Min Lee's playoff win caps another successful Symetra Tour stop at Raven's Claw

   The Symetra Tour was back in Limerick Township for the second straight spring as Raven’s Claw Golf Club was again the backdrop for the Valley Forge Invitational, which wrapped up Sunday.

   There was perfect weather and a lot of birdies and a playoff victory for Min Lee, a native of Chinese Taipei who made a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to defeat Esther Lee, a former college standout at Colorado from Los Alamitos, Calif.

   I put myself on a list of “volunteer” caddies for the Valley Forge Invitational, but didn’t make the cut. They don’t take a whole lot of local caddies for a Symetra Tour event and, to be honest, if I had been called, I would have at least tried to negotiate some kind of payment. If push came to shove, though, I was willing to do it for free because it would have been an interesting golf experience.

   Just in case I was needed to caddy, I snuck in a round at Raven’s Claw a little over a week before the tournament started. I liked the course. There were some forced carrys that were a little tough for an old guy like myself, but the course was in excellent condition and there were a lot of neat holes.

   The players on the Symetra Tour are trying to make it to the Big Show, the LPGA Tour, and a lot of them showed off their considerable talent over the 6,080-yard, par-71 Ed Shearon design, often making birdies in bunches.

   Min Lee, for instance, opened the tournament with a sizzling 7-under 64, a total that was matched by Samantha Troyanovich, a former Tulane standout out of Grosse Point Shores, Mich. Min Lee added a 3-under 68 in Saturday’s second.

   It looked like Min Lee was going to run away with the title when she ripped off four straight birdies at the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth holes. She made it five birdies in six holes with another one at the 11^th. But the birdies stopped coming and she made a bogey at the 15^th hole.

   Esther Lee, meanwhile, started applying the pressure as she made back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth holes and then went back-to-back again at the 11^th and 12^th holes. One last birdie at the 16^th hole, combined with Min Lee’s bogey at 15, enabled Esther Lee to catch Min Lee at 15-under.

   Min Lee fired a final round of 5-under 66 while Esther Lee caught her with a 6-under 65 as both players finished at 15-under 198, three shots clear of the rest of the field.

   Min Lee and Esther Lee went back to the par-4 18^th hole for the playoff and Esther Lee’s approach found a greenside bunker. It led to just her third bogey of the weekend and Min Lee was able to two-putt for a par and the victory.

   Min Lee turned 24 during the final round, at least she did back home in Chinese Taipei where Sunday turned to Monday halfway through her final round in Limerick Township. It was only her second victory in the United States, finally backing up her win in the Garden City Charity Classic in 2014 when she was just 19.

   Min Lee won twice in Asia last year, but she is the first one to admit that a win in the States is special.

   “Every win means something and it feels like it’s been a while since last I won in the United States,” Min Lee told Zach Sepanik of the Symetra Tour’s website. “After I finished, I got a lot of texts from my friends and family supporting me. Especially watching Facebook, people keep posting and cheering for me. It was amazing to see that.”

   The victory was worth $18,750 to Min Lee out of a total purse of $125,000. It was her first Symetra Tour check of the season and moved her into 27^th on the Volvik Race for the Card list. The top 10 finishers in the Volvik Race for the Card earn their LPGA Tour card for 2020.

   Perrine Delacour of France solidified her hold on the No. 4 spot in the Volvik Race for the Card as she shared third place with Jenny Coleman, another former Colorado Buffalo out of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., at 12-under 201.

   Delacour was solid throughout, opening with a 5-under 66, adding a 3-under 68 in Saturday’s second round and closing with a 4-under 67. Coleman surged into contention on the strength of a 7-under 64 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 3-under 68.

Delacour increased her earnings for 2019 to $45,652.

   Former Arizona standout Krystal Quihuis of Tucson, Ariz., was another shot behind Delacour and Coleman at 11-under 202. Quihuis opened with a 4-under 67, added a 5-under 66 and closed with a 2-under 69. Like I said, they were making some birdies out there.

   Lauren Coughlin of Charlottesville, Va., the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference individual champion as a senior at Virginia, was a shot behind Quihuis at 10-under 203. After opening with a 5-under 66, Coughlin added respective rounds of 69 and 68 Saturday and Sunday.

   Coughlin sits at No. 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card list with $30,760 in earnings in 2019.

Troyanovich couldn’t back up her opening-round 64 as she struggled to a 75 in the second round before closing with a 1-under 70 that left her among the group tied for 26^th at 4-under 209.

   I mentioned in my post on Monday’s open qualifier for this week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic at the Seaview Hotel & Golf Club in Galloway Township, N.J., Easton native Sam Wagner, a former Florida standout, finished in the group tied for 47^th at 1-under 212. After opening with a 1-under 70, Wagner matched par in each of the last two rounds.

   Joe Juliano of The Philadelphia Inquirer profiled former Neshaminy standout Brittany Benvenuto in his preview of the Valley Forge Invitational. If you’re a young woman who thinks it might be easy to make it in professional golf, Benvenuto’s story makes it clear that the path is not always a straight line.

   But the 30-year-old Benvenuto, who finished third in the 2004 PIAA Championship as a junior and fifth in 2005 as a senior, maintains a positive attitude.

   Benvenuto made the cut at Raven’s Claw, her ninth made cut in as many starts this season, and finished in the group tied for 55^th at even-par 213 after closing with her worst round of the weekend, a 3-over 74.

   Katie Edelblut, a New Hope native who starred scholastically at the Princeton Day School and collegiately at William & Mary, finished in the group tied for 61^st at 2-over 215 after a final round of 1-over 72.

   Isabella DiLisio, the 2013 PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Mount St. Joseph, competed in the Valley Forge Invitational for the second straight year as an amateur. DiLisio completed an outstanding career with the Notre Dame program this spring.

   Unlike last year when she made the cut, DiLisio failed to make the cut, but didn’t play poorly. She opened with a 2-over 73 and added a 3-over 74 for a 5-over 147. The cut fell at 1-over 143.

   Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier received a sponsor’s exemption into the Valley Forge Invitational field and also missed the cut. Grier struggled in the opening round with a 76, but bounced back with a 1-over 72 in Saturday’s second round for a 6-over 148 total.

   Grier and Baltimore Country Club instructor Joanna Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J. native, became the first two women to play four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship earlier this spring at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. Grier finished in a tie for 71^st at 10-over 297.

   I posted about the Valley Forge Invitational in February when the Symetra Tour made it official that it would be returning to Raven’s Claw in 2019. At the time, I thought it might be a chance to see former Duke standout Leona Maguire, one of the best players in the history of NCAA Division I golf.

   What I didn’t know at the time was that the Valley Forge Invitational would be the same weekend as the U.S. Women’s Open, which concluded Sunday at the Country Club of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. Maguire, a native of Ireland, qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open, although she failed to make the cut.

   This will likely be Maguire’s final year on the Symetra Tour as she has won twice this year and leads the Volvik Race for the Card standings with $74,993 in earnings. Pretty good chance you’ll be seeing Maguire on TV playing on the LPGA Tour in 2020.

   Having said that, I have no problem with the Valley Forge Invitational dates, conflict with the U.S. Women’s Open or not. I like the fact that it precedes the ShopRite at Seaview and gives some of the Symetra Tour pros a chance to sneak down the Shore and try to Monday qualify for an LPGA Tour event.

   Sure, you might lose a marquee name like Maguire to the U.S. Women’s Open, but the Symetra Tour is about developing players for the LPGA Tour. Success on the Symetra Tour means finishing in the top 10 in the Volvik Race for the Card and graduating to the LPGA Tour. And several of the players who did show up at Raven’s Claw seem to be poised to do just that. They know how to make birdies, that’s for sure.