Tennant, Wooster set up a rematch for U.S. Senior Women's Amateur crown at Cedar Rapids

   For the first time in 58 playings of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, there will be a rematch for the title.

   It was last October when Lara Tennant of Portland, Ore. claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Australian Sue Wooster to capture the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla.

   The scene has shifted to the middle of the country, a Donald Ross design – man, that guy got around – at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But Thursday’s finalists, the 52-year-old Tennant, with dad George Mack Sr. still on the bag, and the 57-year-old Wooster will remain the same.

   As I mentioned in my post on the title match at Orchid Island, it’s not unusual to have dad on the bag at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, but at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, not so much.

   Tennant thrived as persistent 25-mph winds buffeted the 5,732-yard, par-72 Cedar Rapids layout Wednesday. The winds made things especially tough in the afternoon, but Tennant made birdies at the second and third holes to grab an early lead and played even-par golf in rolling to a 4 and 2 semifinal victory over 53-year-old Patricia Ehrhart of Honolulu, Hawaii.

   Earlier in the day, Tennant cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Lynne Cowan of Rocklin, Calif. in a quarterfinal match. Ehrhart reached the semifinals for the second time in three years with a 4 and 2 victory over Tina Barker of Fairfield, Calif. in her quarterfinal match.

   You could argue that Wooster has had the tougher road to the final, but there really is no such thing as an easy road to a USGA final.

   Wooster stood on the 18^th tee at Cedar Rapids in even matches twice Wednesday and twice she emerged with a 1-up victory. It was the same in the round of 16 Tuesday when Wooster won the 18^th hole with a bogey to edge three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion and four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship winner Ellen Port, 1-up.

   Wooster made a par on the 320-yard, par-4 18^th hole in her 1-up victory over 58-year-old Caryn Wilson of Rancho Mirage, Calif. in the semifinals.

   And Wooster made par to win the 18^th hole and take probably the best match of the day, a 1-up victory over Laura Webb, the reigning British Senior Women’s Amateur champion from Ireland who was so impressive in her first visit to the United States, in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals.

   The 56-year-old Webb jumped on Wooster by winning the first, third and fourth holes to grab a 3-up lead. But Wooster answered right back by winning four straight holes, Nos. five, six, seven and eight, to take a 1-up lead.

   Back and forth it went with Wooster twice taking a 2-up lead. But Webb answered one more time, winning the 16^th hole with a par and the 17^th hole with a birdie to even the match.

   Wooster got her approach on the severe green and below the hole and watched Webb three-putt it and Wooster was on to the semifinals. By the end of the day, Wooster was plotting a little bit of redemption for last year’s loss to Tennant at Orchid Island.

   “Imagine, 140 players and it comes down to us again,” Wooster told the USGA website. “I’m just going to give it my all. This morning on the back nine (vs. Webb), I nearly lost the match. I went out with the attitude this afternoon that I was going to give it my all and just try and play a lot more aggressively. If I won, I won. If I didn’t, so what. I’ll be happy.”

   Wilson earned her semifinal date with Wooster with a 5 and 4 victory over Canadian Mary Ann Hayward.

   Relative youth was served in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C. as 55-year-old Roger Newsom of Virginia Beach, Va. and 57-year-old Bob Royak of Alpharetta, Ga. survived two matches Wednesday and will play for the Frederick L. Dold Trophy Thursday.

   There were a bunch of former U.S. Senior Amateur champions in the field, even after the field was cut to 64 for match play. But Royak, who teed it up in this summer’s U.S. Senior Open at the Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame, took out the last of the past champions by edging defending champion Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif., in a 21-hole semifinal thriller.

   Not that the 56-year-old Wilson didn’t go out without a fight. His tee shot at the par-3 17^th hole left him a 10-footer for birdie and he made it to get even in the match. When Royak got it up and down from a greenside bunker for par on the 18^th hole, it was on to extra holes.

   There was a 17-minute rain delay, the first weather delay of the week, but Royak finally made par on the 21^st hole, the par-4 third hole at Old Chatham, to advance to the final.

   Royak had a relatively easy time of it in the morning quarterfinals as he cruised to a 6 and 5 decision over Walter Todd of Laurens, S.C.

   Wilson would admit after his semifinal setback that his gut-wrenching 1-up victory over Brady Exber of Las Vegas, who played some great golf all week, in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals might have taken its toll in the afternoon.

   Newsom, meanwhile, nailed down his 1-up semifinal victory over Rick Cloninger of McDonough, Ga. by drilling a 7-iron from 170 yards away onto the green at the tough 437-yard, par-4 18^th hole.

   Newsom, an ophthalmologist who played college golf at East Carolina, reached the semifinals by edging Paul Jett, a former superintendent at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club from Southern Pines, N.C., in 19 holes in a quarterfinal thriller Wednesday morning.

   Cloninger, a Charlotte, N.C. native, pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Steve Harwell of Mooresville, N.C., 2 and 1, to earn his spot opposite Newsom in the semifinals.