Rogowicz rallies to win opening-round match in U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur at Monterey Peninsula on 19th hole

 

   Jackie Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State, staged a rally from 3-down with eight holes to play to pull out a victory over Jessica Mangrobang of Portland, Ore. on the 19^th hole Monday in an opening-round match in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course.

   Rogowicz, coming off a run to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course two years ago, suffering a heartbreaking opening-round loss in 21 holes a year ago at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newtown, Mass.

   Mangrobang, who played college golf at Gonzaga, got the jump on Rogowicz by winning the first and third holes with birdies. When Mangrobang won the 10^th hole with a par, Rogowicz was staring at a three-hole deficit.

   Rogowicz, who plays out of Merion Golf Club, creeped back to 1-down with back-to-back wins with birdies at the 12^th and 13^th holes.

   Rogowicz finally drew even with a win with an eagle at the par-5 18^th hole. A par on the 19^th hole gave Rogowicz a victory and sent her into a round-of-32 match Tuesday morning against former Texas A&M standout Courtney Dow-Rowles of Plano, Texas.

   Dow-Rowles claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Alisa Clark of Naples, Fla. in her opening-round match.

   The winners of Tuesday morning’s second-round matches will turn right around and play a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon. By the end of the day, only eight quarterfinalists will be left standing.

   Two years ago at Stonewall, Rogowicz and Dow-Rowles were two of the three co-medalists in qualifying for match play. Dow-Rowles was knocked off in the opening round of match play by Sarah LeBrun Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion and captain of winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams in 2021 and 2022.

   Dow-Rowles’ explosiveness was on display in the opening round of qualifying for match play at Stonewall when she blitzed the North Course with a sizzling 7-under 64.

   The third co-medalist in qualifying at Stonewall two years ago was former Virginia Tech standout Jessica Spicer of Williamsburg, Va. Like Dow-Rowles, Spicer was an upset victim in the opening round of match play, falling to Kristin Wolfe, a Johnstown native and a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

   Spicer once again got a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play at the Dunes Course, but once again she was an upset victim in the opening round of match play Monday, suffering a 5 and 4 setback at the hands of Australian Kirsty Hodgins-Redner, one of the four survivors of a bulky 12-women playoff for the final four spots in the match-play bracket Monday morning.

   The other qualifying co-medalist, Katherine Zhu, a college standout at California from San Jose, Calif., pulled out a 1-up decision over French woman Alexandra Vilatte Farret, another of the playoff survivors.

   One player who did not survive that 12-for-4 playoff was Isabella DiLisio, who starred scholastically at Mount St. Joseph and collegiately at Notre Dame.

   DiLisio, who plays out of Philadelphia Cricket Club, reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am as a mid-am “rookie” in 2022 at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla.

   There were a couple of interesting opening-round matches Monday, one of which saw Emilia Doran, who was Emilia Migliaccio when she starred at Wake Forest and played on winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams in 2021 and 2022, knock off 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Lauren Greenlief of Oakton, Va., 2 and 1.

   In a meeting of past champions, 2019 winner Ina Kim-Schaad of Jupiter, Fla. pulled out a 1-up decision over 2017 winner Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition to her victory at the Champions Golf Club in Houston in 2017, Chugg fell in the final the following year at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Mo. and again two years ago at Stonewall.

   Kimberly Dinh of Midland, Mich., who defeated Chugg in that final two years ago at Stonewall, lost on the 19^th hole in her opening-round match against Hanley Long of Clarksville, Tenn., a reinstated amateur who was a college standout at Middle Tennessee State.

   Brooke Seay of San Diego, Calif., who helped Stanford capture a national championship in 2022, rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Canadian veteran Shelly Stouffer, the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion.

   Sarah Willis of Easton, Ohio, a collegiate standout at Penn State, suffered a 1-up setback at the hands of Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, Mich., another reinstated amateur who was a collegiate standout at Loyola of Chicago.