The Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship headed to Grand Cypress Golf Club’s North & South Courses, Friday, July 10th through Sunday July 12th. On Friday, 84 of Florida’s top female amateurs would start the event. Hannah Leiner, of Pomano Beach would make a statement, converting 6 birdies and making just 1 lone bogey to post an opening 67 (-5) to jump out to a 2 stroke lead over Abbey Carlson (pictured left), of Lake Mary, who got into the field as an alternate, and opened with 69. Tara Connelly (pictured below), of Palm Beach Gardens, the 2015 FSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Champion, opened with 70 (-2) and Charlotte Daughan, of Orlando, opened with 71 (-1) but provided the day’s highlight, holing a 6 iron on the par 3, 8th, her 3rd career hole-in-one.
Round 2, the field would begin to separate themselves. First round leader, Hannah Leiner would falter and fire 78, to post a two-round total of 145. Abbey Carlson, would use the opportunity to surge to the lead posting 70 and getting to 5-under par for the Championship. The ever steady Connelly would post another 70 to sit just one behind the lead. Nancy Lian, of Lake Mary, who opened with 71-74 sit 6 behind the lead after two rounds and round out Sunday’s final pairing.
As the leaders started their rounds on Sunday, we saw a quick 2 shot swing, a birdie on 1 by Connelly and bogey by Carlson, saw Connelly now with a one stroke lead. Carlson would birdie the second to get things back to even. Bogeys on 3 and 4 by Connelly saw Carlson back with a 2 stroke lead. A Carlson bogey on 6, followed by Connelly birdie on 7 saw them come back to even. It would remain that way until Tara would falter and make bogey again on 12. The two would be all tied up again after Carlson bogeyed the par 5, 15th. Connelly then made bogey on her 3rd of 4 par 3’s on the 17th to fall one stroke behind. After the whole threesome found the fairway and green in regulation in similar positions on the par 4, 18th, Connelly was just inside her fellow competitors. Carlson would just miss her birdie putt and clean up for par. Tara would then watch Nancy Lian, hit her birdie putt on the similar line. After seeing two putts, Connelly made the up-hill 20 foot birdie putt to force extra holes.
The two players would first head to #10 and make pars, before returning to #18. Again, both players would make pars to then head to back to #10. Again, halved with pars. Standing on 18 tee, both players hit good tee shots however, both would find themselves in greenside bunkers. Once both found the green in 3, Connelly had a 35 foot putt on the similar line that she made earlier to force the play-off and would drain the long winding putt. With her bunker shot inside of Connelly, Carlson had par putt to force a 5th play-off hole, but failed to convert.
Tara was very excited after the victory, she said she felt she putted really well in round 1 to keep her in it and post 70, she had one of her best ball striking days in round 2, and felt a bit off all day in the final round, but was able to keep it together. With 8,000 Player of the Year points secured with Tara’s second victory of 2015, she has all but secured her spot on Team Florida for the 2015 USGA State Team Championship this coming fall. This victory meant a lot for Connelly after consecutive runner-up finishes the last two seasons in the same Championship, and defeating the strong field which included many top Junior and College players.
The next FSGA Women’s Championship to take place will be the Women’s Four-Ball Championship, August 2-3 at River Wilderness Golf & Country Club in Parish, FL.
