Colorado's Miller claims title for the second time in three years in Jones/Doherty at Coral Ridge

 

   The 92^nd Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship was held last week at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

   I was under the incorrect impression that the Jones/Doherty was going to be this week, after the completion of another marquee event on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of events for amateur women in South Florida in the winter, the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, known simply as The Sally, which was the subject of my most recent post.

   Turns out the Jones/Doherty, a match-play event, and The Sally, a 72-hole stroke-play event, were both played last week. They both have such long and storied histories – it was the 99^th playing of The Sally up the coast at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla. – they have probably ended up overlapping at some time or another.

   Both are popular events for college players trying to keep their games in shape during the midseason pause in the college season before they have to head back to campus – a campus often locked in winter’s grip and that grip has been pretty tight this winter – for the start of the spring semester.

   Sounds like the Jones/Doherty was a week too late to fit into the schedules of some of the college players last year, so tournament officials moved it up a week this year, the same week as The Sally.

   There were a ton of good players in both events. For some, a preference for stroke play over match play, or vice versa, might have been the deciding factor.

   The event was originally known as the Doherty Championship. Robert Trent Jones, the designer of Coral Ridge, added a senior division and named it after his wife, Ione D. Jones. It has come to be known simply as the Jones/Doherty and last week marked the 70^th straight year the event has been played at Coral Ridge.

   The Senior division of the Jones/Doherty has become an even bigger draw than the Championship division, but the younger division of the Jones/Doherty still boasts a pretty serious roster of champions over the years. And it sure sounds like Coral Ridge puts on a pretty good golf tournament.

   For the second time in three years, Morgan Miller, a 20-year-old junior at Colorado from Cedar Park, Texas, captured the title in the Championship division with a 2 and 1 victory Friday over Remi Bacardi, a 17-year-old who was the runnerup in the Florida 1A Championship as a senior at Miami’s Palmer Trinity, capping a legendary scholastic career.

   The Jones/Doherty Senior Women’s Amateur crown went to Dawn Woodard of Greer, S.C., a newly-minted senior after turning 50 last summer, as she edged Canadian Judith Kyrinis, the runnerup in the senior division of the Jones/Doherty in 2023, 1-up.

   In the Championship division final, Miller, who was Colorado’s best player during the wraparound 2023-2024 college season, held a 1-up lead over Bacardi, who will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Virginia this summer, going to the ninth tee when Miller’s tee shot found a fairway bunker.

   Miller’s second shot caught the lip of the bunker and suddenly she was scrambling to make par. But she knocked a pitching wedge to 15 feet and made the clutch par putt, taking a 2-up lead when Bacardi made a bogey.

   Miller made another clutch 15-foot par-saving putt at the 12^th hole to take a 3-up lead before Bacardi cut her deficit to 2-down by winning 14 with a par.

   When Miller buried a 24-foot birdie putt at the 17^th hole, it was over.

   “It is match play, so you have to go through everyone to win,” Miller told Gary Carreri, who was doing updates on the Coral Ridge website for the Jones/Doherty last week. “It is hard to win the Jones/Doherty twice. This one, in general, means more because I had surgery over the summer.”

   Miller had a meniscus issue in her knee repaired and the surgery required her to sit out for four months. Winning the Jones/Doherty was another step in the right direction.

   “I missed the first two tournaments of the fall season for school,” Miller said. “I started playing at the end of October and I was still dealing with knee issues today. It’s a big win, seeing that I did the right thing with the surgery. It was brutal for me. I didn’t hit a ball with a club for four months.”

   Miller reached the final by rolling to a 6 and 4 decision over Scarlet Weidig, a 23-year-old redshirt senior at Montana State from Costa Rica, in Thursday’s semifinals.

   In the other semifinal, Bacardi pulled out a hard-fought 2 and 1 victory over Anna Ritter, a junior at Illinois in the Big Ten from New Albany, Ohio.

   Ritter had captured medalist honors in qualifying for match play Jan. 6^th with a sparkling 4-under 68.

   In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Ritter advanced with a 2 and 1 verdict over Aliya Liberatore of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

   Liberatore has committed to join the program at Missouri in the Southeastern Conference this summer. She was the runnerup last summer in the only American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) stop in the extended Philadelphia area, the AJGA Junior at Huntsville at Huntsville Golf Club, a classy Rees Jones design in Dallas, Luzerne County.

   Bacardi was understandably nervous to be taking on a match-play maestro in Meghan Stasi, a legend in both her native South Jersey and in South Florida, in the quarterfinals. Stasi’s 10 wins in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia (WGAP) Match Play Championship – including seven in a row when she was known as Meghan Bolger out of Tavistock Country Club from 1999 to 2005 – and her four titles in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship are more than enough evidence of her proficiency in match play, golf’s most inexact science.

   Oh yeah, Stasi of Oakland Park, Fla. has won a pair of Jones/Doherty crowns. Stasi had a busy 2024 as she was the captain of the U.S. Curtis Cup team, which dropped a tough 10.5-9.5 decision to Great Britain & Ireland at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   But Bacardi booked her spot in the semifinals with a 3 and 2 victory.

   Miller advanced to the semifinals with a 2 and 1 decision over Liv Romer of Boynton Beach, Fla. Romer was a softball player until she tore up her knee. A sophomore on the golf team at Palm Beach State, Romer is quickly figuring out this golf thing.

   Weidig pulled off probably the biggest surprise of the quarterfinals when she claimed a 4 and 2 victory over Brooke Oberparleiter, a sophomore at Kentucky and the 2022 Jones/Doherty champion.

   Oberparleiter is a Jupiter, Fla. resident, but always spends some time each summer in South Jersey. She showed up in last summer’s Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Waynesborough Country Club and finished in a tie for seventh place.

   A day after capturing medalist honors in qualifying, Ritter knocked it to eight feet at the 18^th hole and converted the birdie try to pull out a 1-up decision over Lilly Riegger of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Riegger is a Class of 2026 kid who is from Germany.

   Miller cruised to a 7 and 5 win in her opening-round match against Ket Preamchuen Vanderpool, the head coach of the Georgia State women’s golf team and a reinstated amateur after spending some time on the Symetra Tour.

   Oberparleiter had her hands full in the round of 16 before getting past Ashley Balcom of Lighthouse Point. Fla., 2 and 1. Looks like Balcom already has a couple of Coral Ridge club championships under her belt and she’s just a Class of ’28 kid, the equivalent a high school freshman.

   Sounds like a piece of the cold air that brought frigid conditions to us in southeastern Pennsylvania made it all the way to South Florida for that round of 16 in the Championship division Jan. 7^th and, along with gusty winds, made for some difficult conditions.

   In much calmer weather a day earlier, Ritter offset two bogeys with six birdies in claiming medalist honors in qualifying with her 68.

   Ritter enjoyed her pairing in a group that included Stasi, Preamchuen Vanderpool and Valentina Marie Guertin, a junior at FAU High in Boca Raton, Fla.

   Oberparleiter was the runnerup to Ritter in qualifying, finishing three shots behind the medalist with a solid 1-under 71.

   Woodard and Kyrinis had a tremendous match in the battle for the Jones/Doherty Senior Amateur Championship. The 60-year-old Canadian finally blinked when her tee shot at the 18^th hole found the water and Woodard was able to pull out a 1-up victory.

   Watched almost the entire match between Kyrinis and Isabella DIlisio, a local gal from the Philly suburbs, Hatfield, to be specific, who played collegiately at Notre Dame, in a second-round match when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am was played at Stonewall’s North Course two summers ago.

   And Kyrinis was just so solid in pulling out a 1-up victory over a much younger player who was driving it 40, 50 yards past her all day.

   Woodard was part of a formidable mid-am team along with Stasi that played in the first eight editions of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, the pair making a couple of nice runs.

   Woodard admitted she had been looking forward to being eligible to play with the seniors. She made her debut in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur last summer at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, falling to eventual champion Nadene Gole of Australia in the quarterfinals.

   Kyrinis, the 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, always seems to earn herself a spot in the U.S. Senior Women’s Am match-play bracket. She suffered a 1-up setback at the hands of USGA legend Ellen Port (four U.S. Mid-Am and three U.S. Senior Women’s Am titles) in the second round at Broadmoor.

   “It’s a great tournament,” Woodard told Correri of the Coral Ridge website about the Jones/Doherty. “The Senior field is always strong with a lot of good players, so I had some really tough matches to get here and then had to play Judith in the finals.

   “You know you have to play well. I played great golf and had a lot of birdies today.”

   A day earlier, the Senior division had a double round with the quarterfinals in the morning and the semifinals in the afternoon.

   Woodard reached the final with her 3 and 1 victory over Leigh Klasse of Surprise, Ariz. in the one semifinal match. Klasse is the reigning Arizona Women’s Senior Amateur champion.

   The other semifinal was a rematch of the 2023 Jones/Doherty Senior Amateur Championship final with Kyrinis getting a little revenge for her loss in the title match two years ago by claiming a 3 and 2 decision over Shelly Haywood of Laguna Woods, Calif.

   Haywood, the former women’s golf coach at Arizona, had reached the final in defense of the title she won in 2023 a year ago, but was denied a repeat when she fell in the final to Tara Joy-Connelly of Middleboro, Mass.

   Earlier in the day, it was a reunion of long-time rivals as Woodard rallied from 3-down after nine holes to claim a 3 and 2 victory over Joy-Connelly, ending her bid to repeat as the Jones/Doherty Senior champion.

   I celebrated Joy-Connelly’s victory in a post on the Jones/Doherty a year ago since only a few months earlier I had carried and occasionally pushed Joy-Connelly’s bag in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course. Joy-Connelly survived a playoff to make the match-play bracket at Stonewall before falling in the opening round of match play, but she earned my respect with her talent and competitiveness. I wasn’t surprised in the least to see her put her name on the Jones/Doherty Senior Amateur Championship trophy.

   It was a comfortable pairing for Woodard and Joy-Connelly as they have been competing against each other since they were teen-agers.

   Joy-Connelly toured the outgoing nine in 2-under to jump out to a 3-up advantage after nine holes. But Joy-Connelly’s putter betrayed her on the incoming nine with three-putts at the 10^th, 12^th, 13^th and 16^th holes, enabling Woodard to rally for the victory.

   “We have played together since we were 17 and then played against each other in college golf and in amateur golf after that,” Joy-Connelly said of her ongoing friendly rivalry with Woodard.

   Klasse punched her ticket to the semifinals with a 5 and 4 victory over Jayne Pardus of Isle of Palms, S.C. in a quarterfinal match. Pardus is another player who earned a spot in the match-play bracket in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Senior Am at Broadmoor and reached the round of 16.

   Kyrinis faced a tough customer in her quarterfinal match as she pulled out a 1-up victory over Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky., Kyrinis draining a five-footer for birdie at the 18^th hole to seal the win.

   Leach, another victim of eventual U.S. Senior Women’s Am champion Gore in the opening round at Broadmoor, was coming off a runaway win in the Forever 49 division in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational, which wrapped up on New Year’s Eve at the Sun ’n Lake Golf Club’s Deer Run Course in Sebring, Fla.

   The Second Flight final was held Jan. 9^th and South Florida legend Mary Jane Hiestand of Naples, Fla. knocked off Robin Krapfl of Peoria, Ariz. Hiestand, quite memorably, reached the final of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at age 58 in 2017 at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston before falling to Kelsey Chugg.

   A day earlier in the round of 16, Leach had ousted Sue Cohn of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the medalist in qualifying for match play, 3 and 1.

   Leach’s round was highlighted by a hole-in-one, her fifth career ace and fourth in competition, as her 9-iron shot on the 125-yard eight hole found the bottom of the cup.

   In a round-of-16 thriller, Haywood, the 2023 champion, needed 22 holes to get past Suzi Spotleson of Canton, Ohio. Haywood was 3-down after 11 holes and still 2-down with two holes to go before rallying to force extra holes and finally prevailing.

   Although Spotleson lists Canton as her home, she’s in the Philadelphia area enough to maintain a membership at the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve. She won the WGAP Senior Match Play Championship for the second year in a row last summer at Riverton Country Club.

   Spotelson also represented Canton and RiverCrest in last summer’s U.S. Senior Women’s Am at Broadmoor and qualified for match play, falling in the second round.

   Cohn needed an extra hole in the opening round of match play Jan. 7^th, edging Sue Curtin of Westwood, Mass. on the 19^th hole. Curtin is a dominant player in senior women’s amateur circles in Massachusetts.

   Joy-Connelly stared down a tough challenge in her opening-round match, needing 20 holes to get past Molly Steffes of Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Cohn had grabbed medalist honors in qualifying for match play Jan. 6^th with a solid 2-under 70. Cohn is the reigning Florida State Golf Association (FSGA) Senior Women’s Amateur Match Play champion and a 15-time winner of the Palm Beach County Women’s Amateur Championship.

   Kristyl Sunderman of McDonough, Ga. was the runnerup in qualifying with a 1-under 71. If you google Sunderman, you should come upon a pretty tremendous story on her golf journey authored by Tom Mackin, a frequent USGA contributor, in advance of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur.

   A shot behind Sunderman in third place was Kathy Hartwiger of Pinehurst, N.C. as she matched par with a 72. Hartwiger reached the quarterfinals of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Senior Am at Broadmoor, which, I’m pretty sure, exempts her into the field for this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which tees off Sept. 13 at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Cascades Course in Hot Springs, Va.

   I suspect she’ll be running into many of her fellow competitors from last week’s Jones/Doherty Women’s Senior Amateur Championship in Hot Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ohio State's Hollenbaugh dominates Oceanside again to repeat as the winner of The Sally

 

   There’s something about the Oceanside Country Club layout in Ormond Beach, Fla. that fits the eye of Kary Hollenbaugh, a junior at Ohio State from New Albany, Ohio.

   Oceanside is the home of the venerable South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, better known by its shorthand moniker, The Sally. We’re talking venerable as in this was the 99^th playing of The Sally. The event will celebrate its 100^th anniversary next January.

   And for the second straight year, Hollenbaugh, No. 56 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), rolled to the crown in The Sally, a stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of amateur events for women in Florida in the winter, by the same five-shot margin she did when she dominated the field a year ago. The 72-hole test wrapped up Saturday.

   Hollenbaugh has been a solid player in the lineup at Ohio State under Lisa Strom, the 1994 PIAA champion as a senior at Lansdale Catholic and a former Buckeye standout.

   But Oceanside brings out the best in Hollenbaugh’s game.

   Pretty sure The Sally caught a little of the cold air that descended deep into the eastern half of the country last week, although temperatures in the 60s would feel pretty toasty to those of us shivering in the Northeast. The scores were pretty high, which makes me think the wind was blowing, as it is wont to do in South Florida.

   But Hollenbaugh seemed unbothered by any of it. She trailed Kaitlyn Schroeder, the Jacksonville phenom who came home to play under her dad at North Florida after a year at Alabama, by a shot after Hollenbaugh opened with a solid 1-under 71.

   But while everybody else was having issues of one kind or another in the middle two rounds Thursday and Friday, Hollenbaugh put together back-to-back 2-under 70s to give herself a seven-shot lead going into Saturday’s final round.

   Hollenbaugh matched par in the final round with a 72 for a 5-under 283 total. She was the only player to finish under par for the week.

   Hollenbaugh’s closest pursuer was Emma Schimpf, a senior at the College of Charleston from Daniel Island, S.C. Schimpf matched the low round of the week with her sparkling 5-under 67 in Friday’s third round, but that still left her in second place and seven shots behind Hollenbaugh going into Saturday’s final round.

   Schimpf closed with a solid 2-under 70 to earn runnerup honors with an even-par 288 total. Schimpf has been a stalwart at the College of Charleston, including an individual crown in the conference championship in 2023 before the Colonial Athletic Association changed its name to the Coastal Athletic Association, the CAA in either case.

   Gianna Clemente, the junior phenom from Estero, Fla. who has a pretty good track record in this event herself, including a title in 2023, was another two shots behind Schimpf in third place at 2-over 290 after Clemente fired a sparkling final round of 4-under 68.

   Not sure if there was a back-nine start in those first two rounds, but Hollenbaugh took control of the tournament in the second round.

   She had bogeys on the first and second holes and then played 4-under golf the rest of the way with birdies at three, four, six and 13. Even if Hollenbaugh started off the 10^th tee, she was still 1-under on the incoming nine at Oceanside and bounced right back from the bogeys at the first and second holes with birdies on three of the next four holes.

   Hollenbaugh made a birdie on the sixth hole and had eight pars on the outgoing nine to open her third round Friday. After briefly stumbling with back-to-back bogeys at the 10^th and 11^th holes, Hollenbaugh rattled off birdies at 12, 14 and 18 to expand her lead to seven shots.

   Playing with a big lead isn’t always as easy it seems like it should be, but Hollenbaugh managed just fine in Saturday’s final round.

   She rebounded from a bogey at the second hole with birdies at four and five. After a bogey at the sixth hole, Hollenbaugh made a birdie at 10, a bogey at 12 and back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 that afforded her the luxury of a messy double bogey at the last.

   Ohio State, a Big Ten power, failed to advance to the NCAA Championship last spring, finishing sixth as a six seed in the Bryan Regional. It’s a new Big Ten this year with Pac-12 ex-pats Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joining the fray.

   Looks like the Big Ten Championship has booked a return date at Bulle Rock, the Havre de Grace, Md. layout that once played host to the LPGA Championship – forebearer of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – in April. Some pretty good golf will be on display just outside what is considered the Philadelphia area.

   I’m sure Hollenbaugh, who finished in a tie for 10^th at Bulle Rock last spring, and Strom, her coach, are hoping the Big Ten Championship is the jumping-off point for a run to the NCAA Championship at the LaCosta Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. this spring.

   Schimpf highlighted the fall campaign of her senior season as she led College of Charleston to the team crown in the Evie Odom Invitational at Princess Anne Country Club by claiming the individual title, the sixth victory of her outstanding college career.

   Schimpf struggled early in The Sally, adding a 5-over 77 in Thursday’s second round to her opening-round 74 before finishing strong, going 7-under over the final two rounds to earn runnerup honors.

   Clemente, like Hollenbaugh a native Ohioan from Warren, was the runnerup to Hollenbaugh in The Sally a year ago. Like Schimpf, Clemente started slowly, struggling to a 6-over 78 in the opening round before adding a 73 in Thursday’s second round.

   But Clemente found her groove in the final two rounds over a golf course that she, too, seems to have an affinity for as she posted a 1-under 71 in Friday’s third round before closing with that 68 that enabled her to finish a shot behind Schimpf in third place.

   It’s easy to forget that Clemente is still just a Class of 2026 kid, the equivalent of a high school junior.

   She seems to save her best stuff for the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, reaching at least the semifinals in each of the last three editions, falling in the final to Oregon sophomore Kiara Romero in the final in 2023 at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky.

   Clemente finished in a tie for fifth place in her second shot at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship last spring and I’m guessing another invitation to that prestigious event is on its way, if it hasn’t arrived already.

   There isn’t a college coach in America who wouldn’t want to add Clemente to his or her roster, maybe even as soon as the spring semester of 2026, but her level of play would suggest that going directly to the pro ranks is also being seriously considered. Of course, there is the not small matter of NIL money college programs can offer or that individual players can earn on their own that is changing the equation a little.

   Schroeder, the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Rolex Player of the Year in 2022, finished a shot behind Clemente in fourth place with a 3-over 291 total.

   After taking the lead with her opening-round 70, Schroeder struggled in the middle two rounds, following up a a 4-over 76 in Thursday’s second round with a 75 in Friday’s third round. She finished up with a solid 2-under 70.

   Schroeder was one of the most coveted recruits in the country in 2023, but she struggled at Alabama, failing to make the starting lineup in the spring of 2024.

   Schroeder will undoubtedly be more comfortable back home at North Florida, where her father Scott is the director of golf for both the men’s and women’s programs.

   Karoline Tuttle, a redshirt sophomore at Florida from Lake Mary, Fla., finished a shot behind Schroeder in fifth place with a 4-over 292 total. Tuttle was coming off a two-shot victory in last month’s Women’s Dixie Amateur at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla.

   Tuttle struggled in the first two rounds, adding at 6-over 78 in Thursday’s second round to an opening-round 73. But she got it going in the final two rounds, registering a solid 2-under 70 in Friday’s third round before closing with a 71.

   Morgan Ketchum, a junior at Virginia Tech from Winston-Salem, N.C., finished two shots behind Tuttle in sixth place with a 6-over 294 total.

   Thursday’s second round was the issue for Ketchum, too, as she had opened with a solid 1-under 71 before struggling to an 81. Ketchum bounced back with a 2-under 70 in Friday’s third round before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   A couple of youngsters who plan to begin their college careers at the end of the summer, Thanana Kotchasanmanee of Thailand and Katelyn Huber of Gainesville, Ga., shared seventh place, each landing on 7-over 295, a shot behind Ketchum.

   Kotchasanmanee, who is headed for Princeton and the Ivy League, matched par in the opening round with a 72 before struggling a little in the middle two rounds with a 4-over 76 in Thursday’s second round and a 74 in Friday’s third round. She closed with a solid 1-over 73.

   Huber, who plans to join Tuttle with her home-state Florida Gators in the tough Southeastern Conference this summer, struggled a little early, adding a 4-over 76 in Thursday’s second round to her opening-round 75. But she bounced back with a 1-under 71 in Friday’s third round before matching Kotchasanmanee’s 1-over 73 in the final round.

   Clemente isn’t the only Class of ’26 Ohio native with a bright future. Mia Hammond, like Hollenbaugh a New Albany kid, flashed her considerable talent by matching the low round of the week with a sparkling 5-under 67 in Saturday’s final round that enabled her to climb into the top 10 as she finished in ninth place with an 8-over 296 total.

   Hammond, who has committed to join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke in the summer of 2026, teed it up in two LPGA Tour stops in Ohio in the summer of 2023, making the cut and finishing in a tie for 26^th place in the Dana Open in Sylvania, Ohio.

   Like a lot of players, Hammond struggled in Thursday’s second round, posting an 81 after opening with a 3-over 75. She bounced back with a 1-over 73 in Friday’s third round before finishing with a flourish in the final round.

   Rounding out the top 10 was Angela Zhang, another Class of ’26 entry from Bellevue, Wash., as she finished a shot behind Hammond in 10^th place with a 9-over 297 total. Zhang, who has committed to join the Big Ten’s Southern California in the summer of 2026, finished strong with a 2-under 70 in the final round.

   Avery McCrery, a Wilmington, Del. native, had a pair of top-10 finishes in The Sally the last two years. McCrery, who will join the program at Duke this summer, got off to a good start this year, but struggled a little in the final three rounds to finish among a trio of players tied for 16^th place with a 15-over 303 total.

   McCrery, coming off a solid tie for ninth place in last month’s Dixie Women’s Amateur at Eagle Trace, matched par in the opening round with a 72 and was just two shots off the pace. She added a 4-over 76 in Thursday’s second round and a 75 in Friday’s third round before closing with an 80.

   A couple of interesting names in the group tied for 16^th with McCrery were Alice Ziyi Zhao, a Class of ’27 competitor from China, and Grace Lu, a redshirt junior at Rutgers from Edison, N.J.

   Ziyi Zhao earned official phenom status when she burst onto the scene by earning a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay as a 13-year-old. After opening with a 5-over 77 at Oceanside, Ziyi Zhao sandwiched a 78 in Friday’s third round with a pair of 74s in Thursday’s second round and Saturday’s final round.

   Grace Lu, who began her college career at William & Mary before transferring to Rutgers and the Big Ten, got off to a solid start with a 1-over 73 and added a 75 in the second round before struggling in the final two rounds with a 77 in Friday’s third round and a 78 in Saturday’s final round.

   Grace Lu’s younger sister Claire Lu, coming off a really nice start to her college career in the Ivy League with Penn in the fall, finished alone in 33^rd place in The Sally with a 22-over 310 total.

   I never caught up with the Penn women’s team in the fall, but the Quakers claimed a pair of team titles with Claire Lu leading the way in the victory in the Quinnipiac Classic by capturing the first individual crown of her collegiate career at the Farms Country Club in Wallingford, Conn.

   Claire Lu got off to a tough start at Oceanside, adding an 80 in the second round to her opening-round 79, but she kept battling, recording a 3-over 75 in Friday’s third round before finishing up with a 76.

   In The Sally’s Rockefeller Division, Chris Hunt of Sawgrass Country Club outdueled Barbara Pagana, winner of the Super Senior division in last summer’s Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Sunnybrook Golf Club, by two shots to capture the title with a 31-over 247 total.

   Hunt sandwiched an 87 in Thursday’s second round with a pair of 80s in the 54-hole Rockefeller Division, which wrapped up Friday.

   Pagana, who plays out of Huntsville Golf Club, kept the pressure on Hunt the whole way. Pagana’s opening-round 84 left her four shots behind Hunt. Pagana cut her deficit to three shots with an 86 in Thursday’s second round and closed with a solid 79 to finish two shots behind Hunt with a 249 total.

   It wouldn’t be a Sally without Merion Golf Club’s Liz Haines in the field and the ageless Haines finished in seventh place in the Rockefeller Division with a 270 total.

   Haines was coming off a tie for 10^th place in the Forever 49 Division in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational at the Sun ’n Lake Golf Club in Sebring, Fla., which wrapped on New Year’s Eve. At Oceanside, Haines opened with an 86 and added a 93 in Thursday’s second round before closing with a 91.