Rogowicz holds off Zambruno to claim Pennsylvania State Women's Amateur crown

   After Jackie Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State, captured the Pennsylvania State Amateur Women’s Amateur crown Saturday at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course, she told The Inquirer’s Joe Juliano that she has no plans to turn professional.

   Which means that although Rogowicz’s victory in the 83^rd edition of the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur, presented by LECOM, might have been her first, there’s a pretty good chance it won’t be her last.

   Rogowicz, who plays out of Yardley Country Club, has always been a solid player. She won a pair of District One titles and twice was the runnerup in the PIAA Championship while at Pennsbury. She was a fixture in head coach Denise St. Pierre’s lineup for Penn State from the minute she arrived in Happy Valley until her final Big Ten Championship last spring.

  Rogowicz just missed earning a spot in the match-play bracket in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Rolling Green Golf Club, getting eliminated in a bulky playoff for the last few spots.

   It was typical Rogowicz at the Militia Hill Course last week. Nothing flashy, just winning golf. She finished it off with a hard-fought 1-up victory Saturday over her former Penn State teammate Olivia Zambruno of Pleasant Valley Golf Club. Zambruno was the 2016 PIAA Class AA champion as a senior at Greensburg Central Catholic.

   Zambruno is a junior, but has had a hard time cracking the starting lineup at Penn State, mostly because of the presence of Rogowicz, Cara Basso, the 2012 PIAA Class AA champion as a sophomore at Villa Maria Academy, and Lauren Waller, the 2014 PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Canon-McMillan. With that stalwart trio departed, Zambruno figures to make a run at St. Pierre’s first five when the 2019-’20 season gets under way next month.

   Zambruno certainly gave Rogowicz a battle in Saturday’s Amateur Division final. Rogowicz appeared to be in control of the match when she won the 12^th hole by draining a 15-footer for birdie to take a 3-up lead. But Rogowicz lost the 15^th hole with a bogey and Zambruno cut her deficit to just 1-down with a conceded birdie at the 17^th hole.

   Both players reached the green at the par-4 18^th hole in regulation. Rogowicz lagged her 50-foot putt to two feet and, after Zambruno couldn’t convert her 35-foot birdie try, Rogowicz tapped in for a winning par.

   “When I was up three with five to go, I was just trying to hang on, which is hard to do,” Rogowicz told the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) website. “All it took was a bogey by me on No. 15 and a birdie by Liv on No. 17 and we’re headed to the 18^th hole.”

   It wasn’t Rogowicz’s only tough match on her road to the championship.

   In the morning semifinals Saturday, Rogowicz prevailed, 1-up, in a tight match with Morgan Frazier of Carlisle Country Club, who had earned co-medalist honors in qualifying with an even-par 72. Frazier was the captain as a junior at Navy, so I’m guessing she’ll be the captain for her senior season when it gets under way later this month. Frazier finished eighth in the 2015 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Cumberland Valley.

   I’ve looped for her dad Jeff in Stonewall’s Fall Scramble twice in the last three years. To call the left-hander crafty is to downplay his athleticism. He’s played in a bunch of U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships, seven, I believe. The guy can really play. I’m sure some of his considerable golf savvy has been passed on to Morgan Frazier.

   Frazier won the 10^th and 11^th holes to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up advantage against Rogowicz. But Rogowicz then turned the tables on Frazier by winning the 17^th and 18^th holes to win the match and advance to the final.

   In Friday’s quarterfinals, Rogowicz gutted out a 2 and 1 victory over Kaitlyn Lees, who plays out of Philadelphia Country Club and Merion Golf Club. Lees, who won three Inter-Ac League titles at Agnes Irwin, capped her freshman season at Dartmouth by finishing third in the Ivy League Championship.

   Lees, who won the last of her three Pennsylvania Junior Girls crowns last summer, shared medalist honors with Frazier as Lees also matched par with a 72. Lees was one of the few leaders in qualifying to complete her round Wednesday before thunderstorms inundated the Militia Hill Course.

   Lees was coming off a solid showing in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship as she fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Brynn Walker, playing on her home course at St. Davids Golf Club, 1-up.

   Walker, a senior at North Carolina, reached the second round of last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. before falling to eventual runnerup Albane Valenzuela, a  senior at Stanford from Switzerland. It’s a shame that the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur was scheduled the same week as the U.S. Women’s Amateur, but there are only so many weeks in a summer of golf.

   After Rogowicz won the first hole, Lees rattled off wins at the second, third, fourth and sixth holes to take a 3-up lead. But Lees wouldn’t win another hole while Rogowicz chipped away, winning the ninth, 10^th and 13^th holes to draw even and then taking the 14^th and 16^th holes to claim the victory.

   Zambruno also had a tough semifinal match Saturday morning, pulling out a 1-up victory over Sammie Staudt of Applecross Country Club. Staudt, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during an outstanding scholastic career at Coatesville, is a senior at Seton Hall.

   Frazier had earned her spot in the semifinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Katie Miller, a three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion out of Ligonier Country Club, in the quarterfinals. Miller, a former North Carolina standout, is one of the state’s top mid-amateur players.

   Staudt opened match play by knocking off defending champion Kristen Obush of Ligonier, 5 and 4, in a first-round match Thursday. Lees drew a tough opening-round opponent in Fox Chapel Golf Club’s Katie James, a sophomore at SMU, but Lees won the match on the 19^th hole.

   In the Amateur Division’s First Flight final, Adelyn Deery of Lancaster Country Club defeated Sam Fritzinger of the Allentown Municipal Golf Course, 2-up. Deery, who starred scholastically at Manheim Township, is a senior at North Carolina Asheville. Fritzinger, a scholastic standout at Emmaus, is a junior at Wingate.

   In the Amateur Division’s Second Fligiht final, Megan Groskey McGowan of Blue Bell Country Club rolled to a 5 and 4 victory over Nina Bosch of Oakmont Country Club.

   The Pennsylvania State Women’s Amateur Senior crown went to Northampton Country Club’s Noreen Mohler, who cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over Kerry Rutan of the host Philadelphia Cricket Club.

   “I really putted well and it was probably the best I’ve played in a while,” Mohler, captain of the victorious U.S. Curtis Cup team in 2010, told the PAGA website. “The good thing is that after this, we’re still friends.”

   The 65-year-old Mohler will represent the Keystone State in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship later this month at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mohler was the medalist in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at LuLu Country Club.

   Pretty sure Mohler is going to show up on the blog again whenever I get around to wrapping up The Deeg Sezna, a GAP event that celebrates mentoring which was held last week. Should get to it Monday.

   In the Senior Division’s First Flight final, Sharon Melair of Sandy Run Country Club defeated Amy Hempt of West Shore Country Club, 2 and 1.

   Merion Golf Club’s ageless Liz Haines rolled to the title in the Super-Senior Division, claiming a 6 and 5 victory over Overbrook Golf Club’s Karen McFadden in the final.