Katie Miller, a three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur
champion from Jeanette, will see a lot of familiar faces gathering for the U.S.
Women’s Mid-Amateur quarterfinals Wednesday morning at Forest Highlands Golf
Club’s Meadow Course in Flagstaff, Ariz.
One of them will be her opponent, four-time U.S. Women’s
Mid-Am champion Meghan Stasi, the South Jersey native who has won the Women’s
Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship eight times. Another
is 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va. with whom
Miller has partnered in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
“I don’t know exactly who the entire final eight is, but
it’s a cast that we’re all very familiar with,” the 34-year-old Miller told the
USGA website after finishing off a 2 and 1 victory over Alexandra Schilling of
Rochester, Minn. in a round-of-16 match Tuesday. “Lauren and I play in the U.S.
Four-Ball together and I’ve played with Meghan and Ina (Kim-Schaad) a good bit,
so we definitely cross paths a lot.”
Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area before
starring collegiately at North Carolina, had to battle all day to earn her
ticket to the quarterfinals.
She won the 18th hole with a par to send her
second-round match with Old Dominion women’s golf coach Mallory Hetzel to extra
holes and then won it on the 19th hole with a birdie.
In the afternoon, Miller won the 12th and 13th
holes with birdies to take a 2-up lead on Schilling, who battled back by taking
the 15th hole with a par. But Miller won the 16th hole
with a par and held on for the victory.
In the 41-year-old Stasi, Miller will be taking on one of
the great mid-am players in the history of the category.
Stasi rallied from 2-down after the ninth hole to defeat Gina
Bamberger of Marietta, Calif. in 20 holes in a round-of-16 thriller. Stasi, an
Eastern High product who works in her husband Danny’s Cajun-style restaurant in
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., won the 10th and 12th holes with
pars and the 15th hole with a birdie.
Bamberger got even again with a birdie at the 17th
hole before Stasi finally closed her out with a par on the 20th
hole.
Earlier Tuesday, Stasi claimed a surgical 3 and 2 decision
over Heather Will of Lakeland, Fla., who had finished in a tie for second in
qualifying for match play. Stasi went 2-up with birdies at the third and fourth
holes and never trailed after that.
The two wins Tuesday give Stasi a career match record of
52-9 in her 14th U.S. Women’s Mid-Am appearance.
The 29-year-old Greenlief, a former Virginia standout, won
the match of the day when she ousted two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion
Julia Potter-Bobb, the qualifying medalist at Forest Highlands, with a 4 and 3
victory.
Greenlief had six birdies in her first nine holes to
overpower Potter-Bobb. Typical of the way things went for Potter-Bobb was the
fifth hole where Potter-Bobb, who won the second of her two U.S. Women’s Mid-Am
titles at The Kahkwa Club in Erie in 2016, stiffed her approach for a conceded
birdie only to watch Greenlief chip in from 20 feet to get the half.
Greenlief’s quarterfinal opponent will be Andrea Kosa of
Canada, who claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Ket Preamchuen Vanderpool of
Thailand in an international round-of-16 affair.
Earlier Tuesday, Preamchuen Vanderpool ended the bid of
Coatesville’s Kelli Pry with a 3 and 1 victory in a second-round match. Pry was
2-down when she cut her deficit in half by winning the 13th hole
with a par, but Preamchuen Vanderpool won the 16th hole with a par
and the 17th hole with a birdie to close out Pry.
Michelle Butler of Columbia, Mo., a semifinalist a year in
the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Norwood Hills Golf Club in St. Louis, rolled into
the quarterfinals with an 8 and 6 victory over Katie Elliott-Johnson of
Fitchburg, Wis.
But Butler had to survive a tough test from Merion Golf
Club’s Catherine Elliott-Powell in a second-round match Tuesday morning before
Butler pulled out a 1-up win.
Five different times, Elliott-Powell, who starred
scholastically at the Academy of Notre Dame and collegiately at Penn, evened
the match after falling 1-down, the last time when she won the 16th
hole with a par.
But Butler won the 17th hole with a par and the
18th hole was halved with pars. Pretty nice showing at Forest
Highlands by Elliott-Powell, who reached match play for the first time in her
third U.S. Women’s Mid-Am appearance.
Butler’s quarterfinal opponent will be Ina Kim-Schaad of New
York City, who pulled off the biggest upset of the day when she ousted
defending champion Shannon Johnson of Easton, Mass., 5 and 4, in the round of
16.
While Johnson won’t be around for the quarterfinals, her
caddy from her 2016 and 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am runs and fellow Easton resident
Megan Buck will be. Buck edged Erin Houtsma of Denver in a 19-hole thriller to
earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
Buck’s opponent will be former Notre Dame standout Talia
Campbell of New York City. Campbell claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Gretchen
Johnson of Portland, Ore. in her round-of-16 match.
In the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Colorado Golf Club
in Parker, Colo., it’s starting to look like Stewart Hagestad, who rallied to
claim the crown in 2016 in a memorable final at Stonewall, has his sights
firmly set on adding a second title to his resume.
The 28-year-old Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif. rolled to
a 5 and 4 victory over John Ehrgott of Peoria, Ill. in his round-of-16 match
Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Hagestad dispatched Blake Parks of Odessa, Texas
in another 5 and 4 win in the second round.
Hagestad, who has risen to No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf
Ranking (WAGR), has been on a whirlwind golf tour in the last month,
representing the United States in the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru and then
leading the Red, White & Blue to a victory over Great Britain & Ireland
in the Walker Cup Match at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England before
arriving in suburban Denver.
But Hagestad is well aware that nobody is going to hand him
the title.
“I know the whole way through, from here on out, you are
getting everyone’s best,” Hagestad told the USGA website. “They’re throwing
everything they have at you. There’s a lot of golf left and you’ve got to kind
of take it one match at a time and a hole at a time and all the adages that go
with it.
“Everyone that’s here is really good. So, you can’t really
take anything for granted.”
Hagestad’s quarterfinal opponent will be 32-year-old Nick
Geyer of San Diego, who ousted Maxwell Scodro of Chicago with a 4 and 3
victory.
A surprise quarterfinalist is Yaroslav Merkulov, a
27-year-old from Penfield, N.Y. who earned his ticket to the U.S. Mid-Am in a
Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at Indian Valley
Country Club.
Merkulov knocked off Jeremy Gearhart of Atascadero, Calif.,
4 and 2, in the round of 16 Tuesday. His quarterfinal opponent will be 36-year-old
Joseph Deraney of Tupelo, Miss., who edged Paul McNamara of Dallas, 1-up.
The winner of the Hagestad-Geyer match will face the winner
of a quarterfinal match between 25-year-old Australian Lukas Michel and 32-year-old
Jacob Koppenberg of Bellingham, Wash. in Wednesday afternoon’s semifinals.
Michel claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Dan Ellis, an
assistant coach for the Michigan State golf team, while Koppenberg went 19
holes to pull out a win over Daniel DeBra of Lutz, Fla. in the round of 16.
The winner of the Merkulov-Deraney match will get the winner
of a match between Anders Schonbaum of Argentina and Jason Schultz of Allen,
Texas in the semifinals.
The 28-year-old Schonbaum, a college standout at
Jacksonville State in Alabama, earned a 2 and 1 decision over Johnny DelPrete
of Juno Beach, Fla. and the 46-year-old Schultz, a reinstated amateur who once
played on the PGA Tour, cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Andrew Rhodes of
Westfield, Ind. in their round-of-16 matches.
Earlier Tuesday, Schonbaum stunned defending champion Kevin O’Connell
of Jacksonville, Fla. in 19 holes in a second-round match.
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