The Florida State Golf Association (FSGA) will be conducting the 68th annual Women’s International Four-Ball Championship at the esteemed Wanderer’s Club for the third consecutive year. Forty-eight teams represented by 19 states and three countries will travel to Wellington, Florida February 16-17 to contend for the coveted title of ‘Women’s International Four-Ball Champions’. This
historic event, first conducted by the Jaycees of Hollywood, Florida, has comprised the names of golf’s finest—Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs, Peggy Kirk-Bell, and others. The format of the championship will be 36-holes of four-ball stroke play, generally known as a two-person, best-ball.
Among the talent of the 48 teams represented, Florida natives and defending champions, Meghan Stasi, of Oakland Park, and Tara Connelly, of Palm Beach Gardens, have once again paired up en route to capturing the title for the third consecutive year. The pair holds impressive resumes: Stasi has been honored as the Women’s Amateur Player of the Year for five consecutive years, and for good reason—a four-time Women’s International Four-Ball champion and four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion has put her in the spotlight among her contenders. Stasi was also a member of the victorious 2008 Curtis Cup Team. Adding to the exciting duo, Connelly had a productive 2014 by placing third in the Florida Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, advancing to the quarterfinals at the Florida Women’s Amateur, and had a runner-up showing at the Florida Women’s Stroke Play Championship. Along with 21 other USGA appearances, Connelly capped the year by advancing to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Taffy Brower of Boynton Beach, Florida, 2014 FSGA Hall-of-Fame inductee, and first ever Florida Women’s State Golf Association Player-of-the-Year, will be competing in the field with an impressive tournament history behind her. She has claimed four Women’s Florida State Match Play Championships, two Women’s State Stroke Play Championships and State Four-Ball Championships, and a victory at the State Senior Championship. In her golfing career, Brower has competed in an impressive 48 USGA events, including a quarterfinal finish in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2001, and a quarterfinal finish in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur in 1997 and 2001. Brower will increase that number to 49 in May, where she will be competing in the Inaugural U.S. Women’s Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.
The 2014 Senior Player of the Year, Mary Jane Hiestand of Naples, Florida, will also be among contenders in this year’s Women’s International Four-Ball Championship. Last year marked Hiestand’s fifth consecutive Senior Player of the Year title, which began with her second straight victory at the Women’s Senior Amateur Championship. Hiestand had four additional top-five championship finishes last year, comprised of a third place at the Women’s International Four-Ball, fourth place at the Women’s Four-Ball Championship, second in the Women’s Senior North and South Championship and champion of the Inaugural Women’s Senior Amateur Match Play Championship. Rounding out her season, Hiestand advanced to the Round of 32 matches in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.
As the fourth championship in the Orange Blossom Tour, which includes the Harder Hall Women's Invitational, the South Atlantic Amateur (SALLY), and the Ione D. Jones/Doherty Championship, the Women’s International Four-Ball carries a tremendous amount of history and prestige.
