By a lot of measures, Grace Smith’s scholastic career at Strath Haven was a tremendous success.
The highlight was her sophomore year in the fall of 2019 when, along with older brother Kevin, who was a senior, the Panthers captured the first Central League crown in the program’s history and followed that up by claiming the District One Class AAA team crown, another program first.
Grace Smith, who had only really started playing competitively in the summer before her freshman season at Strath Haven, also earned a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship as an individual and finished in ninth place among the best big-school girls in the state at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County.
It would be Smith’s final appearance at the state tournament.
With the world still reeling from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic the previous spring, Smith never got a chance to compete in the postseason in 2020 as the Central League, with school districts in the league unable to come together on a game plan, was unable to put together a District One qualifier in time to get its players eligible to compete.
The league did stage a championship tournament the week after the state tournament was completed and Smith carded a solid 78 at Downingtown Country Club and helped the Panthers claim a one-time tournament team title.
Smith’s senior season at Strath Haven saw the Panthers again claim a Central League title, although individually it was a disappointing senior year as she was unable to advance out of the District One Class AAA Championship at Turtle Creek Golf Course.
So, while her last two years might not have gone the way she might have hoped individually, Smith’s last three years have to be considered the golden age of the Strath Haven golf program and she was right in the middle of all of it.
Smith had interest from several Division I programs and finally settled on Stetson in DeLand, Fla., just north of Orlando. The Hatters compete in the competitive ASUN and the program, in a state filled with some of the biggest names in Division I college golf, is not exactly high-powered.
Smith landed in first-year head coach Teresa Brown’s starting lineup right away this fall. And while many players around the country will have to settle for working on a simulator during the midseason pause in the wraparound 2022-2023 season, Smith will be able to play plenty of golf outdoors, in the sunshine.
That’s exactly what Smith was doing in the Dixie Women’s Amateur, which wrapped up Sunday at Palm Aire Country Club’s Cypress Course in Sarasota on Florida’s West Coast.
Smith finished up with a 1-over-par 72 over the par-71 Palm Aire Course in Sunday’s final round to land among the group tied for 36th place with a 13-over 297 total against a field filled with talented college players and top junior players fleeing to Florida for a competitive opportunity.
Smith was really solid in Sunday’s final round as she followed up a birdie at the fourth hole with a bogey at six and then rattled off 11 straight pars before a bogey at the last.
Smith had opened with back-to-back 5-over 76s in the first two rounds before posting a solid 2-over 73 in Saturday’s third round, a loop that again featured a strong finish as she made eight straight pars on her way to the clubhouse.
Not sure if the Dixie Women’s Amateur is considered a part of the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of winter events for amateur women, but there are several other big events to come in the next month, including next week’s Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational in Sebring, Fla., the successor to the venerable Harder Hall Women’s Invitational.
The Dixie Women’s Amateur title went to Emma Schimpf, a sophomore at the College of Charleston who prevailed on the third hole of a playoff with Katie Li of Basking Ridge, N.J., who will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke next summer.
Schimpf was the runnerup to teammate Viktoria Hund in the individual chase in last spring’s Colonial Athletic Association Championship at The Reserve Club at St. James Plantation in Southport, N.C., helping the Cougars capture the team title. College of Charleston represented the CAA in the NCAA’s Tallahassee Regional.
Schimpf closed with a rush, making four birdies on the last 10 holes on Palm Aire’s Cypress Course to finish with a 3-under 68 in the final round that gave her a 9-under 275 total. Schimpf had opened with a sparkling 4-under 67 before adding back-to-back 1-under 70s in the second and third rounds.
Li, a semifinalist in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md. in 2021, got it to 10-under with a birdie at the 16th hole, her seventh birdie of the round, but made a bogey at the last as she matched Schimpf’s final round of 3-under 68 to join Schimpf at 9-under.
Schimpf and Li played the eighth hole three times in the playoff before Schimpf finally claimed the title with a bogey the third time around.
Ohio State freshman Kary Hollenbaugh led Schimpf and Li by two shots heading into the final round, but closed with a 1-under 71 to share third place with Alice Ziyi Zhao, a talented junior player from Irvine, Calif. via China, both ending up a shot out of the playoff at 8-under 276.
Hollenbaugh of New Albany, Ohio earned herself a spot in the starting lineup for head coach Lisa Strom’s Buckeyes during the fall of her freshman season.
Zhao made a huge splash in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. as she earned co-medalist honors in qualifying for match play at age 13. Yeah, she’s a Class of 2027 kid, basically an eighth-grader. She gave eventual champion Saki Baba of Japan all she wanted before falling, 3 and 1, in the second round of match play at Chambers Bay.
Zhao trailed Hollenbaugh by three shots heading into the final round before closing with a solid 1-under 71.
Another interesting name that showed up in the Dixie Women’s Amateur results was that of Brooke Oberparleiter of Jupiter, Fla. Oberparleiter has family in South Jersey and has had a couple of strong showings in the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) stop at DuPont Country Club near Wilmington, Del., winning the title in 2021 and finishing in third place last summer.
Oberparleiter, who will join the program at Kentucky next summer, struggled to a 79 in the final round to finish alone in 61st place with a 304 total.
The Men’s Dixie Amateur was held simultaneously at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. and Jeremy Sisson, a junior at Nebraska from Skaneateles, N.Y., was a wire-to-wire winner.
Sisson had started his college career at Arkansas in the ill-fated 2019-2020 season and has resurfaced at Nebraska. Eagle Trace played pretty tough all weekend and a steady 1-under 71 over the par-72 layout by Sisson in Sunday’s final round enabled him to capture the title with a 4-under 284 total.
After opening with a bogey at the first hole, Sisson made birdies at five and eight. A bogey at the 10th hole dropped him back to 3-under for the championship, but he bounced back with a birdie at 15 that gave him a one-shot victory.
Sisson got the jump on the field with a 3-under 69 in the opening round and matched par with back-to-back 72s in the middle two rounds to maintain his hold on the lead.
Tristan Wieland, a junior player out of Jupiter, Fla., closed with an impressive 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round to earn runnerup honors with a 3-under 283 total.
Wieland is a Class of ’25 kid, the equivalent of a high school sophomore. He matched par in each of the first two rounds with a pair of 72s and got into contention with a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s third round.
Jose Vega, a mid-amateur from Doral, Fla., matched par in the final round with a 72 to take third place with a 2-under 286 total, a shot behind Wieland.
Canadian Angelo Giantsopoulos, coming off a really solid career at Drexel, closed with a 2-under 70 in Sunday’s final round to sneak into the top 10 as he finished in a tie for 10th place with a 6-over 294 total.
Giantsopoulos, who was the individual co-champion while leading the Dragons to the team crown in the City 6 Championship in the fall of 2021 at Llanerch Country Club, showed some rust with back-to-back 76s in the first two rounds at Eagle Trace before matching par in the third round with a 72.
Makes me wonder if Giantsopoulos is considering dipping his toe into the pro ranks in 2023. It would not be the first time that a recent college graduate used the Dixie Men’s Amateur as a springboard to professional golf.
Nice showing by Penn-Trafford junior Nick Turowski, who made it to the PIAA Class AAA Championship for a second straight time this fall.
Turowski was stuck on 4-over 76 in the first, third and fourth rounds, but got it in red figures with a 1-under 71 in the second round and landed in a tie for 21st place with an 11-over 299 total. Turowski plans to join the West Virginia program in the summer of 2024.
Anthony Cordaro, who had a pair of top-10 finishes in the PIAA Class AAA Championship during a standout scholastic career at Fox Chapel and played his college golf at Lehigh, finished in the group tied for 26th place with a 301 total.
Cordaro opened with a 2-under 70 that had him among the leaders following the first round. Cordaro added a 77 in the second round and a 79 in the third round before finishing up with a 3-over 75.
Karl Frisk, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Spring Grove and a sophomore at South Carolina Aiken, closed with a solid 1-under 71 to finish in the group tied for 38th place with a 304 total.
Frisk opened with a 3-over 75, but struggled in the middle two rounds with back-to-back 79s.
David Hurly, a senior at Lehigh, was somewhat overlooked as part of some absolutely loaded Haverford School teams that dominated the Inter-Ac League a few years ago. Hurly claimed medalist honors in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship as a junior in 2017 at White Manor Country Club.
Hurly showed up on the Dixie Men’s Amateur leaderboard after matching par in the opening round with a 72. Hurly, a product of the junior program at Aronimink Golf Club, struggled after that as he had a pair of 82s in the second and fourth rounds around a 5-over 77 in Saturday’s third round to finish alone in 60th place with a 313 total.
Still, Hurly easily survived the 54-hole cut, which fell at 22-over 238.
A week earlier at Eagle Trace, Greg Sanders made his trek from Anchorage, Alaska worthwhile as he captured the Dixie Senior Amateur crown with a 3-under 213 total.
The 58-year-old Sanders, a 10-time Alaska Amateur champion, struggled a little in the opening round with a 2-over 74, but got it going after that, carding a solid 3-under 69 in the second round before closing with a 70. The Dixie Senior Amateur wrapped up Dec. 11th.
That gave Sanders a two-shot victory over Greg Davies of West Bloomfield, Mich., who finished with a 1-under 215 total.
Davies had a three-shot advantage on Sanders going into the final round after Davies added a 3-under 69 in the second round to his opening-round 71. But Davies couldn’t get it going in the final round as he posted a 3-over 75 that allowed Sanders to overtake him.
Jason Lina of Alpharetta, Ga. claimed the top spot in the Dixie Mid-Master Amateur in a playoff with Kristoffer Marshall of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Lina recorded a 2-under 70 in the final round that enabled him to wipe out a five-shot advantage Marshall, the 2021 Arizona Amateur champion, had on him and catch Marshall at even-par 216. Lina then finished off the playoff on the first hole of sudden death.
Lina matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding a 2-over 74 in the second round. After opening with a 2-under 70, Marshall added a solid 1-under 71 in the second round before closing with a 3-over 75.
Terry Tyson of Perrysburg, Ohio won the Dixie Super Senior Amateur crown by two shots over the defending champion, Stephen Fox of Pinehurst, N.C.
Tyson matched par in the first and third rounds with 72s around a 2-over 74 in the second round for a 2-over 218 total. Tyson had four birdies on his scorecard in the final round.
Fox added a 2-over 74 in the second round to his opening-round 76 before closing strong with a 2-under 70 that left him two shots behind Tyson in second place with a 4-over 220 total.
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