I thought I put together a pretty good post summarizing
Sierra Brooks’ journey from wounded and confused after leaving Wake Forest at
the end of her freshman year to a really encouraging half a season with the
Florida Gators earlier this year to the second round of the U.S. Women’s
Amateur after she won her first-round match at the Golf Club of Tennessee last
month.
So, if somebody wants to say that Brooks, a junior at
Florida from Orlando, Fla., is back after she blitzed the Yeamans Hall Club’s
6,261-yard, par-72 layout with a spectacular 10-under 62 in the second – and,
hurricanes being hurricanes – final round of the Cougar Classic, hosted by the
College of Charleston in Hanahan, S.C. Monday, I would argue that she’s been
back for a while now.
Brooks is starting to flash the talent that got her to the
U.S. Women’s Amateur final as a 17-year-old in 2015 at Portland Country Club,
bolstered with a large dose of the maturity that only adversity can bring. She
made it to the round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, cruising to a 5 and 3
win over Bianca Pangdangana, the Filipino who was the hero of Arizona’s
unlikely run to an NCAA title in the spring, in the second round before falling
to South Korea’s Jiwon Jeon, the eventual finalist, at the Golf Club of
Tennessee.
Starting on the back nine at Yeamans Hall Monday, Brooks
capped a 6-under tour of the incoming nine with an eagle at the par-5 18th.
Then she ripped off birdies at two, three, four and five on the front nine for
a tournament-record 62.
Combined with the opening-round 67 Brooks shot in Sunday’s
opening round, it gave her a 17-under 127 total that beat a really strong field
by seven shots.
The Gators seemed to be a little inspired by the fireworks
from their best player in firing a 20-under 268, which, combined with their
opening round of a mere 10-under 278, gave them a 30-under 546 total.
Give Florida’s Southeast Conference rival Vanderbilt credit
as the Commodores threw up a little 19-under 269 themselves Monday to finish
three shots behind the Gators in second at 27-under 549.
The tournament was shortened to 36 holes by the approach of
Hurricane Florence. I guess when the governor orders an evacuation of the
coastline, he wouldn’t appreciate a bunch of college kids trying to sneak in a
quick round outside of Charleston.
It’s doubtful anybody would have caught Brooks, who probably
can’t wait to get to the golf course again. And this was no easy pickings,
either.
The reigning Annika Award winner, Arkansas’ Maria Fassi, a
senior from Mexico, was in the field. She finished alone in eighth, adding a
4-under 68 to her opening-round 69 for a 7-under 137 total. Fassi led the
reigning SEC champion Razorbacks to a third-place finish at 16-under 560, 11
shots behind runnerup Vanderbilt. Arkansas fired a 10-under 278 Monday after
opening with a 6-under 282.
Looks like the SEC is going to be tough this season.
The field also included the No. 1 player in the Women’s
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho, the senior
from Westminster, Colo. who won the NCAA individual title at Karsten Creek Golf
Club in the spring.
Kupcho finished in the group tied for 24th at
1-under 143 after adding a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 73. It’s been a busy
summer for Kupcho and she was only a little over a week removed from leading the
United States to its first Espirito Santo Trophy in 20 years in the World
Amateur Team Championship at Carton House Golf Club in suburban Dublin, Ireland
(Nice roundup of the men’s and women’s World Amateur Team Championship events
in a T Mac Tees Off post Sunday, if you want to know more).
I put out some Golfstat
rankings in Sunday’s post on the Cougar Classic that were actually the last
ones published before the NCAA Championship in the spring, but rest assured
that Florida and Arkansas will be in the top 20, maybe in the top 10, when the
first rankings of this season appear.
So too will Furman. The Paladins added a 6-under 282 to
their opening-round 283 to finish fourth in the Cougar Classic at 11-under 565,
five shots behind Arkansas.
Haylee Harford, a senior from Leavittsburg, Ohio, fired a
9-under 63 Monday to set a single-round record at Furman, a school that has
produced Beth Daniel, Betsy King and Dottie Pepper, just to name a few.
Harford’s record-setting round landed her in a group of five
players who finished tied for third at 8-under 136, a group that included her
teammate, Natalie Srinivasan, a junior from Spartanburg, S.C. who added a
3-under 69 to her opening round of 5-under 67.
Florida State fired a 10-under 278 to finish fifth at
8-under 568, three shots ahead of ACC rival Wake Forest, which finished sixth
at 5-under 571 after adding a 6-under 282 to its opening-round 289.
Brynn Walker, a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion at Radnor,
and North Carolina rebounded from a disappointing opening round of 5-over 293
with a 1-under 287 to finish ninth at 4-under 580.
Penn State cooled off after a good start, finishing off its
opening round that was suspended by weather Sunday evening with a 3-over 291
before adding a 5-over 293 for an 8-over 584 total that left the Nittany Lions
in a tie for 11th with Central Florida and North Carolina State.
Backing up Brooks for Florida was Clara Manzalini, a
freshman from Italy, who fired a pretty nice 5-under 67 to land in that group
tied for third at 8-under 136.
Addie Baggarly, a sophomore from Jonesborough, Tenn., only shot 4-under 68 and was in the
group tied for 15th at 4-under 140. Marta Perez, a junior from
Spain, made it four under-par rounds for the day for the Gators with a 1-under
71 that left her in the group tied for 24th at 3-under 141.
Rounding out the Florida lineup was Jenny Kim, a freshman
from Orlando, Fla. who struggled to an 81 and finished in the group tied for 86th
at 155. Lauren Waidner, a sophomore from Fleming Island, Fla., competed as an
individual and added a 77 to her opening-round 74 to finish among the group
tied for 71st at 151.
The runnerup to Brooks in the individual chase was
Vanderbilt’s Courtney Zeng, a senior from, like Brooks, Orlando who added a
sizzling 7-under 65 to her opening-round 69 for a 10-under 134 total.
Joining Furman’s Harford and Srinivasan and Florida’s
Manzalini in the group tied for third at 8-under 136 were Florida State’s
Amanda Doherty, a junior from Atlanta, and Zeng’s fellow Commodore, Auston Kim,
a freshman from St. Augustine and the younger sister of Purdue’s 2016 Big Ten
champion August Kim.
The very consistent Doherty added a 6-under 66 to her
opening-round 70 and Kim did the same, her second-round 66, along with Zeng’s
65, keeping Vandy right on the heels of Florida, despite Brooks’ spectacular
play.
Wake Forest’s Siyun Liu, a junior from China, did not appear
to be intimidated by having a teammate who is the No. 1 player in the Women’s
WAGR as she bettered Kupcho by four shots, finishing in the group tied for ninth
at 5-under 139. Liu added a 4-under 68 to her opening-round 71.
The Demon Deacons, under former Virginia coach Kim Lewellen,
taking over from former LPGA Tour player Dianne Dailey, who stepped down after
30 years at the helm at Wake, have another stud in Emilia Migliaccio, a
sophomore from Cary, N.C. and part of a supremely talented freshman class all
around the country last season. Migliaccio had a pair of 72s at Yeamans Hall
and finished among the group tied for 29th at even-par 144.
Walker made it a solid start to her junior season at North
Carolina as she added a 1-under 71 to her opening-round 72 to join Kupcho in
the group tied for 24th at 1-under 143. I think I know Walker well
enough from covering her in high school to guess that she and the rest of the
Tar Heels have their sights set a little higher than finishing 4-over in ninth
place when the winner goes 30-under.
Nicole Lu, one of two freshmen in Jan Mann’s first starting
lineup of the season, carded a 1-under 71 to join the group tied for 44th
at 3-over 147. Lu is from Taiwan.
Kelly Whaley, North Carolina’s senior leader from
Farmington, Conn., improved from an opening-round 78 with a 2-under 70 to
finish in the group tied for 48th at 4-over 148 that also included
the Tar Heels’ other freshman, Jennifer Zhou of Longwood, Fla. Zhou opened with
a 1-over 73 before adding a 75 Monday.
Rounding out the North Carolina lineup was Ava Bergner, a
sophomore from Germany who struggled to an 83 Monday after opening with an
even-par 72 to end up in the group tied for 86th at 155. Bergner is
a lot closer to the player who shot 72 than she is to the player who shot 83.
Penn State’s trio of experienced seniors likely have their
sights set a little higher this season as well.
Jackie Rogowicz, the former Pennsbury standout, was her
typically solid self with a pair of 72s and an even-par 144 total that left her
in the group tied for 29th. Classmate Lauren Waller, the PIAA Class
AAA runnerup to Walker in 2014 as a senior at Canon-McMillan, added a 76 to her
opening-round 72 to finish in the group tied for 48th at 4-over 148.
Cara Basso, a Villa Maria Academy product, finished tied for
fourth in the Big Ten Championship and received an invitation to tee it up as
an individual in the NCAA Madison Invitational last spring. I’m sure she’d like
to have her teammates along with her when the NCAA regionals tee off next
spring. Basso added a 74 to her opening-round 75 to finish in the group tied
for 57th at 149.
Ashni Dhruva, a junior from Katy, Texas, was Penn State’s
second-highest finisher as she matched Rogowicz’s even-par 72 Monday after
opening with a 74 to finish among the group tied for 36th at 2-over 146.
Sarah Willis, a freshman from Eaton, Ohio, joined Waller in
the group tied for 48th at 148 as she made a solid debut for Denise
St. Pierre’s Nittany Lions with an opening-round 73 before adding a 75 Monday.
Former Council Rock North standout Madelein Herr’s absence
from the lineup was noticeable. Much as her old U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball
partner Walker did in her first two years at North Carolina, Herr started most,
if not every tournament for Penn State in her first two seasons in Happy
Valley.
Assuming she’s healthy, Herr will play either as a starter or
as an individual when Penn State hosts the Nittany Lion Invitational in a
couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see if she’s back among the Penn
State five by the end of the fall portion of the 2018-’19 campaign.
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