Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho, a senior from Westminster,
Colo., already owns an NCAA individual championship, won last spring at Karsten
Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
She is the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf
Ranking (WAGR). When she competed in the LPGA Q-Series last fall against pros
and amateurs trying to make it to the big leagues of women’s golf, an
eight-round marathon over two different courses at the Pinehurst Resort in
North Carolina, Kupcho beat everybody except the medalist, Jeong eun Lee6.
She took up the LPGA’s offer that allowed her to defer
acceptance of her tour card until the summer. So why is Kupcho playing this
last spring of her college career? Could be a lot of reasons, not the least of
which might just be that Kupcho would like to walk at her college graduation
and complete her work toward an undergraduate degree.
But I can’t get over the feeling that Kupcho, much like
Duke’s Leona Maguire a year ago, really, really wants to bring a team national
championship to Winston-Salem. Because she feels like it would be the best way
to repay her former coach, Dianne Daily, a pretty decent LPGA player in her own
right back in the day who retired after 30 years at the helm at the end of last
season, and all of her teammates, past and present, because Kupcho believes
that it is because of them that she has blossomed into an NCAA champion, the
best amateur player in the world and a sure-fire LPGA standout.
If Kupcho and her teammates play the way they did the last
two days at the Casa de Campo Resort & Villas’ Pete Dye-designed Teeth of
the Dog Course in La Romana in the Dominican Republic in a dominating 19-shot
victory in the Tar Heel Classic, hosted by Suzy Whaley, Wake Forest has a
realistic shot at delivering on that national championship dream.
In Kupcho and Emilia Migliacco, a sophomore from Cary, N.C.
and No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, the Demon Deacons have the kind of powerful 1-2
punch you need to win a national championship. If Wake Forest can be one of the
eight teams still standing after 72 holes of stroke play at The Blessings Golf
Club in Fayetteville, Ark., Kupcho and Migliacco would make the Demon Deacons
an awful tough out in match play.
Kupcho made it obvious that she is just in a different
league against a strong field at Casa de Campo. She closed with a 5-under-par
67 over the 6,140-yard, par-72 Teeth of the Dog layout, matching the low round
of the day Saturday – Migliacco being the only other 67 shooter in the field –
to complete a 14-under 202 tour de force that gave her the individual title,
the eighth of her career, by nine shots.
Kupcho had opened with a 6-under 66 and a 3-under 69 in
Friday’s double-round that gave her a three-shot lead.
With Migliacco matching Kupcho’s 5-under 67, which enabled
her to end up in a tie for third at 4-under 212, the Demon Deacons, No. 12 in
latest Golfstat rankings, put
together a program-record round of 14-under 274, which gave them a program record
22-under 841 total. It was the first tournament victory for Kim Lewellen, who
took over for Dailey and is fully aware she is filling some big soft spikes.
Wake Forest’s Atlantic Coast Conference rival, No. 16
Virginia, closed with a solid 1-over 289 to claim runnerup honors at 4-under
860. Ohio State probably made a pretty good case to get its No. 69 ranking
bumped up a bit as the Buckeyes, out of the Big Ten, carded a 1-under 287 in
the final round to finish alone in third at 3-over 867.
It was a big weekend, too, for No. 40 North Carolina. Suzy
Whaley, a 1989 North Carolina graduate, became the first woman elected by the
PGA of America as its president in November. She put her name on the event and
she had an even bigger rooting interest in this North Carolina team because its
senior leader, Kelly Whaley, is Suzy Whaley’s daughter.
But beside all of that, North Carolina arrived in the
Dominican Republic needing to right the ship after a last-place finish in last
weekend’s Darius Rucker Intercollegiate on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island.
And with former Radnor standout Brynn Walker delivering one
of the best performances of her college career, North Carolina did just that.
The Tar Heels finished up with a 6-over 294 Saturday that gave them a
fourth-place finish at 6-over 870. They needed a confidence booster and they
got it.
No. 42 Mississippi, out of the powerful Southeastern
Conference, posted a 3-over 291 in the final round to finish alone in fifth at
9-over 873, three shots behind the Tar Heels.
No. 19 Texas Christian, out of the Big 12, carded its second
straight 4-over 292 and ended up in sixth place in the 15-team field at 13-over
877.
Of course, if Wake Forest is to get on a postseason roll,
Kupcho and Migliacco will need some help. They got that at Casa de Campo,
particularly from Siyun Liu, a freshman from China, who contributed a 2-under
70 to the Demon Deacons’ sizzling team effort in the final round. That left Liu
alone in eighth place in the individual standings at 1-under 215.
The two freshmen, Letizia Bagnoli of Italy and Vanessa
Knecht of Switzerland did their bit as well. Bagnoli’s final round of 3-over 75
was a throw-out, but she finished among the group tied for 15th at
3-over 219.
Knecht bounced back from an 82 in Friday afternoon’s second
round to give Wake Forest a fourth under-par round Saturday, a 2-under 70.
Knecht finished among the group tied for 32nd at 8-over 224. More
importantly, she showed she could put a bad round behind her and keep grinding
for the team.
Ohio State’s Anneka Seumanutafa, a freshman from Emmitsburg,
Md., made it a third straight strong performance as her final round of 1-over
73 gave her runnerup honors in the individual standings at 5-under 211, nine
shots behind Kupcho. Seumanutafa only joined the Ohio State program at the
start of the spring semester.
Joining Migliacco in the tie for third at 4-under 212 was
Virginia’s Beth Lillie, a sophomore from Fullerton, Calif. who finished strong
with a 3-under 69.
Lillie’s teammate, Anna Redding, the Cavaliers’ senior
stalwart from Concord, N.C. and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR, headed a group of
three players tied for fifth at 3-under 213. Redding, who had matched Kupcho’s
opening-round 66, closed with a 2-over 74.
Joining Redding at 213 were Ole Miss’ Julia Johnson, a
sophomore from St. Gabriel, La., and TCU’s Greta Bruner, a junior from Conroe,
Texas, both of whom closed with a solid 1-under 71.
It was certainly an encouraging weekend for Walker, a junior
who won a pair of PIAA Class AAA championships at Radnor. Her final round of
2-over 74 left her in the group tied for ninth at 1-over 217. Not sure how many
career top-10 finishes Walker, who plays out of St. Davids Golf Club, has had
at North Carolina, but this one, against a tough field on a tough golf course,
was an important one.
Ava Bergner, a sophomore from Germany, also had a strong
weekend, closing with a second straight even-par 72 that left her alone in 14th
place at 2-over 218.
Kelly Whaley finished up with a 3-over 75 for a 4-over 220
total that left her among the group tied for 18th. Jennifer Zhou, a
freshman from China, gave North Carolina four players in the top 20 as her
final round of 1-over 73 left her in the group tied for 20th at 221.
Nichole Liu, a freshman from Taiwan, struggled a little with
a throw-out 80 in Saturday’s final round that left her among the group tied for
32nd at 8-over 224. But her rounds of 70 and 74 in Friday’s
double-round were both counters for the Tar Heels.
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