Hume finishes strong to earn five-shot victory in The Sally

    Things were changing so quickly in the final round of last month’s Women’s Dixie Amateur at Palm Aire Country Club in Coral Springs, Fla., it’s not clear if Mississippi junior Ellen Hume ever really knew she had a two-shot lead with six holes to go.

   In the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship – better known as The Sally – which concluded Saturday at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla., Hume, an English woman, entered the final round knowing it was her tournament to win.

   And this time, Hume closed the deal to earn a five-shot victory in the storied stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of amateur events for women in South Florida.

   Bailey Shoemaker, a junior standout from West Edmeston, N.Y., had come into Saturday’s final round trailing Hume by two shots and Shoemaker was still right there, just two shots behind with six holes to play. But Hume shook off the challenge from Shoemaker, a Class of 2023 entry who has already committed to the Southern California program in two years, by finishing with a flourish, making an eagle on the par-5 17^th hole and getting a birdie at the last that gave her a final round of 3-under 69.

   Hume was solid throughout, carding a 1-under 71 in Wednesday’s opening round, matching par in Thursday’s second round with a 72 and adding another 71 in Friday’s third round for a 2-under 214 total after 54 holes. Shoemaker got off to a great start, adding a 2-under 70 to an opening round of 3-under 69 that had her leading the way before she fell back to even-par 216 with a 5-over 77 in the third round.

   Hume’s final-round 69 in some typically tricky Florida winds enabled her to finish with a 5-under 283 total. Hume was the only player to finish in red figures for the tournament. Shoemaker matched par in the final round with a 72 to earn runnerup honors at even-par 288.

   Unlike a lot of college programs in the fall, Ole Miss got to play a little golf. Hume was the co-medalist in qualifying for match play in one of the few big events that did get played, the East Lake Cup, held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in early November.

   Hume then helped Ole Miss capture the team title as she rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over South Carolina post-grad Pimnipa Panthong, who had starred at Kent State as an undergrad, in Ole Miss’ 3-2 victory in the final over the Gamecocks.

   Hume settled for a runnerup finish in the Women’s Dixie Amateur as Canadian Brigitte Thibault, a Fresno State senior, blew by everybody with a back-nine surge at Palm Aire. Bottom line, though, is that Hume has been playing some good golf and Saturday she got the payoff with a victory and the trophy that goes with it.

   “It’s definitely a tough course, so I’m very happy,” Hume told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “The Sally is a massive tournament and I’m really glad to win it.”

   Hume started slowly in Saturday’s final round and was 2-over for the day after making bogeys at the first and third holes, a birdie at six and another bogey at seven. But birdies at the eighth and 11^th holes got Hume back on track and set the stage for that final salvo on the last two holes.

   Xin “Cindy” Kou, a native of China who plans to join the Southern Cal program at the end of the summer, also matched par in the final round with a 72 and finished a shot behind Shoemaker at 1-over 289. Kou got into contention with a sparkling 4-under 68 in Thursday’s second round.

   Kou was the runnerup in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the premier event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) calendar, over the Thanksgiving weekend at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Kou went toe-to-toe with the eventual winner, Rose Zhang, the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), down the stretch at PGA National.

   Duke junior Gina Kim, coming off a victory in last week’s Harder Hall Invitational at Harder Hall Golf Club in Sebring, Fla., closed with a 1-over 73 to finish two shots behind Kou in fourth place at 3-over 291.

   Kim, No. 40 in the Women’s WAGR, is one of the prospects invited to audition for the U.S. Curtis Cup team later this month at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla., which I addressed at some length in a Saturday post. Kim was a key contributor as a freshman to the Blue Devils’ run to the NCAA crown in 2019 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.

   Helen Tamy Kreuzer, a senior at Division II power Lynn in Boca Raton, Fla. from Germany, was another shot behind Kim in fifth place at 4-over 292 after matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Karoline Tuttle, one of a seemingly endless supply of talented junior players in South Florida, finished a shot behind Kreuzer in sixth place at 5-over 291. Tuttle, a Lake May, Fla. resident who plans to join the Florida program in the summer of 2022, was only two shots behind Hume through three rounds at even-par 216, but struggled a little in a final-round 77.

   Therese Warner, a sophomore at Arizona from Kennewick, Wash., was a shot behind Tuttle in seventh place with a 6-over 294. Warner struggled to an 80 in Thursday’s second round, but bounced back with a 4-under 68 in Friday’s third before closing with a 1-over 73.

   It was another pretty impressive performance in an open event for Warren, Ohio seventh-grader Gianna Clemente, who  struggled in the final round with an 80, but still finished alone in 13^th place at 11-over 299. Clemente, who punched her ticket to the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. as an 11-year-old, sandwiched a 1-under 71 in Thursday’s second round with a pair of 74s in the first and third rounds and was just 3-over going into the final round.

   Clemente finished in a tie for fifth place in last month’s Dixie Women’s Amateur at Palm Aire.

   A couple more of the group of 12 players invited to audition for the U.S. Curtis Cup team later this month at Lake Nona, Louisville fifth-year player Lauren Hartlage of Elizabethtown, Ky. and No. 70 in the Women’s WAGR and Wake Forest senior Emilia Migliaccio of Cary, N.C. and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR were also in the field at Oceanside.

   Hartlage closed with a 1-over 73 and finished among the group tied for 14^th place, a shot behind Clemente, at 300. Migliaccio, who won The Sally in 2018 and finished in third place a year ago, struggled at Oceanside, closing with a 78 that left her in a tie for 33^rd place at 307.

   Katie Li, the reigning New Jersey Junior Girls’ champion from Basking Ridge, N.J., finished in a tie for 57^th place at 317. Li, who finished in a tie for 31^st place in the Women’s Dixie Amateur at Palm Aire last month, got off to a strong start, following up an opening-round 76 with a 78 before struggling to an 82 in the third round and closing with an 81.

   Denise Callahan, a senior standout from Canon, Ohio, cruised to a seven-shot victory in the Rockefeller Division with a 325 total. Callahan was well down the leaderboard at the halfway point after adding an 87 to her opening-round 82. But Callahan found her groove in the in the final two rounds, firing a 3-over 75 in Friday’s third round before closing with a final-round 81.

   Debbie Friede of Washougal, Wash., who had grabbed the lead with an opening-round 77, closed with an 83 to earn runnerup honors at 332.

   Liz Haines, the ageless Merion Golf Club member, closed with an 87 to finish in a tie for third place at 334, two shots behind Friede. The 70-something Haines had opened with a solid 81 before posting a pair of 83s in the middle two rounds. Haines, the runnerup in the 2004 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, finished in ninth place in the Forever 49 Division in last week’s Harder Hall Invitational in Sebring.

Haines was joined at 334 by Christine Hunt of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Hunt had sandwiched a solid 79 in Thursday’s second round with a pair of 82s in the first and third rounds before struggling to a final-round 91.