Women's professional golf returns to Philadelphia area at Raven's Claw

   Samantha Wagner, an Easton native who moved to Florida as an 11-year-old, was only a few weeks removed from her sophomore season at Florida when she holed a 60-foot birdie putt that gave her medalist honors in a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township,  N.J. almost a year ago.

   Wagner, an absolute phenom as a junior player, had probably been thinking about leaving amateur golf behind and turning professional. At some point in the hours after that birdie putt fell at Hidden Creek, Wagner decided that now was the time.

    Her appearance in the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. would be her professional debut. After an encouraging opening round of 2-over 74, Wagner struggled in the second round with an 81 and missed the cut.

   Wagner will be one of the many hopeful professionals who will tee it up Thursday as women’s professional golf returns to the Philadelphia area with the inaugural Valley Forge Invitational at Raven’s Claw Golf Club, a public course located just off Ridge Pike where Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove townships meet.

   Wagner will arrive at Raven’s Claw off a tie for 28^th in the rain-shortened Symetra Classic last week in Davidson, N.C. She earned $1,472 with rounds of 74 and 73. She is 36^th on the Symetra Tour money list with earnings of $5,669.

   The Symetra Tour is a developmental tour for the big leagues of women’s golf, the LPGA Tour. The top 10 money winners at the end of the season – the Symetra Tour’s Volvik Race for the Card – get that ticket to the big leagues, an LPGA Tour card for 2019, so that is the ultimate goal.

   Wagner was part of a powerful Florida team that won the Southeastern Conference title and reached match play in the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. before falling in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Arizona State.

   Memorial Day weekend a year ago, Wagner joined forces with Florida teammate Maria Torres to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

   Torres went on to became the first Puerto Rican woman to earn an LPGA Tour card when she survived a three-way playoff in the Final Stage of Qualifying School late last year.

   Wagner and Torres were ousted with a 1-up loss in the Women’s Four-Ball to the eventual champions, Furman teammates Taylor Totland and Alice Chen.

   That was the amateur swan song for Totland of Tinton Falls, N.J. and she too will be in the field this week at Raven’s Claw. Totland is 131^st on the Symetra Tour money list with $792 in earnings.

So yeah, this pro golf thing can be a grind.

   A couple of products of the powerful Mount St. Joseph program received special invitations to the Valley Forge Invitational, one a pro and the other an amateur.

   Emily Gimpel, a Whitemarsh Valley Country Club member, finished tied for sixth in the 2009 PIAA Championship and led the Mount to the team title before a college career that started at William & Mary and ended up at Maryland. She’s been hard at work preparing for the Valley Forge Invitational by playing and practicing at Stonewall, according to sources. Well, it’s actually caddyshack chatter at the ’Wall, but it’s pretty reliable.

   Four years after Gimpel led Mount St. Joseph to the state golf crown, Isabella DiLisio won the PIAA Class AAA individual title with an eagle on the final hole and led the Mount to the PIAA Class AAA team title the next day in her junior year. DiLisio helped Mount St. Joseph to a runnerup finish in the Class AAA state team competition as a senior a year later.

   DiLisio is coming off her junior year at Notre Dame. It was an up-and-down season for the Hatfield resident, but she did help the Irish earn a berth in the NCAA Madison Regional. Notre Dame finished 12^th in Madison and failed to advance to the NCAA Championship.

   Two years ago this week, Charlotte Thomas was capping her career at Washington by joining forces with four freshmen as the Huskies defeated a seemingly more talented and more experienced Stanford team in the Final Match for an unlikely NCAA championship at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.

   Thomas, an English woman, went on to help Great Britain & Ireland claim a resounding victory over the United States in the Curtis Cup Match played before a partisan Irish crowd at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin before she turned pro.

   Thomas will also tee it up at Raven’s Claw Thursday. She is making steady progress toward the ultimate goal, the LPGA Tour. She will enter the Valley Forge Invitational at ninth on the money list with $16,686 in earnings.

   Play in the 54-hole event begins Thursday and admission is free, courtesy of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia.

   The LPGA Tour had a stop in the Philadelphia area from 1970 to 1975 when the George Washington Ladies Classic was played at Hidden Spring Golf Club in Horsham.

   The LPGA Tour returned in 1981 with the arrival of the McDonald’s Kids Classic at White Manor Country Club. I covered most of those in a previous life with The Mercury in Pottstown. The Kids Classic eventually morphed into the McDonald’s LPGA Championship at DuPont Country Club near Wilmington, Del.

   Ironically the LPGA Championship, a major championship for the women, will return to the Philadelphia area in its latest iteration, as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, under the auspices of the LPGA and the PGA of America, in two years at Aronimink Golf Club.

   Through it all, I can vouch for the fact that the Philadelphia area’s golf fans will always come out to watch professional golf. This first version of the Valley Forge Invitational, on Memorial Day weekend, might not have huge crowds, but the word will get out that you can go catch some future LPGA stars at Raven’s Claw and some fans of the game, the women’s game in particular, will be there.