Soon-to-be Radnor High graduate Brynn Walker completed her
first try at playing in an LPGA event Saturday in the ShopRite LPGA Classic with
a 4-over 75 at the Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club’s Bay Course.
It was an uneventful round compared to the wild ride that
was her opening-round 80, a tour of the classic Bay Course layout that included
such highs as four straight birdies and such lows as the dreaded snowman, a
quadruple-bogey eight.
Her two-day total of 13-over 155 was nowhere near the 1-under
141 total it required to make the cut. But the kind of experience the North
Carolina-bound Walker gained by competing against the best players in the world
is priceless.
Starting on the first hole at the Bay Course, Walker made a
double bogey at the fourth and bogeys at five and six before making a birdie at
the ninth to make the turn in 3-over 40. After bogeys at the 11th,
14th and 15th holes, Walker finished with a flourish,
making birdies at 17 and 18 for a 1-over 35 on the back nine and a 4-over 75
total. Walker finished tied for 136th.
Another two-time PIAA champion, Waynesburg Central’s Rachel
Rohanna, finished two shots ahead of Walker in a tie for 133rd after
rounds of 74 and 79. Rohanna won her state titles in 2005 and 2007 before going
on to a standout career at Ohio State.
Rohanna battled her way onto the LPGA Tour of the Symetra
Tour and is still trying to gain a solid foothold at the game’s top level. Walker
still has a lot of amateur golf ahead of her, but success at the LPGA level is
never guaranteed. Rohanna could tell you that.
When Walker graduates from high school this week, she will
have two individual PIAA Class AAA titles, a girls PIAA Class AAA team title
and a boys PIAA Class AAA team title as well as participation in six USGA
events, including deep runs at the first two U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball
championships, twice representing Pennsylvania in the USGA State Team
Championship, including a third-place finish last fall, and trips to the U.S.
Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships in the summer of 2014. And
in the week before graduation, she got a peek at life in the big leagues by
qualifying for the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Later this month, Walker will take another shot at trying to
qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, an event that takes on special
significance this year because it will be staged at Rolling Green Golf Club, a
course she played in Central League matches with Radnor against
Springfield.
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