Missed the 89th Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship, which wrapped up July 23rd at Valley Brook Country Club in Canonsburg, south of Pittsburgh, but with the U.S. Women’s Amateur teeing off Monday at the Bandon Dunes Resort, it was worth recapping the state women’s amateur.
Hannah Rabb was a four-time PIAA Class AA qualifier at Warrior Run and the Class AA state champion in 2022, but after a strong start to her college career at James Madison, Rabb decided to come home and join the program at Penn State.
Which means the Blue and White will be represented in the U.S. Women’s Amateur when it gets under way Monday at the Bandon Dunes Resort, one of the game’s most popular destinations on the rugged Oregon coast.
That’s because Rabb, playing out of Susquehanna Country Club, outdueled a recent Penn State graduate in Michelle Cox, representing Lehigh Country Club, to capture the title in the 89th Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Valley Brook Country Club.
Rabb’s title in the state women’s am comes with a nice added benefit: A spot in the field for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon.
Rabb matched par in the opening round at Valley Brook with a 72, which left her two shots behind Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus and a four-year standout at Penn State.
Cox always seems to be in contention for the Pennsylvania Women’s Am, but has been unable to capture the title. She matched par in the second round with a 72 and Rabb caught Cox with a 2-under 70 that left the pair tied for the lead going into the final round at 2-under.
And Rabb was simply flawless in the final round, unleashing a four-birdie, no-bogey masterpiece for a 4-under 68 that left her two shots clear of Cox with a 6-under 210 total.
Rabb, who finished in a tie for third place in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship earlier this summer at Lebanon Country Club, made birdies at the second, fifth, eighth and 11th holes. If Cox was waiting for Rabb to make a mistake, it never happened.
Cox closed with a solid 2-under 70, but had to settle for runnerup honors with a 4-under 212 total. She was the only other player to finish under par.
“I just played really solid,” Rabb told the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) website. “I hit a lot of fairways and didn’t miss many irons. It helped to hit it on the green and have good looks at birdie. I made a couple early on, maintained the rest of the round and was lucky enough to be bogey-free.”
Rylie Heflin, winner of the 2023 Pennsylvania Women’s Am title at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown, finished alone in third place at Valley Brook with a 1-over 217 total.
Heflin, playing out of Bidermann Golf Course, was a shot behind Cox following an opening round of 1-under 71 before adding a pair of 1-over 73s in the final two rounds.
Heflin, an Avondale resident who starred scholastically at the Tower Hill School across the border in Delaware, wrapped up her college career at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke in the spring.
Merion Golf Club’s Jackie Rogowicz, a two-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion, shared fourth place with Jericho National Golf Club’s Megan Meng and defending champion Angelina Tolentino of The 1912 Club, each ending up a shot behind Heflin with a 2-over 218 total.
Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State, struggled a little in an opening round of 3-over 75, but bounced back with a 2-under 70 in the second round before closing with a 1-over 73.
Rogowicz is probably gearing up for another run at a U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, which will tee off Oct. 4 at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Rogowicz reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am two summers ago at Stonewall’s North Course, but was knocked out in the opening round of match play last summer at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass.
Not sure if Rogowicz has to qualify for this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and it doesn’t look like any of the qualifiers have been played yet.
Meng is coming off a pretty exciting freshman year of college golf. Although she wasn’t in the lineup for the postseason, Meng, a product of Hopewell Valley Central High School in New Jersey, was a member of Northwestern’s national championship team.
Everybody on the roster of an NCAA champion makes a contribution to that title run and I’m quite certain Meng is a better player for being a part of that gutsy Northwestern team.
Meng matched par in the opening round at Valley Brook with a 72 before adding a pair of 1-over 73s in the final two rounds.
Tolentino, another Jersey girl who starred scholastically at Lenape High, had a pretty memorable freshman season herself. She was in the lineup for a Vanderbilt team that earned a trip to the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. by finishing in fifth place as a four seed in the Lexington Regional in the spring.
Tolentino, who captured the Pennsylvania Women’s Am title a year ago at Waynesborough Country Club, struggled in the opening round with a 4-over 76 at Valley Brook before posting back-to-back 1-under 71s in the final two rounds.
Wildwood Golf Club’s Alyssa Zhang, who finished in third place in the PIAA Class AA Championship as a freshman at Shady Side Academy last fall, was alone in seventh place at Valley Brook with a 7-over 223 total.
Zhang struggled with an 82 in the opening round, but bounced back nicely with a 1-under 71 in the second round and a final round of 2-under 70.
Turned out to be a perfect tuneup for Zhang for the Girls Junior PGA Championship as she survived two cuts at Purdue’s Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind. and finished in a tie for 29th place in the elite field with a 1-over 286 total.
I’ll have more on the Junior PGA Championships, Girls and Boys, at some point this week.
Caroline McConnell, playing out of The Club at Nevillewood, finished a shot behind Zhang in eighth place with an 8-over 224 total.
McConnell, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at South Fayette, bounced back from an opening round of 4-over 76 with a 1-under 71 in the second round before closing with a 5-over 77.
McConnell will be a senior at Bradley this season after starting her college career at Michigan State.
Rhianna Gooneratne, the PIAA Class AAA champion in 2023 as a junior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh, finished a shot behind McConnell in ninth place at Valley Brook with a 9-over 225 total.
Gooneratne, who will join the program at Delaware later this month, added a 1-over 73 in the second round to her opening round of 2-over 74 before closing with a 78.
Gooneratne also has a spot in the field for this week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes, advancing out of a local qualifier at Neshanic Valley Golf Course in Branchburg, N.J.
It will the second USGA championship of the summer for Gooneratne, who teed it up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course in Johns Creek, Ga. last month, but failed to earn a spot in the match-play bracket.
Heading the trio that rounded out the top 10 at Valley Brook in a tie for 10th place at 10-over 226 was Jericho National’s Natasha Kiel, the runnerup to Tolentino in the Pennsylvania Women’s Am a year ago at Waynesborough.
Kiel, a New Hope native and a scholastic standout at the George School, added a 1-over 73 in the second round to her opening round of 6-over 78 before closing with a 3-over 75.
Like Tolentino, Kiel wrapped up her senior season at Big Ten power Purdue at the NCAA Championship at La Costa after she helped the Boilermakers advance out of the Lubbock Regional with a fifth-place finish as a seven seed.
Joining Kiel at 10-over were Allegheny Country Club’s Eva Bulger and Willowbrook Country Club’s Caroline Tragresser.
Bulger, coming off a solid freshman season at Gardner-Webb, opened with a 4-over 76 at Valley Brook before adding back-to-back 3-over 75s in the final two rounds. Bulger was a scholastic standout at Quaker Valley.
Tragresser, who will join the program at Longwood after three successful seasons at Ohio Dominican, matched par in the opening round with a 72, added a 4-over 76 in the second round and finished up with a 5-over 78. Tragresser was a scholastic standout at Franklin Regional.
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