It takes 40 holes, but Perrotta is crowned Philadelphia Women's Amateur champion at Old York Road

   Samantha Perrotta is used to battling, so suffering a 12 and 11 setback to Brynn Walker in the final of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship a year ago was a minor hurdle.

   After all, Walker was a fixture in the starting lineup for three seasons at North Carolina and was playing on her home course at St. Davids Golf Club. Pretty sure Walker is preparing to make her professional debut sometime in this crazy coronavirus summer of 2020, if she hasn’t already.

   And just getting to the final in the Philadelphia Women’s Amateur is an accomplishment in itself. So when Perrotta, who plays out of Old York Country Club at Chesterfield in New Jersey, found herself 4-down with 10 holes to go in this year’s final to Overbrook Golf Club’s Alyssa Roland at Old York Road Country Club in Ambler Thursday, she did what she does best … kept battling.

   A Google search on Perrotta includes a New Jersey Golf Association article on her life-long struggle with autism. It is a fight that seems to have instilled in her an ability to keep moving forward, no matter what.

   Perrotta won four of the next seven holes against Roland, evening the match when she won the 15^th hole. The two then halved the next six holes, the regulation 36-hole final going to a 37^th, a 38^th, a 39^th hole and, finally, a 40^th, before Perrotta got what she came for.

   Her name would be inscribed on the Glenna Collett Vare Cup, alongside all the greats who have played in this championship over the years.

   Roland began the week by claiming medalist honors in qualifying for match play Monday with a solid 4-over-par 76 over the par-72 Old York Road layout.

   And she appeared well on her way to a Philadelphia Women’s Amateur crown after she turned a 1-up advantage at the end of the morning round of the scheduled 36-hole final into a 4-up lead with wins on the first, fourth and eighth holes.

   The last time I came across Roland, she had qualified for match play in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at the Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston. At that time, Roland was living and working in New York City, but still playing a lot of weekend golf at Overbrook, where she had learned the game growing up.

   Roland had fallen 1-down when Perrotta won the sixth hole in the morning round. The two then grinded their way through nine straight halved holes before Roland turned her deficit into a 1-up advantage by taking the 16^th and 17^th holes. Roland then surged to that 4-up advantage with a fast start to her afternoon round.

   Roland had Perrotta down, but not out. Perrotta picked up wins at the ninth, 11^th, 12^th and 15^th holes to claw all the way back to even, setting the stage for her heroics on the 40^th hole.

   Perrotta reached the final with a 3 and 2 victory over Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Cassidy Gavaghan in Wednesday afternoon’s semifinals. Roland advanced with a 4 and 3 win over Merion Golf Club’s Catherine Elliott-Powell, a friend and rival from their junior days.

   Elliott-Powell, who starred scholastically at the Academy of Notre Dame and collegiately at Penn, qualified for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am for the third straight time last year and finally got over the hump, earning a spot in the match-play bracket for the first time and winning a match at Forest Highlands Golf Club’s Meadows Course in Flagstaff, Ariz.

   Perrotta had another tough battle on her hands in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals as she edged Commonwealth National Golf Club’s Karen Siegel on the 19^th hole. Siegel, an assistant coach on the women’s team at Penn, her alma mater, qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last year.

   Roland cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over Allie Robertson of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve in her quarterfinal match.

   Perrotta began her road to the championship with a 6 and 5 victory over Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Alison Shoemaker in Tuesday’s opening round of match play. Roland had her closest call in her opening-round match, needing 20 holes to get past Angia Coleman of DuPont Country Club.

   Another RiverCrest entry, Suzi Spotleson, the 2015 Philadelphia Women’s Amateur champion, was the runnerup to Roland in Monday’s qualifying with a 5-over 77.

   Spotleson also represented the Philadelphia area in last year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Cedar Rapids, reaching the second round of match play before bowing out. Spotleson was ousted at Old York Road in the quarterfinals as Gavaghan claimed a 3 and 2 victory over her.

    Perrotta’s 6-over 78 left her in third place in qualifying.

   Radley Run Country Club’s Kate Evanko finished fourth with a 79. Evanko, a former Unionville standout, saw her college career at Georgetown come to a premature end because of the pandemic this spring. Evanko dropped a 1-up decision to Elliott-Powell in a hard-fought quarterfinal match.

    Elliott-Powell, Siegel and Gavaghan shared fifth place in qualifying, each carding an 80. RiverCrest’s Robertson was alone in eighth place with an 82.

   Rounding out the top 10 were two Merion members, 70-something Liz Haines and Episcopal Academy senior Lauren Jones, both of whom signed for an 83.

   Haines qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, an event in which she was the runnerup in 2004, most recently in 2018 at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla. at age 70.

   Jones, who lost her junior season at Episcopal to the pandemic this spring, was coming off a tie for 27^th place in the Junior North & South Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in North Carolina.

   RiverCrest’s Robertson ousted Haines with a 6 and 5 victory in the opening round while Jones went the distance before Huntingdon Valley’s Gavaghan edged her, 1-up, in another opening-round match.

    Applecross Country Club’s Liddie McCook, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a junior at  Downingtown East in 2017, dominated the First Flight, capturing the title with a 7 and 5 victory over Manufacturers Golf & Country Club’s Tracy Albertelli.

   McCook, whose freshman season at Monmouth was cut short by the pandemic this spring, reached the final with a 7 and 6 victory over Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Ellen Miller. Albertelli advanced to the First Flight title match with a 3 and 2 win over the ageless Bonnie George of Philmont Country Club.