As the spring portion of the wraparound 2019-2020 college
golf season tees off, Brynn Walker, a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion during
an outstanding scholastic career at Radnor, is in the final weeks of her days
as a North Carolina Tar Heel.
Sometimes overlooked with Walker’s individual accomplishments is
what a team player she has been. As a freshman at Radnor, she was a key
newcomer on the 2012 PIAA Class AAA championship team. As a senior, with not
enough girls to field a full girls team, she competed with the boys and was the
leader of the 2015 PIAA Class AAA championship team.
Twice, Walker teamed with her scholastic rival Madelein Herr
of Council Rock North, a senior on the Penn State golf team, for a couple of
deep runs in the first two editions of the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball Championship
as they fell in the semifinals at Bandon Dunes in 2015 and in the quarterfinals
at Streamsong in 2016.
North Carolina’s veteran head coach Jan Mann has put Walker
in the starting lineup from the minute she arrived in Chapel Hill. Walker has
been solid, but unspectacular. I’m guessing, though, that the lack of
individual success doesn’t bother Walker nearly as much as the Tar Heels’ inability
to achieve more team success in her four years.
Walker was the hotshot freshman on a veteran team that
really bonded and came within a shot of reaching match play in the 2017 NCAA
Championship in dreadful weather conditions at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar
Grove, Ill. The Tar Heels have been unable to advance out of the regionals the
last two springs.
Walker missed a little of the fall portion of the wraparound
2019-’20 season to tee it up in Stage II of the LPGA Qualifying School. She
didn’t play particularly well, although by reaching Stage II, Walker will have
some status on the Symetra Tour this summer when her college career is over.
Walker is the senior leader now and I’m pretty sure nothing
short of a trip to Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. in May will satisfy
her in her final go-round with North Carolina.
The Tar Heels were No. 34 in the latest Golfstat
rankings when their spring campaign teed off Monday with the first two rounds
of the Moon Golf Invitational, hosted by Louisville at Duran Golf Club in
Melbourne, Fla.
Well, almost two rounds. Daylight is still in short supply
in mid-February and the 16-team field couldn’t quite complete two tours of the
Duran layout before darkness forced suspension of play with the second round
nearly in the books.
Walker and the Tar Heels found themselves deadlocked with
three other teams at 1-under-par over the 6,279-yard, par-72 Duran layout when
play was called. North Carolina, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, had
opened with a solid 2-under 286 Monday morning, a total bettered only by
perennial Southeastern Conference power Alabama, at No. 9 the highest-ranked
team in the field.
The Crimson Tide opened with a solid 4-under 284, but were
4-over for the second round and were tied for fifth place with No. 73 Coastal
Carolina at even-par, a shot behind the four co-leaders.
North Carolina was 1-over for the afternoon round and tied
with ACC rival and tournament host Louisville, ranked 38th, reigning
SEC champion Mississippi, ranked 12th, and junior college power
Seminole State, and yes, the junior colleges in Florida are often competitive
with Division I schools, particularly at this time of the year.
Louisville had the best afternoon round going, the Cardinals
at 5-under after opening with a 4-over 292 to get it to 1-under. Seminole
State, after opening with a 2-over 290, was 3-under for its round and Ole Miss,
which carded a 1-over 289 in the morning was 2-under for its round.
Ole Miss was one of the great stories of the spring of 2019
as the Rebels snuck into match play in the SEC Championship as an eight seed
and proceeded to run the table for an unlikely conference championship. They
kept the roll going as they advanced out of the Norman Regional as a nine seed
to the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Walker opened with a 1-over 73 that was actually a throw-out
for the Tar Heels. She was even-par through 17 holes, her 1-over total leaving
her in the group tied for 26th place. Fellow North Carolina senior
Mariana Ocano of St. Petersburg, Fla. was also at 1-over as she opened with a
solid 1-under 71 and was 2-over through 17 holes for her afternoon round.
North Carolina’s two freshmen, Kayla Smith of Burlington,
N.C. and Krista Junkkari of Finland, were unfazed by the big stage of Division
I golf in the fall and they picked up right where they left off for the Tar
Heels Monday.
Smith matched par in the opening round with a 72 and was
1-under through 16 holes to join the group tied for 11th place at
1-under. Junkkari also opened with an even-par 72 and was even through 15 holes,
which left her among the group tied for 22nd place at even par.
Rounding out the North Carolina lineup was Jennifer Zhou, a
sophomore from China who completed two rounds, adding a 3-over 75 to her solid
opening round of 1-under 71 that landed her among the group tied for 33rd
place at 2-over 146.
Mann brought Nicole Lu, a sophomore from Taiwan, along to
compete as an individual and Lu got off to a great start with a 3-under 69 in
the morning. Lu completed a 2-over 74 in the afternoon and her 1-under 143
total left her in the group tied for 11th place.
That means there’s going to be some competition for the
first five for North Carolina this spring and that will only make the Tar Heels
more competitive come tournament time.
Two of Seminole State’s players completed their rounds and
were near the top of the individual leaderboard. Minori Nagano, a freshman from
Japan, got into the clubhouse with a 5-under 67 in the afternoon after opening
with a 73 and her 140 total left her in a tie for second with Alabama’s Polly
Mack, a junior from Germany, for second place at 4-under.
Mack had opened with a 2-under 70 and was 2-under through 16
holes to get it to 4-under.
Nagano’s teammate, Alex Giles, a sophomore from England, was
alone in fourth place as she added as 1-under 71 to her opening-round 70 for a
3-under 141 total.
The rest of the Seminole State lineup was still on the golf
course when play was halted. Sophia Warren, a sophomore from Lakewood Ranch,
Fla. who had opened with a 1-under 71, was 2-over through 16 holes, which left
her among the group tied for 26th place at 1-over.
Alex Stevenson, a freshman from England, had struggled to an
opening-round 80, but was 1-over through 17 holes in the afternoon and was
among the group tied for 68th place at 9-over. Mary Ma, a freshman
from Lake Mary, Fla., had opened with a 4-over 76 and was 6-over through 16
holes, leaving her in the group tied for 72nd place at 10-over.
Six players were on the leaderboard tied for fifth place at
2-under, two of whom had completed two rounds and four others who will have to
return Tuesday morning to complete their second round.
Among that foursome was Louisville’s Hana Ryskova, a
freshman from the Czech Republic who had opened with a 71 and was 1-under
through 16 holes. Her teammate, Margot Bechaderque, a junior from France, was
also in that group, although Bechaderque is competing as an individual and is
not part of the team picture for the Cardinals. Bechaderque opened with a
sparkling 4-under 68 and was 2-over through 16 holes.
Louisville’s veteran leader Lauren Hartlage, a senior from
Elizabethtown, Ky. and No. 48 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR),
and teammate Lauren Thibodeau, a sophomore from Hempstead, N.H., both landed
among the group tied for 11th place at 1-under.
Hartlage was one of a dozen players invited to audition for
the U.S. Curtis Cup team in a practice session at Loblolly in Hobe Sound, Fla.
in December, so you know she’s highly regarded. Hartlage opened with a 1-over
73 and was 2-under through 15 holes in the afternoon. Thibodeau opened with a
2-over 74 and she, too, had it going in the afternoon at 3-under through 17
holes.
Mairod Martin, a sophomore from Ireland, completed her two
rounds, adding a 1-over 73 to her opening-round 74 for a 3-over 147 total that
left her in the group tied for 38th place. Delaney Shah, a sophomore
from North Potomac, Md., opened with a 3-over 75 and was 3-over through 17
holes, leaving her among the group tied for 54th place at 6-over.
Ole Miss also had a player in that group tied for fifth
place at 2-under in Chiara Tamburlini, a freshman from Switzerland who opened
with a 2-under 70 and was even-par through 16 holes of her afternoon round.
Two of the heroes of the Rebels’ remarkable postseason run
last spring, Kennedy Swann, a senior from Austin, Texas, and Julia Johnson, a
junior from St. Gabriel, La., got off to solid starts Monday. Both carded a
1-over 73 in the morning. Swann was 1-under through 14 holes and among the
group tied for 22nd place at even par and Johnson was even through
16 holes and among the group tied for 26th place at 1-over.
Andrea Lighill, a freshman from Sweden, was also in that
group with her teammate Johnson at 1-over as she opened with a 2-over 74 and
was 1-under through 16 holes in the afternoon.
Ellen Hutchinson-Kay, a sophomore from Sweden, completed two
rounds, opening with a solid 1-over 73 that was a counter for the Rebels before
struggling to a 79 in the afternoon that left her in the group tied for 62nd
place at 8-over 152.
The individual leader when play was halted was Furman’s Anna
Morgan, a freshman from Spartanburg, S.C. who probably wished she could have
finished up. Morgan had the best round of the morning, a sizzling 5-under 67,
and was 3-under with one hole to play when play was suspended. At 8-under,
Morgan held a four-shot lead on Seminole State’s Nagano and Alabama’s Mack.
A couple of Augusta players, Napabhach Boon-In, a freshman
from Thailand, and Linda Lundqvist, a senior from Sweden, were the only players
in the group tied for fifth place at 2-under who completed two rounds. They
were in lockstep all day, each recording a pair of 1-under 71s to get in at
2-under 142.
In addition to the Louisville pair of Ryskova and
Bechaderque and Ole Miss’ Tamburlini, one other player was still on the course
at 2-under when play was suspended, Campbell’s Anna Nordfors, a sophomore from Sweden.
Nordfors opened with a 2-under 70 and was even through 14 holes in the
afternoon.
It was a solid first step for Walker and North Carolina. The
ACC will add a layer of match play to determine its champion this spring at Pawleys
Island in South Carolina in April. It will be interesting to see how the Tar
Heels fare if they can get in the match-play bracket.
Walker won the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s
Match Play Championship at her home course of St. Davids Golf Club last summer.
In her fourth try, Walker finally made the match-play bracket in the U.S.
Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. and reached the
second round with a birdie-birdie finish to claim a 1-up victory over Julia
Potter-Bobb, a two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion.
Walker would be a tough out in a match-play situation. Just
sayin’.
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