Hiestand storms into U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur final with 48-foot bomb

   It’s what makes championships like the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur so great.

   It is 58-year-old Mary Jane Hiestand, a financial assistant from Naples, Fla., watching her 48-foot birdie putt on the 19^th hole find the bottom of the cup for a birdie that beats Shannon Johnson of Norton, Mass. in a dramatic semifinal match Wednesday at the Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course.

   In her 43^rd start in a USGA event, Hiestand will play for the championship for the very first time. Her opponent Thursday didn’t seem real likely at the beginning of match play either. Kelsey Chugg, 26, a four-time Utah Women’s Amateur champion from Salt Lake City who works for Utah Golf Association, knocked off Marissa Mar, a former Stanford standout, 3 and 1, in the other semifinal.

   But this day belong to Hiestand. Oddly, this championship was originally scheduled to be played in her town at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples. But Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on the Quail Creek layout and Champions stepped up to bring the event to Houston on short notice. Hiestand wasn’t even going to try to qualify for her 22^nd Mid-Am appearance, except it was going to be in Naples, so what the heck.

   Maybe Hiestand puts more pressure on herself playing in front of friends and family in Naples. Maybe sleeping in her own bed creates a whole different vibe than playing on the road. Maybe the Cypress Creek Course at Champions fits her games in ways Quail Creek might not have.

   Hiestand rallied from 3-down to defeat four-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and fellow Floridian Meghan Stasi in Tuesday afternoon’s round of 16. In Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals, she rammed home a six-foot birdie putt on the 19^th hole to defeat Courtney McKim of Raleigh, N.C., a member of Alabama’s 2012 NCAA championship team.

   The 34-year Johnson had lost in the final a year ago to Julia Potter of Indianapolis at The Kahkwa Club in Erie. She had played terrific golf all week in reaching the semifinals. Her 5 and 4 victory over Olivia Herrick of Roseville, Minn. in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals, a rematch of a semifinal showdown at Kahkwa a year ago, was typical of the kind of dominance Johnson had displayed all week.

   And when she holed a six-and-a-half foot putt for par on the 14^th hole to take a 1-up lead, it looked like Johnson was on her way to another final appearance. But Hiestand wasn’t finished.

   Hiestand won the 16^th and 17^th holes with pars to take a 1-up lead. Johnson delivered a 24-foot par putt on the 18^th to send the match to the 19^th hole, the par-4 10^th at the Cypress Creek Course.

   Hiestand knocked her 3-rescue from 184 yards away to the front end of the green. Then came that putt, a sweeping, right-to-left breaker.

   “All I was trying, obviously, to do was get it up there close,” Hiestand told the USGA website of the stunning birdie that put her in the final. “When I ran up toward the top to see it coming down on its line, I thought, oh my gosh, this really could go in.”

   For the first time, the winner of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am will receive an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Open, which will  be held at  Shoal Creek in Alabama next spring. Hiestand has already earned an exemption into next year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of Tennessee in Kingston Springs, Tenn. The loser in Thursday’s final gets a three-year exemption into the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, the winner is in for the next 10 years.

   Like Hiestand, Chugg has played some tremendous golf to earn her spot in the final. The 25-year-old Mar of San Francisco was one of the three qualifying co-medalists with a 2-under 142 total. She had been pulling off come-from-behind victories in her matches all week.

   But Chugg won the ninth hole with a par and the 10^th hole with a birdie to take a 3-up lead and never let Mar get closer than 2-down the rest of the way.

   Earlier Wednesday, Chugg rolled to a 6 and 4 decision over Hayley Hammond of Mooresville, N.C. Mar had to win the last two holes in her quarterfinal match with Amanda Jacobs of Portland, Ore. to send the match to extra holes and then won it on the 19^th.