scores from the FAU Paradise Invitational, CLICK HERE.
Elsewhere in college golf on Tuesday, University of Northern Colorado senior Antti Vahvaselka tied for 10th place individually out of 90 players at the Vaqueros Intercollegiate in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Vahvaselka went 71-73-74 to end up at 2 over par, eight behind winner Louis Anceaux of Louisiana Monroe. DU placed eighth out of 15 teams in the field, while UNC was ninth.
For all the scores from the Vaqueros Intercollegiate, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com