Miller, Greenlief, Mar share medalist honors in U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship

   Looks like Katie Miller of Jeannette and Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va. will be a pretty tough duo when they team up for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. next spring.

   The 32-year-old Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area and an all-Atlantic Coast Conference performer at North Carolina, and the 27-year-old Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, were two of the three co-medalists when qualifying for this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship was completed Sunday at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston.

   Playing in her 15^th USGA championship, Greenlief, a former Virginia standout, matched the tournament’s single-round qualifying record with a 4-under-par 68 over the 6,022-yard, par-72 Cypress Creek layout to get to 2-under 142. Her 68 was also the low round of the two-day qualifying as Cypress Creek proved to be a challenging test for the mid-am ladies.

   The U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was originally scheduled to be played at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla. last month, but Hurricane Irma left the course unplayable and the membership at Champions stepped up and is hosting the event on short notice.

   Miller, the reigning Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion, made two birdies down the stretch to join her Four-Ball partner at 2-under 142. Miller had shared the opening-round lead with 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am runnerup Shannon Johnson of Norton, Mass. after each carded a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s opening round. Miller added a 1-over 73 Sunday.

   Miller and Greenlief were joined at the top of the leaderboard by former Stanford standout Marissa Mar of San Francisco, who posted a 2-under 70 Sunday after opening with an even-par 72 Saturday.

   The medalist from the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia at Concord Country Club, Alyssa Roland of Overbrook Golf Club, rallied in the second round with a 77 to finish at 16-over 160 and earn a spot in an 8-for-5 playoff for the last five spots in the match-play bracket Monday morning.

   The 27-year-old Roland, the 2010 Ivy League champion at Yale, lives and works in New York City, but sneaks home whenever possible to work on her game at Overbrook.

   Miller started on the back nine Sunday and had bogeys at 10, 12 and 18, but got two of those strokes back with birdies at four and six.

   Greenlief was brutally efficient with birdies at seven, 10, 14 and 15 and no bogeys on her card in fashioning the low round of the qualifying.

   Johnson, the runnerup to Julia Potter of Indianapolis at The Kahkwa Club in Erie a year ago, struggled a little down the stretch, but her 2-over 74 left her a shot behind the three co-medalists at 1-under 143. She was joined at that figure by Kathy Kurata of Pasadena, Calif. Kurata, 57 years young, added a 1-under 71 to her opening-round 72.

   Meghan Stasi, the four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., easily made the match-play bracket as she added a 75 to her opening-round 76 for a 151 total that left her tied for 23^rd. Stasi, a South Jersey native, has won the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match-Play Championship eight times, seven of them under her maiden name, Meghan Bolger.

   Two of the players who advanced out of the qualifier at Concord, Wilmington Country Club’s Meghan Perry and Carol Davies of Garrett Park, Md., landed in a large group of players at 20-over 164. Perry added an 84 to her opening-round 80 while Davis carded an 83 Sunday after opening with an 81.

   Catherine Elliott of Merion Golf Club, who also qualified at Concord, finished at 165. Elliott, a product of the Academy of Notre Dame and Penn and the runnerup in the Philadelphia Women’s Amateur last summer, improved by five shots from her opening-round 85 with an 80 Sunday.

   Also landing on that 164 figure was Karen Siegel, a Penn graduate and an assistant coach for the Lehigh women’s golf team. Siegel, a regular on the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia circuit, opened with a solid 78 Saturday, but struggled with an 86 in Sunday’s second round.

   Also at 164 was Katrin Wolfe, a western Pennsylvania contemporary of Miller’s at Westmont-Hilltop outside of Johnstown in her scholastic days and a former Penn State standout. Wolfe rebounded from an opening-round 85 with a 79 Sunday. Wolfe lost to Miller in the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur semifinals at West Shore Country Club last summer.

   Katie Dwyer of New York City, a former Georgetown standout, was the first alternate at Concord and got into the field. She had rounds of 86 and 85 for a 171 total.

   I’m sure a lot of qualifiers were unable to rearrange their schedules when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was pushed back a month and moved from the west coast of Florida to Houston. A lot of these women have jobs, among other responsibilities.

   By the way, Miller’s partner in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball last spring was Boothwyn’s Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion at Chichester and the 2010 Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion. Miller and Kan advanced to the match-play bracket at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C. before falling in the first round.

   Miller and Greenlief advanced out of a Four-Ball qualifier at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati in August. It would really be something if they hooked up in a match at Champions this week.