Conestoga's Burks defeats Millichip in WGAP Match Play final to claim title at Trenton

 

   The Conestoga girls golf team was the runnerup to Downingtown West in last fall’s District One Class AAA team competition at Raven’s Claw Golf Club.

   The Pioneers got the call from the PIAA to tee it up in the Class AAA state team championship as a wild card and finished in fourth place, a shot behind the District One champion Whippets.

   So, it wasn’t a total surprise to see three members of that Conestoga team in the semifinals of last week’s Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia (WGAP) Match Play Championship at Trenton Country Club.

   Jill Burks, who will be a junior for the Pioneers this season, defeated her Conestoga teammate, Nicolette Bottos, a sophomore, 6 and 5, in Wednesday’s semifinals and came back the next day to claim a 2 and 1 victory over Barbora Millichip, a native of Czechia who plays out of Honeybrook Golf Club, in the final to capture the title.

   Once upon a time, the WGAP Match Play Championship was one of the premier events for women golfers in the Philadelphia area. It isn’t that anymore and a conflict at Trenton Country Club pushed the event, normally played in July, back to August this year. In the old days, we just called it the Philadelphia Women’s Amateur Championship.

   If you get a chance to put your name on the Glenna Collett Vare Vare Cup that goes to the winner of the WGAP Match Play Championship alongside the likes of Dorothy Porter, Helen Sigel Wilson, Ann Laughlin-Fulginiti, Meghan Stasi (who was Meghan Bolger when she captured the title seven straight times from 1999 to 2005) and current WGAP executive director Laura Hammond, you take the opportunity.

   And that’s what Burks did.

   Burks, who plays out of White Manor Country Club, burst onto the scene when she earned a trip to Augusta National Golf Club for the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals in the summer of 2019. Her appearance was postponed for a year by the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, but she was there in 2021, finishing in fifth place in the Girls 10-11 Division.

   Burks has been one of the top players in District One in her first two seasons at Conestoga, earning a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of the last two falls.

   Burks led the Pioneers to the District One Class AAA team crown as a freshman in the fall of 2023 and Conestoga again earned a spot in the field in the Class AAA state team competition last fall with its runnerup finish at Raven’s Claw.

   Watched Millichip celebrate when she qualified for the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla. in a qualifier held at Stonewall’s North Course.

   Millichip reached the final in the WGAP Match Play Championship with a 3 and 2 victory over the third Conestoga player in the semifinals, Corinne McReynolds, a junior for the Pioneers who plays out of Whitford Country Club.

   Millichip got the jump on Burks in the final, historically a 36-hole test, but reduced to 18 holes in the last couple of years, with wins at the second and fifth holes giving her a 2-up lead.

   Burks got on the board by taking the sixth hole to cut her deficit to 1-down, but Millichip quickly restored her 2-up advantage with a win at seven.

   Burks, however, started to turn the tables when she won the eighth and ninth holes to get even with Millichip and then surged in front by taking wins at 12 and 13.

   Millichip cut her deficit to 1-down by taking the 14^th hole, but Burks closed her out with a win at 17.

   Burks had begun her week by claiming medalist honors in qualifying for match play with a sparkling 1-under 71 Aug. 18^th. After a slow start, Burks really got it going on the incoming nine at Trenton with four birdies while touring the back in 31.

   Millichip was the runnerup in qualifying with a solid 1-over 73 with McReynolds taking third place with a 6-over 78.

   Burks rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over Amanda Bielski of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

   Burks’ teammate, Bottos, who plays out of Rolling Green Golf Club, survived the match of the day, edging Sophia DeSantis of Concord Country Club in 20 holes to earn her spot in the semifinals.

   DeSantis, a scholastic standout at West Chester Rustin, is a sophomore on the roster at Fairfield.

   Millichip knocked off Audrey Reese of Jericho National Golf Club, 4 and 2, and McReynolds earned her spot in the semifinals opposite Millichip with a 6 and 5 decision over Emilee Barkley of Moselem Springs Golf Club.

   Reese, a scholastic standout at Council Rock South, is a junior on the roster at Trevecca Nazarene, an NAIA school in Nashville, Tenn. Barkley, a scholastic standout at Kutztown, is a junior on the roster at West Chester.

   Suzi Spotleson, who plays out of RiverCrest, rolled to a third straight WGAP senior crown with a 7 and 6 victory over Honeybrook’s Allison Long in the Senior Championship Flight final.

   Spotleson, who lists Canton, Ohio as her hometown, but still spends a lot of time in golf circles in this area, is a player with a national profile in the senior ranks.

   She reached the second round of last summer’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, Wash. and she’ll be teeing it up in this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Am in a couple of weeks at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Cascades Course in Hot Springs, Va. as she was exempt from qualifying due to her standing on the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   Had a chance to caddy for Long when that 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am qualifier was held at Stonewall’s North Course. She can play. And competitive? Absolutely.

   Long won the first hole at Trenton, but after that, it was all Spotleson as she ripped off wins on eight of the next 11 holes to cruise to the title.

   Spotleson reached the final with a 5 and 4 victory over Diane Cardano-Casacio of Cedarbrook Country Club while Long edged Honeybrook clubmate Lisa Day, 2 and 1, in the other semifinal.

   Cardano-Casacio reached the semifinals with a 4 and 3 victory in the quarterfinals over the aforementioned Laughlin-Fulginiti, a WGAP legend out of Riverton Country Club who owns 11 WGAP Match Play Championship titles.

   As the defending champion, Spotleson was exempted into the match-play bracket. Honeybrook’s Day captured medalist honors in qualifying with a 6-over 78.

   Day will be joining Spotleson in the field for the U.S. Senior Women’s Am in Hot Springs, Va. in a couple of weeks after she earned co-medalist honors in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier with a 76 at Tavistock Country Club Aug. 12^th.

   Honeybrook’s Long and Cedarbrook’s Cardano-Casacio finished in a tie for second place in qualifying, each posting an 83.

   Meg Carr of St. Davids Golf Club captured the title in the Senior First Flight with a 6 and 5 victory over Denise Viola of host Trenton.

   Carr edged Susan Simpson of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, 1-up, to reach the final and Viola pulled out a 2-up verdict over Joanne Burke of Riverton in the other semifinal.