Kim-Schaad claims U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur crown; Aussie Michel takes U.S. Mid-Am title

   At 41, Meghan Stasi, the pride of South Jersey and South Florida, might be past her prime in the world of women’s mid-amateur golf.

   But as she proved once again last week at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Forest Highlands Golf Club’s Meadow Course in Flagstaff, Ariz., the road to the title still often runs through her.

   The crown went to Ina Kim-Schaad, a pretty interesting story in her own right who cruised to a 3 and 2 triumph over mid-am rookie Talia Campbell, a former Notre Dame standout, in Thursday’s scheduled 18-hole final.

   But Kim-Schaad, a former Northwestern standout who put the sticks away for more than a decade while she navigated the corporate world before returning to competitive golf a few years ago, had to get by Stasi in Wednesday afternoon’s semifinals. Kim-Schaad did so with a 4 and 2 victory, but Stasi, who fell behind early, didn’t give up without a fight.

   When I last posted on last week’s women’s and men’s mid-ams, Stasi had set up an interesting quarterfinal match with three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Katie Miller of Jeannette. The 34-year-old Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area and a collegiate standout at North Carolina, has established herself as a pretty strong player.

   But Miller was no match for Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion. After winning the second hole with a par, Stasi took the fourth, seventh, ninth and 10^th holes with birdies to build a 5-up advantage.

   Stasi was known as Meghan Bolger when she rattled off seven straight wins in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship. That event isn’t quite what it was in the days when it was being dominated by the likes of Dottie Porter and Helen Sigel Wilson, but seven in a row is seven in a row.

   The Eastern High grad starred in college at Tulane and became the women’s head coach at Ole Miss at the age of 23. After going back-to-back in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am in 2006-2007, she met Danny Stasi, the owner of Shuck n Dive, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cajun restaurant, while playing in the annual Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship at Coral Ridge Country Club, where Danny Stasi was a member.

   Danny Stasi proposed to Meghan on the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews while she was representing the United States in the Curtis Cup Match the following year. Meghan Stasi does a little bit of everything around the restaurant while remaining one of the top mid-ams in the country.

   Stasi won the last of her four U.S. Women’s Mid-Am titles in 2012, but she remains a formidable match-play hurdle for anybody with designs on the title. And her run to the semifinals earns earn an exemption into next year’s field at the Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C.

   Kim-Schaad blitzed Stasi early, making birdies on the first, fourth, fifth and seventh holes to go 4-up. Stasi won the eighth and ninth holes with pars to cut her deficit to 2-down. And after Kim-Schaad won the 12^th hole with a par, Stasi answered with a birdie at the 13^th hole to again creep within 2-down.

   Kim-Schaad, however, won the 14^th hole with a par to restore her 3-up advantage before closing out the match by winning the 16^th hole with a par.

   Stasi wasn’t the only former U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion to fall in Wednesday’s semifinals as Lauren Greenlief, of Ashburn, Va., the winner in 2015, suffered a hard-fought setback at the hands of Campbell.

   Earlier in the day Wednesday, Greenlief, a former collegiate standout at Virginia, had drained a 30-footer for birdie on the 18^th green to send her quarterfinal match with Andrea Kosa of Canada to extra holes before prevailing on the 21^st hole.

   Greenlief was 2-down to Campbell with six holes to go, but, as champions will do, battled back. She got even by making birdie at the 17^th hole, but sent her approach to the 18^th in a tricky wind over the green and Campbell won the hole with a par to claim a 1-up victory.

   It set up a final between a couple of New York City residents, Campbell, who struggles to find time to fit golf into an 80-hour work week, and Kim-Schaad, who probably remembers those days all too well.

   With husband Ian Schaad on the bag, Kim-Schaad won the first and third holes to go 2-up and never trailed. Kim-Schaad, who was going to turn 36 Sunday, holed a 12-footer for birdie on the 16^th hole to close out the match and take possession of the Mildred Prunaret Trophy.

   “I’m sure it will sink in tonight or maybe later in the week, but it’s pretty amazing,” Kim-Schaad, a Los Angeles native, told the USGA website. “The women I got to play with this week have been amazing.  The golf course was amazing. It’s just a pretty surreal experience overall.”

   A rookie mid-am, 25-year-old Lukas Michel of Australia, became the first international player to capture the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship with a 2 and 1 victory over Joseph Deraney of Tupelo, Miss. in Thursday’s scheduled 36-hole final at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo.

   Michel, with Golf Association of Philadelphia Middle-Amateur champion Will Davenport on the bag, had to rally from a couple of 3-down deficits to finally pull out the victory. The 32-year-old Deraney, a former Mississippi State standout who won the Canadian Mid-Amateur crown for a second time this summer, still led, 2-up with just 10 holes to play, after winning the 26^th hole with a birdie.

   Michel, however, won the 28^th hole with a par and the 30^th hole with a birdie to get the match even. Michel put a nose in front for the first time since the second hole when he rolled in a 12-foot birdie try at the 32^nd hole. On the par-5 33^rd hole, Michel lagged an eagle putt from 30 feet to tap-in range and had a 2-up lead when Deraney couldn’t get his birdie putt to fall. Suddenly, Michel was 2-up with three holes to play.

   When Michel halved the 35^th hole with a par, the Robert T. Jones Trophy was his.

   “Being the first international to win, I mean it’s a massive thing,” Michel told the USGA website. “Being the first of anything to win something is always great, a great feeling.

   “(Saying I’m a USGA champion) sounds unbelievable. It sounds almost too good to be true. Yeah, I guess it will sink in in the coming hours or days. But yeah, I mean, I’m looking forward to what comes with it in the future for my golf.”

   Michel can find a place to hang around in the States while getting the traditional invitation to tee it up in the Masters and exemptions into the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. and into the U.S. Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon.

   Both Michel and Deraney survived tough semifinal matches that went to the 18^th hole.

   Michel pulled out a 2-up victory over Stewart Hagestad, winner of the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall. The 28-year-old Hagestad, who had helped the United States claim a victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England less than a week before arriving in Colorado, has risen to No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   Hagestad didn’t blink when he fell behind, 3-down, to Michel after nine holes. When Hagestad parred the par-5 15^th hole, he was 1-up. But Michel reached the 16^th hole, also a par-5, in two when he drilled a 5-iron to 10 feet and two-putted to square the match.

   When Hagestad missed the green at the par-3 17^th hole, Michel won with a par to take a 1-up lead to the 18^th hole.

   Hagestad found a fairway bunker off the tee at the 18^th hole and his 7-iron shot went over the green. When Hagestad missed his par putt, he conceded the hole and the match to Michel. It was the second straight year that Hagestad has fallen in the semifinals.

   Earlier Wednesday, Michel let a 4-up lead with five holes to go slip away in a quarterfinal match against Jacob Koppenberg of Bellingham, Wash. before pulling out the victory on the 20^th hole.

   Deraney earned his spot in the final with a 1-up victory over 46-year-old Jason Schultz, who starred collegiately at Missouri and played on the PGA Tour. Schultz of Allen, Texas missed a 12-foot birdie try at the 18^th hole that would have sent the match to extra holes if it had fallen.