Cleary is clearly the best, winning Pennsylvania Women's Amateur at Sunnybrook by 16 shots

    All things considered, Jennifer Cleary would rather have been in Rye, N.Y.  last week, playing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

   Cleary, a sophomore at Virginia, couldn’t earn a spot in the field at Westchester Country Club, so instead she teed it up in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 85^th Women’s Amateur Championship at Sunnybrook Golf Club, site of the 1978 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

   Cleary is a Wilmington, Del. native and a product of Tower Hill. She has always maintained a membership at Applecross Country Club to get her into Pennsylvania events.

   She was more than ready to begin her college career with the Cavaliers a year ago, but, with the coronavirus rampaging, the Atlantic Coast Conference wouldn’t allow its players to compete in the fall. When Virginia finally started playing after the dawn of 2021, Cleary played wonderfully and Virginia was solid all spring, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Columbus Regional.

   The run ended there, though, as Virginia was unable to advance to the NCAA Championship. Have a feeling Cleary and her Virginia teammates plan to change that outcome in the wraparound 2021-2022 season.

   Cleary certainly put on a show at Sunnybrook as she broke the competitive course record – pretty sure we’re talking about the women’s course record -- with an opening round of 4-under 69 Monday over a Sunnybrook layout that plays to a par of 73 for women, lowered that record with her sizzling 6-under 67 in Tuesday’s second round and closed with a 2-under 71 in Wednesday’s final round for a 12-under 207 total.

   It was one of those deals in which the rest of the field had to be wondering if Cleary was playing the same golf course that they were playing. Isabella Dilisio, playing out of Philadelphia Cricket Club, was the runnerup with a 223 total, a whopping 16 shots behind Cleary, and Rylie Heflin, playing out of Hartefeld National Golf Club, took third place, another two shots behind Dliisio and 18 behind her former Tower Hill teammate at 6-over 225.

   Cleary slowly figured out a Sunnybrook layout she had never played before as the week wore on. She needed eight birdies to offset four bogeys in her opening-round 69.

   Cleary ripped off five birdies, had an eagle on the par-5 14^th hole and just one bogey in the spectacular second-round 67. Admitting she didn’t have her best stuff in the final round, Cleary still made three birdies and didn’t have a bogey until the final hole, long after the outcome had been decided.

   “I putted really well,” Cleary told the PAGA website. “The greens are tough, a lot of slope and fast. I think I’m pretty good at reading putts. I think I just putt hard greens well.”

   Dilisio had won the 2013 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a junior at Mount St. Joseph and captured the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur crown in 2014, the summer before her senior year at the Mount, when it was still contested at match play. DiLisio was a standout for four years at Notre Dame.

   Dilisio only trailed Cleary by three shots when Dilisio opened with a 1-under 72. She matched par with a 73 in the second round, but lost ground to Cleary’s 67. Dilisio closed with a 78 to finish at 4-over.

   Heflin will be her former Tower Hill teammate’s rival in college as Heflin will join ACC powerhouse Duke in a couple of weeks. The Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ champion in 2018, Heflin matched par in the opening round with a 73 before adding a pair of 76s to nail down third place at 6-over.

   Youngstown State sophomore Madie Smithco, playing out of Sewickley Heights Golf Club, finished in fourth place with an 8-over 227 total. Smithco, who won back-to-back PIAA Class AA crowns in 2017 and 2018 at North Catholic, closed with a solid 1-over 74 after adding a 78 to her opening-round 75.

   Merion Golf Club’s Kaitlyn Lees, a three-time Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ champion, closed with a 1-over 74 to finish alone in fifth place with a 230 total. Lees, a three-time Inter-Ac League individual champion at Agnes Irwin, is listed as a senior at Georgetown, although I’m pretty sure she has two years of eligibility left. Lees started her college journey at Dartmouth, but the Ivy League school dropped the women’s golf program in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

   Lees opened with a 79 before adding a 4-over 77 in Tuesday’s second round.

   French Creek Golf Club’s Stefania Fedun, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Owen J. Roberts last fall, finished up with a 3-over 76 to end up alone in sixth place with a 232 total. Fedun opened with a 77 before adding a 79 in the second round.

   Michelle Cox of Lehigh Country Club and Liddie McCook of Applecross, shared seventh place, each ending up at 236.

   Cox, winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship in June at Lebanon Country Club, sandwiched an 80 in Tuesday’s second round with a pair of 78s. Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus, will join the Penn State program later this month.

   McCook a junior at Monmouth, bounced back from an opening-round 84 with a 77 in Tuesday’s second before closing with a solid 2-over 75. McCook was the PIAA Class AAA runnerup in 2017 as a junior at Downingtown East.

   Jade Gu, a former Pennsbury standout who lost in a playoff to Cox in the state Junior Girls at Lebanon in June, was another two shots behind Cox and McCook in ninth place with a 238 total. Gu, who reached the second round of match play in last month’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md., added an 81 to her opening-round 80 before finishing up with a 77.

   Rounding out the top 10 were Oakmont Country Club’s Jessica Meyers and Carlisle Country Club’s McKylie Boreman, both of whom landed on 239 to finish in a tie for 10^th place.

   Meyers, a former Oakland Catholic standout who is a junior at Notre Dame, opened with a 79 and added an 82 before finishing up with a 78. Boreman, a sophomore at Alvernia who starred scholastically at Red Land, bounced back from an opening-round 86 with a 2-over 75 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 78.

   Katie Miller Gee of Green Oaks Country Club dominated the Mid-Amateur Division, a 36-hole event that wrapped up Tuesday. Miller Gee is a fixture at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and reached the quarterfinals the last time the tournament was conducted in 2019 at Forest Highlands Golf Club’s Meadows Course in Flagstaff, Ariz. before falling to four-time champion Meghan Stasi, a South Jersey native.

   Miller Gee, who married Oakmont head pro Devin Gee in the last year or so, added a solid 2-under 71 to her opening-round 75 for an even-par 146 total. Miller Gee was a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area and starred collegiately at North Carolina.

   Northampton Country Club’s Katrin Wolfe, once a scholastic rival of Miller Gee’s, only trailed the winner by a shot after an opening-round 76, but fell back with an 80 in the second round as she earned runnerup honors with a 156 total, 10 shots behind Miller Gee.

   Wolfe, who played college golf at Penn State, was named a Mid-Atlantic field staff representative for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) in the spring.

   Merion’s Catherine Elliott, who starred scholastically at Notre Dame and collegiately at Penn, finished in a tie for third place with Molly Gorman of Wyoming Valley Country Club.

   Elliott, who reached the second round of match play in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Forest Highlands, added a 78 to her opening-round 80. Gorman opened with an 81 before adding a 77.

   The pandemic forced the 2020 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am to be cancelled, but there will be a national championship for the women mid-ams this year in September at the Berkeley Hill Club’s North Course in Bluffton, S.C. Miller Gee’s run to the quarterfinals in 2019 at Forest Highlands might make her exempt into this year’s championship.

   While watching her course record fall to Cleary, Sunnybrook’s Lisa McGill rolled to a seven-shot victory in the Senior Division, which also wrapped up Tuesday, as she added a 2-over 75 to her opening-round 77 for a 6-over 152 total.

   McGill has made a couple of nice runs in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship in recent years, reaching the quarterfinals in 2017 at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore. and the round of 16 in 2018 at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla.

   Suzi Spotleson of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve and Karen Siegel, an assistant coach for the Penn women’s golf team who plays out of Commonwealth National Golf Club, shared second place, each landing on 159. Spotleson added a 5-over 78 to her opening-round 81. Siegel led McGill by a shot after opening with a 3-over 76 before backing off with an 83 in the second round.

   Beth Ward of the Colonial Golf & Tennis Club was a shot behind Spotleson and Siegel in fourth place with a 160 total. After opening with an 82, Ward closed with a 78.

   Northampton Country Club’s ageless Noreen Mohler and Gina Glancy of Applebrook Golf Club finished in a tie for fifth place, each ending up a shot behind Ward with a 161 total. Mohler added a 79 to her opening-round 82 while Glancy opened with an 81 before finishing up with an 80.

   Nicoll Keeney of Downingtown Country Club shaved four shots off her opening-round 83 with a final-round 79 that left her alone in seventh place with a 162 total.

   Spotleson and Mohler both earned spots in the match-play bracket in the 2019 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Spotleson joined McGill in the match-play bracket in 2018 at Orchid Island.

   Much like the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur was cancelled in 2020. Qualifiers are already under way for this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which tees off Sept. 10 at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Ala.

   Barbara Pagana of Huntsville Golf Club captured the title in the Super-Senior Division with a 155 total as she matched par in the final round with a 73 after opening with an 82.

   Ruth Averback of Old York Road Country Club was the runnerup with a 159 total, four shots behind Pagana. Averback added a 79 to  her opening-round 80.

   Speaking of ageless, Merion’s Liz Haines finished in third place in the Super-Senior Division adding an 83 to her opening-round 81 for a 164 total that left her five shots behind Averback. Haines, the 2004 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship runnerup, earned a trip to the 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Am in 2018 at Orchid Island at age 70.