Rogowicz marches on, DiLisio comes up short in U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur at Stonewall's North Course

 

   WARWICK TOWNSHIP – Those hoping for a return engagement for the District One rivals of a decade ago, Isabella DiLisio and Jackie Rogowicz, in the final of the 36^th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship had those hopes dashed at Stonewall’s North Course Tuesday.

   Rogowicz, a scholastic standout at Pennsbury, was the runnerup to DiLisio, who starred at Mount St. Joseph, in Class AAA in the state championship in 2013 at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County.

   Rogowicz, who went on to a standout career at Penn State, held up her end of the bargain, rolling into the quarterfinals by taking out former Michigan State standout Jacqueline Setas, 5 and 3, in the round of 32 Tuesday morning and then cruising to another emphatic victory, this one a 6 and 5 verdict over Catherine McEvoy of Riverside, Conn., in the round of 16 in the afternoon.

   I had already seen Rogowicz up close as I was on the bag for her opponent in her first-round victory, Tara Joy-Connelly of Middleborough, Mass., as Rogowicz was really solid in a 5 and 4 victory, ending the match by watching a 20-foot birdie putt trickle into the cup at the 14^th hole.

   The day for Joy-Connelly and me began better as she made a couple of tough pars at the ninth and 10^th holes to be one of the three survivors in a playoff among eight players who finished at 12-over 154 in 36 holes of qualifying for match play.

   Joy-Connelly’s reward, of course, was a match with one of the three co-medalists in qualifying. Rogowicz had added a 3-under 68 over the 5,920-yard, par-71 North Course layout to her opening round of even-par 71 for a 3-under 139 total.

   I’ll have more on my experience looping for Joy-Connelly when I get around to wrapping up the whole week at the “Udder Course,” but it has already been a tremendous week of golf at the younger of Tom Doak’s twin gems in the northwest corner of Chester County.

   I decided to turn my attention to DiLisio, who had put together a solid college career at Notre Dame following her spectacular high school career at the Mount. While DiLisio ultimately fell short in a 1-up loss to ageless Canadian Judith Kyrinis, I was rewarded with a terrific match played, after several days of sketchy weather, on a perfectly sun-splashed late summer afternoon.

   A year ago at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla., DiLisio, as a mid-am “rookie,” made it all the way to the semifinals.

   DiLisio, who plays out of Philadelphia Cricket Club these days, cruised into the round of 16 with a convincing 5 and 3 victory over Erin Houtsma of Denver, Colo. in Tuesday morning’s round of 16.

   In Monday’s opening round, DiLisio had taken a 1-up lead over Jessica Ross of Northern Island to the 18^th hole and proceeded to bomb a 3-wood to three feet on the par-5 finishing hole, putting an exclamation point on her 2-up win with an eagle.

   The 59-year-old Kyrinis arrived at Stonewall on a late-summer roll. After capturing the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, Kyrinis finished in a tie for sixth place in the U.S. Women’s Senior Open a couple of weeks ago at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore., where she had won the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship in 2017.

   It was the highest finish ever for an amateur in the still short history of the U.S. Women’s Senior Open. You get the picture, this gal can play.

   Earlier Tuesday, Kyrinis had ended the bid of another member of the talented bunch that came out of District One a decade ago, handing Erica Herr, a back-to-back PIAA Class AAA champion in 2011 and ’12 with Council Rock North before a standout college career at Wake Forest, a 4 and 3 setback in the round of 32.

   I arrived on the scene just in time to see Kyrinis drop in a six-foot birdie putt on the tough, uphill par-4 fourth hole to take a 1-up lead on DiLisio. Moments earlier, DiLisio’s bid for birdie from eight feet slid by the cup. She would never get even with Kyrinis in the match.

   DiLisio missed a chance to tie the match when her downhill five-footer for par at the short, par-3 sixth hole somehow didn’t make it to the hole.

   At the next par-3, the ninth hole, Kyrinis stuck her tee shot inside three feet and made the birdie putt to take a 2-up lead.

   It looked like Kyrinis might be in trouble when her tee shot at the 10^th hole settled in the deep rough on the edge of the woods on the right side of the hole, but she hacked it out into the fairway, hit a marvelous approach to 12 feet and dropped the putt for a critical par save.

   Kyrinis opened the door just a crack when she three-putted at the par-4 11^th hole and DiLisio cut her deficit in half with a par.

   But Kyrinis got that one right back when she stuck her approach at the short, par-4 12^th hole to five feet and converted the birdie try. She was 2-up again.

   Kyrinis again stumbled a little when she yanked her tee shot at the par-4 16^th hole to the edge of the water hazard on the left side of the hole. It led to a double bogey and she conceded DiLisio’s five-footer for par.

   DiLisio got it to a good angle on the par-3 17^th hole, but her 22-foot birdie bid slid just by the hole. She headed to the risk-reward par-5 finishing hole 1-down.

   As she did a day earlier against Ross, DiLisio, after another in a series of wonderful drives, tried to reach the green in two, but pulled it just a bit, the ball somehow settling in the bank between the bunkers left of the green.

   Still, DiLisio had some green with which to work to a pin on the right side. She just couldn’t quite get her chip shot to settle and it drifted to the fringe 12 feet from the hole.

   DiLisio’s birdie putt was a little left and a little short. Kyrinis had reached the back of the green and putted it three feet past the hole. She buried her par putt to win the match.

   Kyrinis will take on Gretchen Johnson of Portland, Ore. in a quarterfinal match Wednesday morning. Gretchen Johnson, a semifinalist in the 2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, pulled out a 1-up decision over Celina Manche of Belgium in their round-of-16 match.

   Earlier Tuesday, Gretchen Johnson earned a decisive 5 and 4 victory over Meghan Stasi, the four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. via South Jersey and the captain of next year’s U.S. Curtis Cup team, in a round-of-32 match.

   Just ahead of DiLisio, Alyssa Roland, a Short Hills, N.J. resident who developed her game at Overbrook Golf Club, couldn’t hold onto a 2-up lead after eight holes and came up just short of a spot in the quarterfinals with a 1-up loss to Alexandra Austin of Burke, Va.

   Earlier Tuesday, Roland had stunned Shannon Johnson, the 2018 champion at Norwood Hills from North Easton, Mass., with a 4 and 3 victory in a round-of-32 match.

   Austin’s quarterfinal opponent will be Kimberly Dinh of Midland, Mich., a quarterfinalist a year ago at Fiddlesticks who claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Aideen Walsh of Ireland in a round-of-16 match.

   Rogowicz faces a tough quarterfinal test when she takes on 2015 champion Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va. Greenlief prevailed in a battle of past champions, earning a 4 and 2 decision over Blakesly Brock, the winner two years ago at the Berkeley Hall Club’s North Course in Bluffton, S.C.

   Earlier Tuesday, Greenlief reached the round of 16 by ousting Katie Miller, a three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur and three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Mid-Amateur champion from Oakmont, with a 3 and 2 victory.

   Another past champion, Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2017 winner at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course, reached the quarterfinals by pulling out a 1-up victory over Katrin Wolfe of Johnstown.

   It was a tremendous run by Wolfe, a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. She survived the playoff to grab one of the final three spots in the match-play bracket Monday and promptly stunned Jessica Spicer, a former Virginia Tech standout from Bahama, N.C. and one of the three co-medalists in qualifying, in 19 holes.

   Chugg’s quarterfinal opponent will be Taryn Walker of Prospect, Ky. as she edged Lauren Gebauer of Orinda, Calif., 1-up, in the final round-of-16 match.

   Wednesday’s morning’s quarterfinals will be followed by the semifinals Wednesday afternoon. Hoping to get up there and catch the two semifinal matches.