Eagle helps Lees cap career at Agnes Irwin with a third Inter-Ac League title

   UPPER MERION – Agnes Irwin senior Kaitlyn Lees has been the best player in the Inter-Ac League for the last six springs, ever since she was the surprising winner of the league championship as a seventh-grader at Radnor Valley Country Club in 2013.

   She was getting down to the final swings of her scholastic career on the front nine at Gulph Mills Golf Club Wednesday when she was faced with 185 yards in to the 404-yard, par-5 seventh hole. And if Lees’ entire career at Agnes Irwin can be wrapped up in one masterful stroke, this was it. She sent a 4-hybrid right at a tough back pin position and watched as the ball settled perfectly 15 feet from the pin.

   Bearing down, Lees holed the putt for a brilliant eagle that would ultimately be the difference. It enabled her to finish with a 2-under 35 over the 2,677-yard, par-37 front nine at the classic Gulph Mills layout and edge Agnes Irwin classmate Meghan Fahey by two shots. It was Lees’ second straight Inter-Ac League title and the third in her high school career. She finished second twice and third once. She was always a contender.

   ”Coming here, I wasn’t sure if I would go for it in two on that hole,” said Lees, who will take her academic and athletic talents to Dartmouth. “There’s that gully on the left and if you hit it down there, you’re in trouble.

   “But if you lay up, it’s hard to get it to stop close to the pin with a wedge from 40 yards, so I figured why not.”

   Why not indeed. Spring didn’t exactly arrive on time this year and other than a solid sixth-place finish in an American Junior Golf Association foray to Atlanta for the Callaway Golf / Ollie Schniederjans Junior Classic a couple of weeks ago, Lees wasn’t thrilled with her results in Agnes Irwin’s Inter-Ac matches.

   “It’s been kind of a frustrating spring, I hadn’t been under par in any of our matches,” Lees said. “I wanted to try to go low today. It was a good way to go out.”

   Nothing could be more frustrating than last summer when Lees was a first alternate in qualifying for the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur and got the call from the USGA in neither. But you have to play pretty good golf just to make first alternate and there was no uncertainty about her college plans as she committed to Dartmouth before the summer season got rolling.

   “The academics were a big part of it and I’ll also get to play golf there, so it was the best of both worlds as far as I was concerned,” Lees said.

   Lees had birdies on the first and third holes, which are par-5s on the women’s card, but par-4s for the men, so I’m not sure they felt like birdies to her. One of her playing partners, Lauren Jones, a talented freshman who was one of the reasons Episcopal Academy went undefeated and captured the Inter-Ac title this spring, was hanging right with Lees.

   But Lees’ spectacular eagle at the seventh gave her some breathing room. Jones made a birdie at the eighth, but would get no closer. She ended up with a 3-over 40 that left her alone in third after a runnerup finish to Lees a year ago as an eighth-grader.

   The biggest challenge for Lees came from Fahey, as she knew it would, playing in the group behind Lees. Fahey won the Inter-Ac title at Gulph Mills two years ago as a junior at Notre Dame before transferring to Agnes Irwin and sitting out the golf season a year ago.

   Fahey had a birdie at three, but couldn’t get much else going.

   “I had a nice up-and-down for par on the seventh,” said Fahey, who recently decided on Elon for her college destination, although she’s uncertain if she’ll try to walk on to the golf team or just play club golf.

   Fahey had tuned up for the Inter-Ac Championship by playing with Merion Golf Club’s first team in a crucial Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Team Match battle with Philadelphia Cricket Club. She’ll be in the lineup again against Huntingdon Valley Country Club at Old York Road Country Thursday as Merion bids for its 70^th Philadelphia Cup title in the long-running series.

   “The matches are really fun and great competition,” Fahey said.

   The big story during the Inter-Ac season this spring was Episcopal finally halting Notre Dame’s streak of league championships at nine.

   Agnes Irwin was EA’s biggest challenger with Lees and Fahey at the top of the lineup, but the Churchwomen edged the Owls by a shot in an early-season showdown at White Manor Country Club and then EA defeated Agnes Irwin by eight shots Monday on the Owls’ home course at Philadelphia Country Club to complete an 8-0 run through the Inter-Ac.

   Kim Farrell started the girls golf program at Episcopal, so she was pretty proud of her team’s accomplishment. She had nine players in the field of 22 that qualified for Wednesday’s championship. So her biggest problem in some matches was figuring out who should make the lineup.

   “This was our best season ever,” Farrell said Wednesday. “We just had so much depth. We’ve been competitive over the years, but I had to try to rotate people in and out this spring. It was a nice problem to have.”

   Episcopal senior MaryKate Chambers headed a group of three players tied for fourth at 5-over 42, two shots behind Lauren Jones. She was joined at that figure by Notre Dame senior Brianna Marmorstein and Baldwin’s Meagan Adelman.

   Notre Dame senior Olivia Traynor, who won an Inter-Ac title as a freshman the first time it was played at Gulph Mills three years ago, finished alone in seventh with a 43. Agnes Irwin’s Anne Curran finished eighth with a 44, Kara Kniezewski of Springside Chestnut Hill was ninth with a 45 and Agnes Irwin’s Olivia Walsh rounded out the top 10 with a 46.

   Emma Schotsch of Springside Chestnut Hill and Episcopal Academy junior Grace Reilly shared 11^th place, each carding a 47. Lauren Jones’ older sister Amanda, a sophomore, finished 13^th with a 48.

   Notre Dame’s Katie Lennon and Stephanie Bonini each posted a 50 to share 14^th. Agnes Irwin’s Maura Boyle, Episcopal junior Cam Stapleton and Baldwin’s Teagan Krane finished in a tie for 16^th, each carding a 52.

   Episcopal freshman Kathleen Mark finished 19^th with a 53 and was followed by three of her teammates as junior Minji Cho was 20^th with a 56, senior Anabelle Wondrasch was 21^st with a 59 and senior Abby Baginni was 22^nd with a 62.

   While Lees was a little disappointed Agnes Irwin couldn’t capture an Inter-Ac title in her senior year, she enjoyed every second of her experience, especially this final season.

   “We’ve had a great group here since I started in 2013,” Lees said. “And I really enjoyed this season. We  just had a great group of girls.”