Terms and conditions

Terms and Conditions of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ Below are the Terms and Conditions for use of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/. Please read these carefully. If you need to contact us regarding any aspect of the following terms of use of our website, please contact us on the following email address - tmacgolf13@gmail.com. By accessing the content of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ ( hereafter referred to as website ) you agree to the terms and conditions set out herein and also accept our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to any of the terms and conditions you should not continue to use the Website and leave immediately. You agree that you shall not use the website for any illegal purposes, and that you will respect all applicable laws and regulations. You agree not to use the website in a way that may impair the performance, corrupt or manipulate the content or information available on the website or reduce the overall functionality of the website. You agree not to compromise the security of the website or attempt to gain access to secured areas of the website or attempt to access any sensitive information you may believe exist on the website or server where it is hosted. You agree to be fully responsible for any claim, expense, losses, liability, costs including legal fees incurred by us arising from any infringement of the terms and conditions in this agreement and to which you will have agreed if you continue to use the website. The reproduction, distribution in any method whether online or offline is strictly prohibited. The work on the website and the images, logos, text and other such information is the property of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ ( unless otherwise stated ). Disclaimer Though we strive to be completely accurate in the information that is presented on our site, and attempt to keep it as up to date as possible, in some cases, some of the information you find on the website may be slightly outdated. www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ reserves the right to make any modifications or corrections to the information you find on the website at any time without notice. Change to the Terms and Conditions of Use We reserve the right to make changes and to revise the above mentioned Terms and Conditions of use. Last Revised: 03-17-2017

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Kupcho, Wake Forest dominate Tar Heel Classic; Walker helps North Carolina finish fourth


   Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho, a senior from Westminster, Colo., already owns an NCAA individual championship, won last spring at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
   She is the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). When she competed in the LPGA Q-Series last fall against pros and amateurs trying to make it to the big leagues of women’s golf, an eight-round marathon over two different courses at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, Kupcho beat everybody except the medalist, Jeong eun Lee6.
   She took up the LPGA’s offer that allowed her to defer acceptance of her tour card until the summer. So why is Kupcho playing this last spring of her college career? Could be a lot of reasons, not the least of which might just be that Kupcho would like to walk at her college graduation and complete her work toward an undergraduate degree.
   But I can’t get over the feeling that Kupcho, much like Duke’s Leona Maguire a year ago, really, really wants to bring a team national championship to Winston-Salem. Because she feels like it would be the best way to repay her former coach, Dianne Daily, a pretty decent LPGA player in her own right back in the day who retired after 30 years at the helm at the end of last season, and all of her teammates, past and present, because Kupcho believes that it is because of them that she has blossomed into an NCAA champion, the best amateur player in the world and a sure-fire LPGA standout.
   If Kupcho and her teammates play the way they did the last two days at the Casa de Campo Resort & Villas’ Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog Course in La Romana in the Dominican Republic in a dominating 19-shot victory in the Tar Heel Classic, hosted by Suzy Whaley, Wake Forest has a realistic shot at delivering on that national championship dream.
   In Kupcho and Emilia Migliacco, a sophomore from Cary, N.C. and No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, the Demon Deacons have the kind of powerful 1-2 punch you need to win a national championship. If Wake Forest can be one of the eight teams still standing after 72 holes of stroke play at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., Kupcho and Migliacco would make the Demon Deacons an awful tough out in match play.
   Kupcho made it obvious that she is just in a different league against a strong field at Casa de Campo. She closed with a 5-under-par 67 over the 6,140-yard, par-72 Teeth of the Dog layout, matching the low round of the day Saturday – Migliacco being the only other 67 shooter in the field – to complete a 14-under 202 tour de force that gave her the individual title, the eighth of her career, by nine shots.
   Kupcho had opened with a 6-under 66 and a 3-under 69 in Friday’s double-round that gave her a three-shot lead.
   With Migliacco matching Kupcho’s 5-under 67, which enabled her to end up in a tie for third at 4-under 212, the Demon Deacons, No. 12 in latest Golfstat rankings, put together a program-record round of 14-under 274, which gave them a program record 22-under 841 total. It was the first tournament victory for Kim Lewellen, who took over for Dailey and is fully aware she is filling some big soft spikes.
   Wake Forest’s Atlantic Coast Conference rival, No. 16 Virginia, closed with a solid 1-over 289 to claim runnerup honors at 4-under 860. Ohio State probably made a pretty good case to get its No. 69 ranking bumped up a bit as the Buckeyes, out of the Big Ten, carded a 1-under 287 in the final round to finish alone in third at 3-over 867.
   It was a big weekend, too, for No. 40 North Carolina. Suzy Whaley, a 1989 North Carolina graduate, became the first woman elected by the PGA of America as its president in November. She put her name on the event and she had an even bigger rooting interest in this North Carolina team because its senior leader, Kelly Whaley, is Suzy Whaley’s daughter.
   But beside all of that, North Carolina arrived in the Dominican Republic needing to right the ship after a last-place finish in last weekend’s Darius Rucker Intercollegiate on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island.
   And with former Radnor standout Brynn Walker delivering one of the best performances of her college career, North Carolina did just that. The Tar Heels finished up with a 6-over 294 Saturday that gave them a fourth-place finish at 6-over 870. They needed a confidence booster and they got it.
   No. 42 Mississippi, out of the powerful Southeastern Conference, posted a 3-over 291 in the final round to finish alone in fifth at 9-over 873, three shots behind the Tar Heels.
   No. 19 Texas Christian, out of the Big 12, carded its second straight 4-over 292 and ended up in sixth place in the 15-team field at 13-over 877.
   Of course, if Wake Forest is to get on a postseason roll, Kupcho and Migliacco will need some help. They got that at Casa de Campo, particularly from Siyun Liu, a freshman from China, who contributed a 2-under 70 to the Demon Deacons’ sizzling team effort in the final round. That left Liu alone in eighth place in the individual standings at 1-under 215.
   The two freshmen, Letizia Bagnoli of Italy and Vanessa Knecht of Switzerland did their bit as well. Bagnoli’s final round of 3-over 75 was a throw-out, but she finished among the group tied for 15th at 3-over 219.
   Knecht bounced back from an 82 in Friday afternoon’s second round to give Wake Forest a fourth under-par round Saturday, a 2-under 70. Knecht finished among the group tied for 32nd at 8-over 224. More importantly, she showed she could put a bad round behind her and keep grinding for the team.
   Ohio State’s Anneka Seumanutafa, a freshman from Emmitsburg, Md., made it a third straight strong performance as her final round of 1-over 73 gave her runnerup honors in the individual standings at 5-under 211, nine shots behind Kupcho. Seumanutafa only joined the Ohio State program at the start of the spring semester.
   Joining Migliacco in the tie for third at 4-under 212 was Virginia’s Beth Lillie, a sophomore from Fullerton, Calif. who finished strong with a 3-under 69.
   Lillie’s teammate, Anna Redding, the Cavaliers’ senior stalwart from Concord, N.C. and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR, headed a group of three players tied for fifth at 3-under 213. Redding, who had matched Kupcho’s opening-round 66, closed with a 2-over 74.
   Joining Redding at 213 were Ole Miss’ Julia Johnson, a sophomore from St. Gabriel, La., and TCU’s Greta Bruner, a junior from Conroe, Texas, both of whom closed with a solid 1-under 71.
   It was certainly an encouraging weekend for Walker, a junior who won a pair of PIAA Class AAA championships at Radnor. Her final round of 2-over 74 left her in the group tied for ninth at 1-over 217. Not sure how many career top-10 finishes Walker, who plays out of St. Davids Golf Club, has had at North Carolina, but this one, against a tough field on a tough golf course, was an important one.
   Ava Bergner, a sophomore from Germany, also had a strong weekend, closing with a second straight even-par 72 that left her alone in 14th place at 2-over 218.
   Kelly Whaley finished up with a 3-over 75 for a 4-over 220 total that left her among the group tied for 18th. Jennifer Zhou, a freshman from China, gave North Carolina four players in the top 20 as her final round of 1-over 73 left her in the group tied for 20th at 221.
   Nichole Liu, a freshman from Taiwan, struggled a little with a throw-out 80 in Saturday’s final round that left her among the group tied for 32nd at 8-over 224. But her rounds of 70 and 74 in Friday’s double-round were both counters for the Tar Heels.




No comments:

Post a Comment