The strength of the Division I women’s golf scene was on
display in last month’s Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Hillside
Golf Club in Southport, England as Leonie Harm, a senior at Houston, became the
first player from Germany to capture the title in the event’s 125-year history.
Harm had to run a gauntlet of Big Ten players, finishing it
off with a 3 and 2 victory over Northwestern’s Stephanie Lau in in the final,
to claim one of the most prestigious titles in women’s amateur golf.
The 20-year-old Harm knocked off the Big Ten champion, Ohio
State’s Jaclyn Lee, a senior from Canada, in the semifinals to earn her shot at
the title. Lee finished tied for fifth in the individual standings in the NCAA
Championship at Karsten Creek Golf Club this spring. In the quarterfinals, Harm
had to take out a Hoosier, Indiana sophomore Priscilla Schmid, who holds dual
citizenship in Switzerland and Uruguay, 4 and 3.
Lau, a senior from Fullerton, Calif., has been a key player
for a Northwestern program that has become a perennial national power. The
Wildcats have been one of the eight teams to reach match play in the NCAA
Championship each of the last two springs and made it all the way to the Final
Match in 2017 at Rich Harvest Farms, not far from Northwestern’s Chicago home
in Sugar Grove, Ill., before they finally fell to Arizona State.
Lau knocked off the local favorite, Holly Muse, an
18-year-old from Liverpool, 5 and 4, in the other semifinal.
In the title match, Harm grabbed a 2-up lead by winning the
third and fifth holes with pars. Lau bounced back by taking five and six with
birdies, but bogeys at the seventh and ninth holes again put her in a 2-down
hole.
Harm extended her advantage to 3-up by winning the 10th
hole. Her lead was trimmed to 2-up when Lau won the 14th hole, but
Harm closed out the match by holing an eight-footer for par to win the 16th
hole.
Harm, who moved from No. 33 in the Women’s World Amateur
Golf Ranking to 19th after the win, earns the Pam Barton Memorial
Salver while Lau takes home The Diana Fishwick Cup.
The toughest part of Harm’s road to the Ladies’ British Open
Amateur title might have come in the first two rounds of match play when she
survived a pair of challenges that went to extra holes.
In the opening round, Harm edged Spain’s Teresa Diez
Moliner, a sophomore at Augusta, on the 19th hole and then needed 20
holes to get past Swedish phenom Frida Kinhault, a star recruit at Florida
State, in the second round.
Harm then cruised to a 6 and 5 win over countrywoman Aline
Krauter, who will join the powerhouse Stanford program later this summer, in
the third round before embarking on the Big 10 portion of her journey.
Another German, Ava Bergner, coming off an outstanding
freshman campaign at North Carolina, survived what appears to have been a bulky
13-for-six playoff to get into match play after carding a 3-over 147 total in
qualifying.
Seeded 64th, Bergner proceeded to knock off
top-seeded Swede Elin Esborn, a redshirt sophomore at Florida, in 20 holes in
the opening round of match play.
Esborn shared medalist honors in qualifying with another
German woman, Esther Henseleit, and Frenchwoman Elodie Chpaelet, a redshirt
junior at Lamar, as they were the only players to finish under par for two
rounds at Hillside at 1-under 143.
Esborn added a solid 2-under 70 to her opening-round 73,
Henseleit opened with a 70 and added a 73 and Chapelet fired a sizzling 4-under
68 in the opening round before sliding back with a 75.
Harm and Lau were among the group tied for 11th
in qualifying, the eventual finalists each landing on 3-over 147.
A week earlier another American collegian with some serious
golf bloodlines, South African Jovan Rebula, a junior at Auburn, captured The
Amateur Championship with a 3 and 2 victory over Ireland’s Robin Dawson in the
scheduled 36-hole final at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in Scotland.
Rebula is the nephew of two-time – as the Royal &
Ancient website calls it – Champion Golfer of the Year Ernie Els. That means
he’s won the British Open twice, but you knew that.
Rebula also was a key player on an Auburn team that rode the
momentum of a dramatic victory over cross-state rival Alabama in the Southeast
Conference’s match-play final all the way to the semifinals of the NCAA
Championship before the Tigers were finally halted by eventual national
champion Oklahoma State playing on its home course, Karsten Creek Golf Club.
Rebula, the first South African to claim The Amateur
Championship since Bobby Cole did it in 1966 at Carnoustie, got the jump on
Dawson, the No. 10 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), by making a
birdie on the par-5 sixth hole and never trailed.
Rebula took advantage of bogeys by Dawson, coming off a
victory in the Irish Open Amateur Championship at Royal County Down in May, on
the next two holes to build a 3-up lead. Dawson eventually cut his deficit to
just 1-down after the morning 18 holes.
But Rebula quickly rebuilt his 3-up advantage and then took
command of the match by winning the 26th hole and then draining a
25-foot birdie putt on the 27th hole to take a 5-up lead with nine
holes remaining.
Rebula opened his match-play journey with a 2 and 1 win over
Billy McKenzie of England. He pulled out a couple of close wins in the next two
rounds, needing 19 holes to edge countryman Malcolm Mitchell and going an extra
hole again in a tight round-of-16 victory over Ben Hutchinson of England.
Rebula claimed a 2 and 1 win over Tom Sloman of England in
the quarterfinals and then rolled into the final on the strength of a 6 and 4
victory over another Englishman, Mitch Waite.
The other semifinal was an all-Irish affair as Dawson
advanced to the final with a 3 and 2 victory over countryman Connor Parcell.
The qualifying medalist was another South African, teen
Wilco Nienaber, who opened with a 4-under 66 at the nearby Murcar Links Golf
Club and adding a 4-under 67 at Royal Aberdeen for an 8-under 133 total.
Nienaber reportedly plans to play college golf in the United States and is
being enthusiastically pursued by several top programs.
Nienaber finished two shots ahead of Viktor Hovland, the
Norwegian who helped Oklahoma State capture the NCAA Championship (including a
4 and 3 win over Auburn’s Rebula in the Cowboys’ semifinal win). Hovland, No. 4
in the WAGR, opened with a 70 at Royal Aberdeen and added a 5-under 65 at
Murcar Links for a 6-under 135 total.
Just as was the case with the finalists in the Ladies’
British Open Amateur Championship, Rebula and Dawson, the ultimate finalists,
landed on the same number in qualifying as they were among the group tied for
11th at 3-over 144.
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