Dinh stages rally on back nine to beat Chugg and capture U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur crown at Stonewall's North Course

 

   WARWICK TOWNSHIP – For Kimberly Dinh, match play has been an acquired taste.

   “I’ve gotten more comfortable with it,” Dinh, a 31-year-old from Midland, Mich., said after completing a stunning rally on the back nine at Stonewall’s North Course Thursday that earned her the title in the 36^th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.

   “I’ve learned that even if you get down, to not panic. At (the Michigan Amateur) this past year, I had a couple matches that went to extra holes and I had to make putts to get to extra holes, so I’ve been in high-pressure situations and I’ve gotten used to it.”

   That kind of attitude is exactly what Dinh needed when she faced a seven-foot putt for par on the North Course’s 11^th hole that, hopefully, would keep her from falling into a 4-down hole to 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champions Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah with seven holes to play.

   Dinh buried the tough par-saving putt and then watched the 32-year-old Chugg miss her six-foot birdie putt, failing to add to her seemingly commanding lead. Up to that point, Chugg had been deadly from that distance, much as she had been in her 1-up semifinal victory Wednesday over Jackie Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State.

   It turned out to be the beginning of the end for Chugg. She would make three double bogeys down the stretch, including a shocking four-putt on the short, par-4 12^th hole.

   Dinh would win six of the last seven holes, capping her day by dropping a 12-foot birdie putt on the North Course’s par-5 finishing hole to claim a 2-up victory and put her name on the Mildred Gardiner Prunaret Trophy.

   “To lose a couple holes pretty quickly was a little bit frustrating, but I just kind of dug deep and never really panicked,” said Dinh, who played her college golf at Wisconsin. “I knew I just had to dig deep. Kelsey was playing great golf, but both of us were going to makes mistakes at some point, so I just kind of had to weather that and keep playing.

   “I said to myself, ‘I’ll keep putting one good swing on the ball after another and see where it takes me.’ Making the putt on 11 was huge. Going 4-down with seven holes to play would have been tough to come back from.”

   It was on the short, par-4 12^th hole when some cracks really started to show in Chugg’s game. She faced a tough downhill putt from 50 feet to a pin in the dip in the middle of the green. She missed her spot and the ball drifted well left.

   That left Chugg with a still tough 15-footer straight down the hill. That one trickled three feet by the hole, then, she would admit later, Chugg rushed her putt for bogey and the ball lipped out.

   For the first time since the fifth hole, Dinh had the tee and at least a little bit of momentum.

   Chugg then three-putted the par-3 13^th hole for a bogey that enabled Dinh to creep within 1-down.

   Dinh stuck her 9-iron approach at the par-4 14^th hole to 12 feet and, after getting a good look at the line on Chugg’s birdie try, rolled it right in for a birdie that suddenly squared the match.

   Chugg temporarily stopped the bleeding by winning the 15^th hole with a par when Dinh three-putted from the swale on the front right of the green to regain a 1-up lead.

   Chugg, however, drew a bad lie in the right rough off the tee at the par-4 16^th hole, gouged it out, but then chunked her approach. Chugg then chipped the ball seven feet past the hole and missed the comebacker for another double bogey. The match was tied going to the par-3 17^th hole.

   Dinh safely found the green at the 17^th, but Chugg’s tee shot ended up in one of the bunkers on the left side of the hole. She skulled her bunker shot and faced an impossible downhill putt over a slope. The ball drifted back down to the bottom of the green, still 20 feet from the hole. Chugg missed that putt and conceded the birdie to Dinh, who took a 1-up lead to the last.

   Chugg’s approach at the 18^th hole sailed over the pin and into the bank behind the green. Dinh’s approach with a 50-degree wedge finished 12 feet below the back pin. After Chugg chipped it past the pin, Dinh had two putts to win the championship. She needed only one, finishing with a flourish by rolling in her birdie putt.

   “It was nice to finish with a birdie,” said Dinh, a senior research analyst who had a presentation scheduled for Friday.

   A USGA championship is meant to be a grueling test and after two rounds of stroke play and five matches, four of them in the previous two days, Chugg seemed to tire on the final nine, although she said she felt fine.

   It was the third time Chugg had reached the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am final, capturing the title in 2017 at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston and falling in the final a year later at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis.

   “I think I lost it, like the ball-striking just left me the last two matches, so I didn’t have my best stuff,” said Chugg, the director of golf programming in Salt Lake City. “(Wednesday) I got it in the hole a little bit better than I did on the back nine today, but I’m proud of myself for making it this far.

   “I’m a little surprised I made it this far. I’ve been working a lot and hadn’t really played a lot of golf.”

   Dinh, with Mark Dalton, a regular looper at Stonewall on the bag, started 2023 with a broken ankle, an injury she sustained on the ski slopes. She admitted the workload this week at Stonewall’s North Course, the younger of Tom Doak’s twin gems in northwest Chester County, took its toll.

   “It’s a lot of golf,” Dinh said. “I made sure to stretch and get as much sleep as I could. The ankle was fine. By the end of the week, I was feeling it everywhere, my back, all over the place. I’m definitely a little tired.”

   Dinh got emotional during the trophy presentation and again when she talked to the media. She can skip the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am qualifiers for the next 10 years. She’s exempt from qualifying for the next two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships, next year at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. and in 2025 at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the rugged Oregon coastline.

   And, perhaps best of all, Dinh’s victory Thursday gives her a tee time in next year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club, the William Flynn gem in Lancaster County, less than 40 miles from Stonewall.

   “In college, I never really played in any USGA events, mostly because by the time summer came around, I was burned out and I didn’t want to travel,” Dinh said. “So, having an opportunity to compete in a USGA championship after grad school, after college, has been awesome, and to win it, just incredible.”