Another strong showing for McCrery as she finishes in a tie for ninth in Women's Dixie Amateur

 

   Avery McCrery, the Wilmington, Del. native who will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke next summer, continues to show up on leaderboards at big golf tournaments.

   Coming off a tie for fifth place in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit in the days leading up to Thanksgiving at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course in San Antonio, Texas, McCrery teed it up in the Women’s Dixie Amateur Championship, which wrapped up Sunday at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla.

   And following a sparkling 2-under-par 70 in Friday’s second round, there McCrery was leading a field filled with collegians and junior standouts like herself by a shot.

   McCrery stumbled a little in the final two rounds over the weekend, but she still finished among a group of four players tied for ninth place with a 10-over 298 total.

   Not sure if the Women’s Dixie Amateur is considered part of the Orange Blossom Tour, the unofficial series of events for women’s amateur players in the winter. McCrery has finished in the top 10 in the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, better known by its shorthand name, The Sally, at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla. the last two winters. The Sally tees off Jan. 6.

   The events in South Florida on either side of the holidays are a great opportunity for amateur women to get in some competitive reps in some relatively warm climes. It was McCrery’s tie for third place in The Sally two years ago when it became obvious that she had taken things up a notch or two.

   Last summer McCrery added a bustout crown to her resume by capturing the title in the Girls Junior PGA Championship, one of the major national junior tournaments each summer, at Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course in Bethesda, Md.

   McCrery carded a 3-over 75 at Eagle Trace in the opening round of the Women’s Dixie Amateur Thursday.

   Her 2-under 70 in Friday’s second round – sub-par rounds at Eagle Trace were hard to come by – was the kind of round good players put together. I know the winds were howling in Jacksonville for the second round of the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School Final Qualifying. The mostly high scores at Eagle Trace make me think the wind was kicking up in Coral Springs as well Friday.

   Didn’t seem to bother McCrery as she made a birdie at the eighth hole and, after the lone blemish on her scorecard, a bogey at 11, she made birdies at 15 and 18. The rest of the card was 14 pars.

   McCrery fell five shots out of the lead after struggling to a 4-over 76 in Saturday’s third round. She closed with a 5-over 77, but still got it together late in the round to salvage a top-10 finish.

   McCrery made bogeys at the second, fifth, eighth and 10 holes and a double bogey at 12 to fall to 6-over in Sunday’s final round. But she made a birdie at the 13^th hole and parred the last five to get it back to 5-over for the day.

   The Women’s Dixie Amateur title went to Florida redshirt sophomore Karoline Tuttle of Lake Mary, Fla.

   Tuttle trailed McCrery by a shot when she matched par in Friday’s second round with a 72 after opening with a 2-over 74. A 2-under 70 in Saturday’s third round gave Tuttle a two-shot cushion going into Sunday’s final round.

   And Tuttle finished with a flourish, recording a 4-under 68, the only sub-70 round of the tournament, to pull away for a five-shot victory with a 4-under 284 total. She was the only player in the field to finish in red figures for the tournament.

   Tuttle had a hard time cracking the starting lineup for the Gators in the fall portion of the wraparound 2024-2025 season. Her convincing win in the Women’s Dixie Amateur might provide the confidence booster she needs with the spring portion of the season beckoning.

   Stetson’s Isaki Sakashita, a freshman from Japan, and Ohio State’s Faith Choi, a senior from Frederick, Md., shared second place, each landing on 1-over 289.

   Sakashita, who reached the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., got into contention on the strength of a 1-under 71 in Friday’s second round and a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s third round. She matched par in Sunday’s final round with a 72 to get a share of runnerup honors.

   Choi was solid on the weekend, following up a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s third round with a 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round to join Sakashita a 1-over.

   Choi is a senior leader for the Buckeyes, under the direction of Lisa Strom, the 1994 PIAA champion as a senior at Lansdale Catholic. Ohio State failed to make it to the NCAA Championship last spring as a six seed in the Bryan Regional.

   Ann-Sophie Bourgault, a junior standout from Canada, finished another three shots behind Sakashita and Choi in fourth place with a 4-over 292 total. Bourgault, who will join the program at Indiana in the Big Ten in the summer of 2026, matched par in the final round with a 72.

   The trio of Emma McMyler of San Antonio, Texas, junior phenom Juno Taino of Studio City, Calif. and Tuttle’s Florida teammate, Siuue Wu, a freshman from Hong Kong, finished in a tie for fifth place, each ending up a shot behind Bourgault at 5-over 293.

   McMyler wrapped up her college career at Duke in the spring, a college journey that started at Xavier, where she was the Big East champion in 2022. After opening with a 2-over 74, McMyler rattled off three straight 1-over 73s.

   Taino is a Class of ’29 competitor, the equivalent of an eighth-grader. Her AJGA profile lists her home town as Pinehurst, N.C., so she’s comfortable on either coast. Taino matched par in the final round with a 72. Pretty sure we haven’t heard the last from her.

   Wu slid right into the starting lineup at Florida this fall. She finished in a tie for 10^th place in the individual standings as the Gators wrapped up their fall campaign by claiming the team crown in The Ally at Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. in late October. Wu was steady at Eagle Trace, finishing up with a 2-over 74.

   Another talented youngster, Alexandra Snyder, a Class of ’28 entry from Orlando, Fla., finished alone in eighth place with a 9-over 297 total after closing with a solid 2-under 70.

   Joining McCrery in the quartet tied for ninth place at 10-over were Baylor’s Sera Hasegawa, a senior from Japan, and a couple of top junior players in Canadian Shauna Liu and Ava Bunker of Edinburgh, Ind.

   Hasegawa helped Baylor advance to the NCAA Championship last spring out of the Las Vegas Regional as a seven seed. After struggling in the opening round with an 83, she settled down with a 2-under 70 in Friday’s second round and a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s third round before closing with a 2-over 74 to earn a top-10 finish.

   Liu is a Class of ’27 competitor who joined McCrery in the tie for fifth place in the Rolex Tournament of Champions last month in San Antonio. Liu finished up with a 2-over 74 to again finish in a tie with McCrery in the group at 10-over.

   Like Canada’s Bourgault, Bunker has committed to join the program at Indiana in the summer of 2026. Bunker was only two shots behind Tuttle going into Sunday’s final round after opening with a 2-over 74 and matching par in both the second and third rounds with a pair of 72s before struggling a little in the final round with an 80.

   There was a cut following Saturday’s third round and a couple of interesting names, Grace Smith and Meghan Stasi, both landed in the group that missed the cut at 30-over 246.

   Smith, who helped Strath Haven capture the District One Class AAA team title as a junior in 2019, joined her Stetson teammate Sakashita in the field at Eagle Trace. Smith, a junior, was in the lineup for the Hatters in all of the stops on their schedule for the fall campaign.

   After opening with an 80 at Eagle Trace, Smith added an 82 in Friday’s second round and an 84 in Saturday’s third round.

   Looks like it was a short hop for Stasi, a 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, to Eagle Trace from her home in Oakland Park, Fla. Stasi, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, posted three consecutive 82s.

   It was a busy year for Stasi as she captained the U.S. Curtis Cup team that dropped a hard-fought 10.5-9.5 decision to Great Britain & Ireland late in the summer at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   If Stasi was losing any of her competitive edge, I suspect that, much like her predecessor as U.S. Curtis Cup captain, Sarah Lebrun Ingram, hanging out with all those talented young U.S. Curtis Cuppers might have Stasi fired up to compete again.