Merion's Elliott earns return trip to U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur in qualifier at Brookside

   Like so many players that get a chance to participate in a United States Golf Association event, Merion Golf Club’s Catherine Elliott thoroughly enjoyed her experience in last November’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston.

   And she’s happy she’ll get another chance to compete in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am after turning around a ho-hum round with a solid back nine in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier Tuesday at Brookside Country Club in Macungie, Lehigh County.

   Last year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Am turned into quite an adventure when Hurricane Irma inundated the planned site for the event, Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla., and left the course unplayable. Champions, despite still being in recovery mode from taking a hit from Hurricane Harvey, stepped up to the plate and the event was rescheduled for a month later.

   None of which ruined the experience for the 30-year-old Elliott, a scholastic standout at the Academy of Notre Dame and a member of Penn’s 2010 Ivy League championship team. She is getting married in October and worried that she hadn’t been playing enough to be able to make it through the qualifying.

   This year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur will tee off Sept. 27 at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis. Hopefully, the Midwest won’t be in the path of any hurricanes this fall.

   By the way, Elliott’s first shot in a USGA championship also came in St. Louis when she teed it up in the 2009 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Old Warson Country Club in the summer before her senior year at Penn.

   Elliott, a key member of Merion’s top entry in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Inter-Club Team Matches that won the Philadelphia Cup for the 70^th time this spring, failed to make it to match play at Champions last fall and, as in any USGA championship, getting into match play will be her goal at Norwood Hills.

   Elliott carded a 42 on the front nine Tuesday over the 5,663-yard, par-72 Brookside layout and didn’t like her chances at grabbing one of the three tickets to the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur that were available. But she found her putting stroke in a back-nine 37 and her 79 was good for third place and a spot in the field at Norwood Hills.

   “I had a shaky front nine because I wasn’t really trusting it,” Elllott told the GAP website. “Then I birdied No. 10, which got the back nine off to a good start. I just hung in there and was starting to feel more confidence. I started trusting the lines with my short putts, making more confident strokes.”

   The qualifying medal went to a former Brookside member who got married this year and relocated to Jersey City, N.J. The 32-year-old Mary Hajjar earned her sixth straight trip to the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am.

   And she did it in impressive fashion with six birdies on a course she still considers her home course for a 1-under 71, her first competitive sub-par round.

   A Bucknell product, Hajjar is a vice president in Goldman Sachs’ operations department. And, obviously, a pretty nice player.

   Britny Whitby of Wyoming, Del. finished second with a solid 1-over 73 to also punch her ticket to Norwood Hills.

   The 28-year-old Whitby had husband Jay, one of the top amateur players in Delaware out of Wild Quail Golf & Country Club, on the bag a day after Britny Whitby looped for Jay Whitby in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship qualifier at Cedarbrook Country Club.

   Meghan Perry of Wilmington, Del. is the first alternate as she finished fourth with an 81 and Keely Levins of Stamford, Conn. is the second alternate as she was fifth with an 83.