Last month’s British Amateur championships, both men’s and
women’s, were won by players from … the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Wait a minute, are you talking about my men’s basketball
brackets? No, it’s July, not March. Harry Ellis, a senior at Florida State, and
Leona Maguire, a senior at Duke, were crowned as champions last month. No,
they’re not Americans, only as Americanized as you get from spending three
years in the ACC.
In the case of Maguire, it’s hardly a surprise. The native
of County Cavan in Ireland, Maguire has been the No. 1 player in the Women’s
World Golf Ranking for most of the last two years.
She was dominant in capturing the final of the Ladies’
British Open Amateur Championship at the Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club in Wales against
her Southeast Conference foe, Spain’s Ainhoa Olarra, a junior at South
Carolina, 3 and 2. No word if Olarra was bragging about the Gamecocks’ stunning
upset of the Dookies on their surprising run to the Final Four.
Maguire recently received the ANNIKA Award, which goes to
the top player in women’s Division I golf, for the second time in her three
years at Duke. She won the ACC individual crown while leading the Blue Devils
to the team championship.
Thriving in the miserable conditions that beset the NCAA
Championship at Rich Harvest Farms, Maguire finished tied for second. Olarra
finished tied for 10th at Rich Harvest Farms.
Maguire, proudly sporting her Duke shirt and hat, birdied
five of the first 11 holes to take a 3-up lead in the final. She stretched her
lead to 4-up when she won the 12th with a par, but Olarra battled
back to cut the deficit to 2-down. But Olarra had fallen into too deep a hole
to climb out of and Maguire closed out Olarra by winning the 16th
with a par.
A year ago at Woburn Golf & Country Club, Maguire was
the Smyth Salver winner as the low amateur at the Ricoh British Women’s Open,
finishing tied for 25th. The win at the Ladies’ British Open Amateur
Championship earns her a return trip to the Ricoh British Women’s Open, which
will be contested beginning Aug. 3 at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Scotland and if
there was ever an amateur golfer capable of winning a major professional
championship, Maguire, particularly if the weather turns bad in Scotland, is
the one.
A week later at Royal St. George’s Golf Club, Ellis rallied
from 4-down with five holes to go to claim The Amateur Championship on the 38th
hole against Australian Dylan Perry.
Ellis, a senior from England, helped the Seminoles reach the
NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms, although they failed to make the final
eight for match play.
The scheduled 36-hole final was all square after the morning
18 holes, but Perry took control on the front nine in the afternoon, building a
4-up lead through the 27th hole that he still had through 31 holes.
Ellis’ drive on the 32nd was inches from
finishing out of bounds, but a scrambling par won the hole and suddenly he was
back in the match. He won the 34th and 35th holes to
reach the 36th hole 1-down. When Perry missed a 10-footer for par on
the 36th hole, the match was right back where it started, all
square.
A double bogey by Perry on the 38th hole opened
the door and Ellis won the hole and the match. The British Amateur champion is
traditionally invited to tee it up in the Masters and Ellis knew exactly what
the drive is from Tallahassee Fla., to Augusta, Ga.: Four-and-a-half hours.
Three Americans made it into match play at Royal St.
George’s with Texas Tech’s Hayden Springer, a junior from Trophy Club, Texas,
reaching the round of 16 before falling on the 19th hole to Perry,
the eventual runnerup.
Keeping up with the ACC theme, in the third round of match
play, Jimmy Stanger, the ACC champion as a senior at Virginia this spring, fell
to Paul McBride, a senior at Wake Forest from Ireland, in a barnburner that
went to the 20th hole.
Stanger of Tampa, Fla., has been one of the top players in
college golf the last couple of years and is trying to make his case for
inclusion on the U.S. side for the Walker Cup Match that will be played at Los
Angeles Country Club in September. The victory at Royal St. George’s for Ellis
makes it almost a certainty he will represent Great Britain & Ireland at
L.A. Country Club.
Mississippi’s Josh Seiple, a redshirt junior from Castle
Rock, Colo., also fell in the third round of match play, suffering a 6 and 5
setback at the hands of Ellis, the
eventual champion.
Penn State senior Cole Miller, a former Northwestern Lehigh
standout, was invited to Royal St. George’s as a result of his individual win
in the NCAA Washington Regional and couldn’t pass it up. He missed match play
with rounds of 71 and 72 in qualifying for a solid 1-over 143 total. It took a
1-under 141 score to make match play.
I’m guessing it’s an experience he’ll treasure for some time
to come.
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