Walker cruises to Philadelphia Women's Amateur crown on her home course at St. Davids

   Brynn Walker has been in the starting lineup for the North Carolina women’s golf team from the minute she stepped on to the campus at Chapel Hill as a freshman in the summer of 2016.

   There have been ups – the Tar Heels reached the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. as a team in 2017, Walker’s first year at North Carolina – and downs – the Tar Heels have been unable to advance out of the regionals the last two springs – but Walker has always been there.

   What the former Radnor High standout has not done lately is win. Pretty sure she was the medalist in a U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier last summer,  but Walker might not have had her hands on a trophy since she repeated as the PIAA Class AAA champion in 2015 followed the next day by a PIAA Class AAA team crown for the Raiders.

   That is until Friday. With the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship being contested on her home course at St. Davids Golf Club, the Donald Ross gem where Radnor Township and Delaware County meets Tredyffrin Township and Chester County, Walker took a shot.

   The result was a 12 and 11 victory for Walker over Samantha Perrotta of Old York Country Club of Chesterfield in the scheduled 36-hole final Friday.

   And it’s not just any old trophy. It is the Glenna Collett Vare Cup. And it’s never a bad thing to have your name on a trophy that has names like Mrs. Mark A. Porter – that would be the late, great Dorothy Porter, the 1949 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and a four-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur winner – Mrs. Charles E. Wilson – that would be the late, great Helen Sigel Wilson, who won this championship 14 times, the first time in 1941 and the last time in 1972 -- Ann Laughlin and Meghan Stasi (nee Bolger), among others, inscribed on it.

   Walker actually lost the first hole of the final to Perrotta and promptly ripped off wins on the next eight holes to take a 7-up lead. Her lead was 9-up after the morning 18 holes.

   Walker won the 21^st and 22^nd holes with birdies to go 11-up, lost the 23^rd hole and birdied the 24^th hole to restore her 11-up advantage before closing out the match on the 25^th hole.

   The match of the week, though, came in Thursday’s semifinals in which Walker beat back a huge challenge from Merion Golf Club’s Kaitlyn Lees to claim a 1-up victory.

   Lees won three Inter-Ac League championships over a six-year period at Agnes Irwin and was a three-time winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship. Lees capped her freshman season at Dartmouth with a third-place finish in the Ivy League Championship this spring. She seems to get a little bit better, in some aspect of her game, with each passing season.

   It looked like Walker was going to cruise into the final when she won the fifth, eighth and 11^th holes to go 3-up. But Lees came roaring back, taking the 12^th, 13^th and 15^th holes to get even again.

   A birdie on the par-3 17^th hole enabled Walker to get back in front and the two halved the 18^th hole. I’m sure there were some match-play concessions, but Walker carded a 2-under 68 and Lees a 1-under 69.

   Lees and Walker’s old scholastic rival Jackie Rogowicz of Commonwealth National Golf Club shared medalist honors in Monday’s qualifying round, each carding a 1-over 71. Rogowicz, a two-time District One champion at Pennsbury, concluded an outstanding four-year career at Penn State this spring.

   Walker was a shot behind the top two in qualifying with a 2-over 72.

   Walker opened match play with a 4 and 3 victory over Allie Robertson of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve. She then rolled to a 5 and 3 win in Wednesday’s quarterfinals over 2015 Philadelphia Women’s Amateur champion Suzi Spotleson, also of RiverCrest.

   Lees advanced to her semifinal showdown with Walker by defeating fellow Merion member Catherine Elliott-Powell, 4 and 3, in the quarterfinals.

   Perrotta claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Rogowicz in Thursday’s other semifinal.

   In Friday’s First Flight final, Ruth Averbeck of Old York Road Country Club edged Angie Coleman of DuPont Country Club, 2-up.

   Coleman reached the final by knocking off Riverton Country Club’s Laughlin, an 11-time Philadelphia Women’s Amateur champion, 3 and 2. Averbeck earned a 4 and 3 victory over Bala Golf Club’s Callie Jean Burns in her semifinal match.