Rymer Defends Women's Amateur Title

The Championship began with 36 holes of individual stroke play before the field was cut to the top 32 players that would advance to match play. August Kim, of Saint Augustine, earned medalist honors after two impressive rounds of 68. 2014 defending champion, Emily Rymer, tied Ayaka Nakayama in second place with a two-round total of 141.Meghan Stasi, 2010 and 2012 Women’s Amateur Champion, posted consistent rounds of 71-71—142 to finish in fourth place. There was a five person playoff for the last spot into the match play field, which was captured by Sydney Shrader with a birdie on hole 10. The Round of 32 matches began on Monday morning and the remaining 16 matches were played in the afternoon.  

The excitement began during the Quarterfinal Matches on Tuesday morning.  Claudia Deantonio faced Alyssa Lamoureux, 2014 Junior Amateur Match Play Champion, in a heated battle. Lamoureux advanced, 4 and 3, and became the youngest semifinalist at 15 years old. In the next match, Tara Connelly, coming off a recent win at the Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, defeated Nicolette Donovan three and two to advance to the Semifinals. Ayaka Nakayama played hard in her match against Kimberly Benedict but lost with Benedict one up. Emily Rymer holed out her approach shot from 100 yards on hole 18 to extend her match against Samantha Marks. Rymer moved on to the Semifinals after a birdie on the 19th hole.

Tuesday afternoon the four semifinalists teed it up to determine who would be in the Final match. Alyssa Lamoureux faced Tara Connelly in the first match. Lamoureux won four holes in a row with two birdies and sealed her victory with birdies on holes nine and 15. She advanced to the Finals with a 4 and 3 victory. In the second match, Emily Rymer and Kimberly Benedict fought hard. After Benedict birdied three holes on the front nine she made the turn two-up. Emily came back winning four holes on the back nine and got the match back to one-up heading into the 18th hole.  Benedict birdied the last hole forcing the match to continue. On the 20th hole Rymer won the match with a par over Benedict’s bogey.

Emily Rymer, of Orlando, and Alyssa Lamoureux, of Seminole, went head-to-head in the Finals. Lamoureux started out strong with two back-to-back birdies on holes two and three for an early two-up lead.  Rymer fought back, winning holes five and six to get the match back to even. Rymer finished the front-nine with a birdie on hole eight and a one-up lead heading into the back-nine. The match lasted another seven holes and Rymer did not lose one hole. On the 15th hole Rymer and Lamoureux both stuck their shots to 12 and 10 feet respectively. Rymer sunk her putt for birdie leaving Lamoureux with her putt to stay alive. She sunk her birdie on top of Rymer’s and extended the match to the 16th hole where Rymer sealed her win with a two-putt par. After playing a total of 126 holes over the course of the Championship, Emily defended her title with a 4 and 2 victory. Taffy Brower was the last player to win the Women’s Amateur Championship back-to-back years in 2002 and 2003.

This is Emily’s last amateur event as she will be turning professional and pursuing her golfing goals. Rymer called this victory “icing on the cake” for leading into her professional career. In two weeks she will play an event on the SunCoast Golf Tour as professional and attend Q-School in August.   

Match Play Bracket