Rogowicz poised for another deep run in U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur at Brae Burn

 

   After falling in the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship a year ago at Stonewall’s North Course in the northwest corner of Chester County, Jackie Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State, said she felt maybe she could win one of these things one of these days.

   Rogowicz, playing out of Merion Golf Club, will get another shot at a U.S. Women’s Mid-Am title after finishing in a tie for third place after two rounds of qualifying for match play with a 4-over-par 148 total at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass.

   With fall being ushered in by some windy conditions in West Newton Sunday, Rogowicz kept it together well enough to record a second straight 2-over 74 and finish just a shot behind co-medalists Sabrina Coffman of Toledo, Ohio and Jacquline Setas of East Lansing, Mich.

   Rogowicz was one of three co-medalists in qualifying for match play at the “Udder Course” at Stonewall – the name Stonewall’s partners affectionately call the North in a nod to Stonewall’s roots as a dairy farm – a year ago.

   A couple of weeks earlier, Rogowicz had been one of just two mid-amateurs to earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.

   Rogowicz advanced out of a qualifier at the Kenwood Golf & Country Club in Bethesda, Md. to this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., but failed to reach match play. It was the seventh U.S. Women’s Amateur appearance for Rogowicz.

   Rogowicz struggled a little in Saturday’s opening round of qualifying at Brae Burn, making bogeys at the third, sixth, 10^th and 11^th holes before saving the round with birdies at 12 and 14.

   Rogowicz started Sunday’s second round off the 10^th tee and made a birdie at 10 before rattling off 10 straight pars.

   With the wind picking up, it was a struggle on Brae Burn’s outgoing nine. Rogowicz made back-to-back bogeys at the third and fourth holes, made a birdie at six and again made back-to-back bogeys at seven and eight.

   Turned out, nobody else was tearing it up in the difficult conditions.

   “I was guessing a lot on the wind and the wind was swirling, which made it hard,” Rogowicz told the USGA website. “Then I feel like the greens just got firmer and firmer as the day went on. I leaked a little oil coming in, but I putted well today, so hopefully that continues.”

   Rogowicz will open match play Monday against Sherry Zhong of China.

   The 26-year-old Coffman matched par in Sunday’s second round with a 72, the low round of the day, after opening with a 3-over 75 to join Setas at 3-over 75.

   The 28-year-old Setas, who survived a bout with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma while starring at Michigan State, had matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding a 3-over 75 in Sunday’s second round.

   Alexandra Austin of Fairfax, Va., who is six months pregnant, shared third place in qualifying with Rogowicz at 4-over. Austin had held the lead following her opening round of 2-under 70 before adding a 6-over 78 in Sunday’s second round.

   Judith Kyrinis, a 60-year-old Canadian who reached the quarterfinals a year ago at Stonewall, was a shot behind Rogowicz and Austin in fifth place at 5-over 149 after adding a 2-over 74 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 75.

   Kimberly Dinh of Midland, Mich., who captured the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur crown a year ago at Stonewall, landed in the group tied for 10^th place at 8-over 152 after posting a second straight 76.

   Alyssa Roland of Short Hills, N.J. finished in a tie for 33^rd place in qualifying, struggling to an 83 in Sunday’s second round after opening with a 2-over 74 for a 157 total. Roland, an Ivy League champion at Yale, has been, and may still be, an Overbrook Golf Club member.

   Roland has had made the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am several times and reached the round of 16 a year ago at Stonewall. Roland will face Gretchen Johnson of Portland, Ore., who lost to Dinh, the eventual champion, in the semifinals at Stonewall a year ago, in an opening-round match Monday.

   Meghan Stasi of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., fresh off her stint as the captain of the U.S. team in a hard-fought Curtis Cup loss to Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale Golf Club in England, finished in a tie for 48^th place, adding an 81 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 81 for a 160 total.

   Stasi, a South Jersey native and a 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia (WGAP) Match Play Championship, will take on Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah, who lost to Dinh in the final at Stonewall a year ago.

   Stasi is a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion and Chugg captured the title in 2017. Last year was the second time Chugg has been a beaten finalist.

   Isabella DiLisio of Hatfield, one of Rogowicz’s scholastic rivals when DiLisio was a standout at Mount St. Joseph, earned a spot in the match-play bracket as she struggled to an 86 in Sunday’s brisk winds after  opening with a 3-over 75. That left her in a tie for 55^th place with a 161 total.

   DiLisio, who starred collegiately at Notre Dame, reached the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am semifinals as a mid-am “rookie” two years ago at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla. She reached the round of 16 at Stonewall a year ago before suffering a tough 1-up loss to Kyrinis.

   DiLisio will square off against Czechia’s Hana Ryskova, who played collegiately at Louisville, in the opening round Monday. Ryskova finished among a group of four players tied for sixth place in qualifying with a 6-over 150 total.

   Samantha Perrotta, the 2020 WGAP Match Play Championship winner from Bordentown, N.J., joined DiLisio in the group tied for 55^th place at 161 as Perrotta added a 79 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 82.

   Perrotta gets a tough customer in her opening-round match Monday as she faces 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va.

   A couple of interesting names in the list of players who failed to make the cut for match play. Four players who finished at 19-over 163 will be in a playoff for the final spot in the match-play bracket as I’m wrapping up this post Monday morning.

   Madelein Burger of New Hope, who, I’m fairly certain, you might better remember as Maddy Herr, a teammate of Rogowicz’s at Penn State and a scholastic standout at Council Rock North, just missed making match play as she added an 83 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 81 for a 164 total.

   Katrin Wolfe of Johnstown, who survived a playoff to get into match play at Stonewall a year ago and reached the round of 16, struggled to an 89 in Sunday’s second round after opening with a 79 for a 168 total.

   Wolfe is a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

   Kristina Ortiz of Morrisville, the medalist in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered U.S. Women’s Mid-Am qualifier at Lookaway Golf Club last month, posted a pair of 89s for a 178 total. Perrotta and Burger also emerged from that Lookaway qualifier.