Jackie Rogowicz, a scholastic standout at Pennsbury who starred collegiately at Penn State, saw her run in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship halted Tuesday with a loss in the second round of match play at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.
Rogowicz, a Yardley resident who plays out of Merion Golf Club, fell to former Texas A&M standout Courtney Dow-Rowles, who rattled off three straight birdies on the incoming nine at the Dunes Course to take control of the match on her way to a 2 and 1 victory.
Rogowicz and Dow-Rowles were two of the three co-medalists in qualifying for match play when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am was staged at Stonewall’s North Course two years ago. Rogowicz made a stirring run to the semifinals at Stonewall while Dow-Rowles was an upset victim in the opening round of match play.
Rogowicz, who finished in a tie for fourth place in the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Valley Brook Country Club in Canonsburg in July, got the jump on Dow-Rowles, winning with birdies at the fourth and eighth holes to take a 2-up lead.
Dow-Rowles fought back, getting even in the match by taking the ninth hole with a birdie and the 10th with a par. Rogowicz again put a nose in front when she won the 12th hole with a birdie.
That’s when Dow-Rowles unleashed a birdie barrage, rattling off consecutive wins at the 13th, 14th and 15th holes, all with birdies, to surge to a 2-up lead. When the pair halved the 17th hole with pars, it was over.
Dow-Rowles saw her bid to earn a spot in the quarterfinals come up short Tuesday afternoon as she suffered a 3 and 2 setback at the hands of France’s Justine Fournand, whose college journey included stops at Florida Atlantic, South Carolina and Mississippi.
Fournand’s quarterfinal opponent will be Hanley Long of Clarksville, Tenn., a reinstated amateur who was a college standout at Middle Tennessee State.
Long pulled off a bit of an upset by rallying from a 2-down deficit with seven holes to play to knock off Brooke Seay of San Diego, Calif., a member of Stanford’s 2022 national championship team, in 19 holes.
Emilia Doran was Emilia Migliaccio when she played on winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and again at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in 2022.
After deciding not to go the route of professional golf and instead concentrate on a career in the media, Doran came back for a sixth year at Wake Forest and, as a graduate student, helped the Demon Deacons capture the program’s first national championship in 2023.
When she showed up at Monterey Peninsula as a mid-am this year, Doran was an obvious favorite.
And Doran has delivered. She rolled to a 4 and 3 decision over two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Shannon Johnson of North Easton, Mass. Tuesday to earn a spot in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals.
Johnson claimed her first U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at The Kahkwa Club in Erie in 2016 and captured the title again two years later at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Mo.
Earlier in the day, Doran cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over Catherine McEvoy of Riverside, Conn.
Doran will face a formidable challenge in the quarterfinals when she takes on Katherine Zhu, one of the co-medalists in qualifying for match play at Monterey Peninsula.
Zhu, a San Jose, Calif. resident who played college golf at California, was also a 4 and 3 winner in Tuesday afternoon’s round of 16 over Kate Granahan of Mountain Lakes, N.J., an Allentown native who played college golf at Penn State after making the team as a walk-on.
Another former champion, Ina Kim-Schaad of Jupiter, Fla., the winner in 2019 at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Ariz., moved into the quarterfinals with a 3 and 2 round-of-16 victory over Laura Bavaird of Trenton, Mich.
Earlier in the day, Kim-Schaad eliminated another former champion with a 2 and 1 decision over Blakesley Brock of Chattanooga, Tenn., the winner in 2021 at the Berkely Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C.
In other battle between past champions in Monday’s opening round, Kim-Schaad outlasted Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, the 2017 champion at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas and the runnerup to Johnson in 2018 at Norwood Hills and a beaten finalist two years ago at Stonewall, with a 1-up victory.
Kim-Schaad’s quarterfinal opponent will be another mid-am “rookie” in Jennifer Wang of Menlo Park, Calif. who was a college standout in the Ivy League at Columbia.
Wang earned her spot in the quarterfinals with a 2 and 1 victory over Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, Mich. in a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon.
If Doran and Kim-Schaad can get past their quarterfinal opponents, it would set up a fascinating showdown in Wednesday afternoon’s semifinals.
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