Shipley ship-shape in Women's Western Final

Writing from Long Grove, Illinois

Saturday, July 20, 2019

A big-time championship isn’t usually decided on the eighth hole of the final match, but it felt that way Saturday afternoon when Sarah Shipley rolled in a 21-foot uphill birdie putt for a 3-up lead on Antonio Matte at Royal Melbourne Country Club with the Women’s Western Amateur title on the line.

Shipley, the fifth seed, hammered the putt home after third-seeded Matte had missed from about 35 feet on the par-3.

She increased the margin to 4-up by winning the ninth hole with a par, and kept the pressure on by halving the 12th and 13th with par-saving putts of 12 and 15 feet.

“There were a couple breaks I got,” said Shipley, who thought the putts were closer to 30 feet. Pressure creates odd visions at times, but she saw the center of the cup clearly all the way.

“Those were a little stressful, but I got the job done,” Shipley said. “I was feeling really confident, just trying to get out ahead early.”

The 119th championship match ended on the green of the par-5 15th hole. Shipley hit her third shot to four feet below the hole, and after Matte missed her birdie opportunity from about 12 feet, conceded the birdie to Shipley and shook her hand, setting the margin at 5 and 3.

Shipley adds her name to a glittering century-plus list of champions, including Ariya Jutanugarn, Stacy Lewis and Nancy Lopez. After the award ceremony, Shipley studied the trophy and the names on it carefully.

“It means a lot,” Shipley said. “It was a really tough competition. It was never easy at all. I had to grind the whole time. It tested my mental and physical game with all the heat.

“It makes me feel good about my game but also shows I can improve it more.”

Shipley hit most of the fairways and greens she looked at in the final two matches and made the requisite par-saving putts, along with the birdies. If there’s room for improvement, only a perfectionist could find it.

Entering her senior year at Kentucky, 21-year-old Shipley didn’t give Matte, a 16-year-old from Santiago, Chile, a chance, winning the first two holes with birdies to take command. From then on, the heat was on Matte even more than the heat index of 108 beating down on the players and the gallery.

“She played very well this afternoon with me,” Matte said. “She’s a nice champion.”

Shipley advanced via a 2 and 1 semifinal victory over Maria Bohorquez of Colombia, going 2-up on the 13th hole with a par and halving the next four holes, while Matte beat Brooke Tyree of Sulphur, La., 4 and 3 in the other semifinal.

“I made a few important putts in the morning,” Matte said. “This afternoon, I missed a few birdies.”

Next year’s Women’s Western Am is slated for Prestwick Country Club on the south edge of south suburban Frankfort.

– Tim Cronin

Tyree comes through with heat on in Women’s Western Am

Writing from Long Grove, Illinois

Friday, July 19, 2019

When the temperature of 94 and the heat index is 105, even a breeze doesn’t help unless it’s to imitate standing in front of a blast furnace.

Even the players in the Women’s Western Amateur who hail from warmer climates than Chicago were feeling it on Friday.

“I don’t think I’ve sweated that much in how long,” Brooke Tyree of Sulphur, La., said after her 1-up victory over Tristyn Nowlin, last year's runner-up, at Royal Melbourne Country Club.

Tyree knows heat and humidity, so going to Texas A&M – College Station, Tex., is not known for cold fronts – was a natural for her. But Friday was something else.

“It was hotter here than Louisiana,” Tyree said.

Tyree was feeling it down the stretch. She built a 3-up lead on Nowlin through 13 holes, but lost the par-3 14th, and the two par-5s on the back nine, the 15th and 17th, with 6s to Nowlin’s 5s.

“I hit a bad chip on 14 and three-putted 17,” Tyree recalled.

Both players were reeling, but Tyree came up big at the last, with a 143-yard knockdown 8-iron that stopped eight feet from the cup, the shot that secured an eventual par and a 1-up victory.

Tyree plays Antonia Matte of Chile at 7:08 a.m. Saturday. Matte beat Daphne Chao of New York 5 and 3 to advance.

The other semifinal, a 7 a.m. start, pits Maria Bohorquez of Bogota, Colombia, against Sarah Shipley of Hastings, Mich., whose hot-weather experience comes from playing for Kentucky. Still, playing two matches on Friday – Shipley beat Catherine Caudill, 3 and 2, in the Round of 16 before dispatching Julie Houston of Allen, Tex., 2 up in the quarterfinal cauldron – took a toll.

“In school, we play a lot of 36-hole matches, but not in 100-degree heat,” Shipley said. “The mindset is after 18, you don’t even think about it. You think you’re making the turn.”

Shipley never trailed Houston, but needed a birdie at the last to finish her off because she missed an uphill 5-foot putt to win the match on the 17th green.

Bohorquez, a 17-year-old entering her junior year of high school, has yet to convince her mother that attending an American college will be more worthwhile than turning pro immediately. Her play this week, which included a 5 and 4 quarterfinal victory over Caroline Wrigley of Wexford, Pa., might help swing the tide in her favor. She too has survived the heat.

“In Colombia, it’s not that humid,” Bohorquez said.

She was convinced to play in the Women’s Western by caddie Andres Echavarria, who played in the Western Junior and Western Amateur before turning pro. He has two wins on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica to his credit, including one this year, and is working as Bohorquez’ caddie while that tour is on hiatus during the South American winter.

Around Royal Melbourne

Medalist Ela Belen Anacona of Buenos Aires was hit with a one-hole penalty in her quarterfinal match against Wrigley after discovering a 15th club in her bag – and not one of hers – on the second tee. Nobody knows how it got there. Anacona squared the match at the ninth hole, but Wrigley won the 12th, 13th and 15th holes en route to a 3 and 2 victory. ... Houston beat Penelope Tir of Winnetka, 4 and 2, in her Round of 16 match. ... Lemont’s Lauren Beaudreau, the other local hopeful, fell 5 and 4 to Chao in the Round of 16. ... Nowlin beat Tess Hackworthy of Madison, Wis., in the Round of 16, while Tyree dismissed Ana Laura Collado Diaz of Xalapa, Mexico, 4 and 2. ... Saturday’s final is expected to start at noon.

– Tim Cronin

Farnam stuns Perkins to take Illinois Amateur

Writing from Wheaton, Illinois

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Ethan Farnam wasn’t out of it starting the final round of the 89th Illinois Amateur, but he wasn’t in it either.

He was four strokes behind 36-hole leader David Perkins of East Peoria, the Illinois State standout who had won the CDGA Amateur last year and was runner-up in that this year. 

Engrave the Louis Emmerson trophy?

Not quite.

Farnam, like everyone else, failed to pressure Perkins, going around Cantigny Golf’s windblown Woodside nine in even-par 36. Perkins, after a birdie on No. 2 expanded the margin to five strokes, was 10-under. Then Farnam bogeyed No. 3 and trailed by six.

Hand out the trophy?

Not yet.

Then golf happened. Farnam, a 20-year-old Crystal Lake resident whose 63 a fortnight ago set the course record for the revamped Crystal Lake Country Club, nibbled at Perkins’ heels. A deuce at the par-3 eighth, where Perkins bogeyed for the second time in three holes. A four at the 600-yard par-5 11th.

Still, Perkins led by two with six holes to play. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. And on the fourth hole of the Lakeside nine, the par-3 13th for the tournament, no less, where a bunkered tee shot led to a thinned sand wedge that sailed over the green, and was followed by a bad chip.

“I was lucky to make a four-footer for double,” Perkins said.

And Farnam was more than lucky. Amidst Perkins’ chaos, Farnam rolled in an improbable 70-footer for birdie.

The three-stroke swing put Farnam in the lead by one. After a 6-foot birdie at the par-4 14th, he led by two, and kept that margin the rest of the way, scoring 3-under 69, the day’s best round, for 8-under 208 to capture his first Illinois Amateur. Perkins, who closed with a 75, shared second with Jordan Less of Elmhurst, who birdied four of the last five holes en route to a 70.

“I came back without him losing a ball, and I thought that was the only way I had a chance,” Farnam said. “But I started lighting it up with my irons. Hit a bunch close.”

Plus made the cross-country birdie on the 13th, one of five birdies in his last 11 holes.

“That big swing on 13, that’s just momentum,” Farnam said. “David just happened to catch the bunker shot a little thin. A crazy swing, but I felt I took it in stride well.”

For Perkins, whose bogey-free first 36 holes included seven birdies and an eagle, the double-bogey was an unrecoverable body blow.

“I wouldn’t say I lost my cool, but I definitely let that hole get to me a little bit,” Perkins said. “I hit it in the upslope of the bunker, didn’t hit a good shot, flubbed my next one. With him making the 60-footer, it’s just demoralizing.

“I missed a lot of putts and had a couple bad swings.”

At least three times, including on the par-3 17th, Perkins left a potential birdie putt a couple of feet short. Those were killers as much as the fateful double on the 13th.

Farnam won the Illinois Junior at Makray Memorial four years ago and beat many of the same players he knocked off Thursday, including Perkins and Less, in that affair. He spent one year at Northwestern without a scholarship, then transferred to St. Mary's (Calif.).

“It’s definitely a step up from the state junior, but as a progression from college, it almost feels like the same level,” Farnam said. “It’s really good to feel that growth. It feels nice to be atop the leaderboard, that’s for sure.”

The plan was to play 36 holes, as is traditional, on Thursday, but Wednesday night the extreme heat advisory prompted CDGA officials to drop the fourth round. As it turned out, the thunderstorms that rolled through at daybreak and persisted delayed the third round until 1:30 p.m., so it would have been 54 holes, hot or cold.

In the end, the heat was bearable. And Farnam was hottest of all.

– Tim Cronin

Porvasnik captures Illinois Women's Open

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Jessica Porvasnik knew where she stood. She wasn’t quite sure if she could believe the leaderboard she saw at the 16th tee of Mistwood Golf Club. That meant one thing: go for broke.

“If I could get one or two more to fall on the way in,” Porvasnik said. “You’ve just got to stick to your own game and try to make as many birdies as you can.”

At 4-under and among the leaders at that stage, she came close at the par-3 17th, narrowly missing a birdie putt, and came through at the last, sinking a 15-footer for birdie on the par-5 closing hole for 2-under-par 70 and a total of 5-under 211 for a one-stroke victory in the 25th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open over Mistwood teaching pro Nicole Jeray (closing 71), Kasey Miller (73) and amateur Monica Kaho Matsubara (73), the recent Northwestern graduate.

“That was special,” said Porvasnik, who graduated from Ohio State in 2017.

Porvasnik had won a mini-tour tournament in Toronto last year, and has had some high finishes in 2019, including a top 10 in the Colorado Women’s Open, but had yet to grab a trophy this season until this steamy Wednesday. Making the cut in the LPGA tournament in Toledo last week, making $4,085, and winning at Mistwood – with the $5,000 first prize – has made this her favorite, and most lucrative, fortnight of the year.

“Last week, playing with some of the best players in the world, that was cool,” Porvasnik said. “It’s cool to know you’re not far off.”

Jeray had fallen four strokes behind leader Kasey Miller after a bogey on the par-4 11th, but began a three-hole birdie binge with a 4-hybrid to 18 inches on the par-3 14th, the beginning of Kelpie’s Corner. Sinking consecutive 10-footers for birdie on the next two holes brought her to 4-under, matching Porvasnik and a stroke behind Miller.

“I was charging, then I woke up,” Jeray said.

A good par save at 17 was followed by a poor approach at the last that left her at the edge of the green. She two-putted for par from there.

“She stuck a couple in there,” Porvasnik said. “She birdied the three in a row, so to put it on the last green and sink the putt was really cool.”

Jeray at least rallied to get a share of second. Her fellow 4-under finishers did not.

Miller, a stroke ahead at the turn, bogeyed the par-5 15th and par-3 17th to drop to 4-under, and will be kicking herself on the way home to Ohio. Matsubara can also play the “what if” game. She would have tied Porvasnik and forced a playoff but for her bogey at the last after driving out-of-bounds. She had birdied the 17th.

Anna Alpert Lund tied for fifth with amateur Sarah Busey at 1-under 215, and had the shot of the day, an ace on the 158-yard par-3 ninth hole. Samantha Postillion’s 3-under 69 was the day’s best round.

– Tim Cronin

Three share IWO lead; Jeray among lurkers

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Kaho Monica Matsubura, a recent Northwestern graduate who has yet to turn professional, was cruising along in the second round of the 25th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood Golf Club.

She was 7-under through 33 holes of the double-round opening day, and leading by two strokes. She had survived two bouts with Kelpie’s Corner.

Then the 16th hole happened.

“I just got in my own head,” Matsubura said.

The resultant double-bogey 6 and a pair of closing pars dropped her to 5-under 139 and a share of the lead with Kasey Miller of Findlay, Ohio and amateur Sarah Busey of Racine, Wis., going into Tuesday’s final round.

That trio enjoys a two-stroke advantage on Mistwod teaching pro Nicole Jeray (71-70) of Berwyn and Jessica Porvasnik (72-69) of Hinkley, Ohio.

“The second nine I tried to play a little bit more aggressive,” said Matsubura, who opened with a 1-under 71. That was working – she birdied six of the first 13 holes – until her travails at the 16th. “I feel I still left a few shots out there.”

Miller had a like attitude about birdies flying away uncaptured.

“The course plays pretty short,” Miller said of Mistwood, which is set up at 5,961 yards. “I had a lot of wedges in, and I was sticking ’em tight, lots within 15 feet. Man, if ...”

Miller took full advantage at the par-5 15th, cutting the corner on the 504-yard dogleg over water and hitting her second shot close to set up an eagle putt. That placed her at 5-under, where she stayed to complete her second-round 3-under 69.

Busey scored 69-70, with a bogey-free opening circuit and a more random second round, including three bogeys, two of them on par 5s. But, she said, she putted exceedingly well, including a number of critical par-savers, notably a 30-foot downhill left-to-right putt that fell in on the par-4 13th. She had and made a similar putt on the following hole, the par-3 14th, and sank it for a deuce.

“I was on fire,” said Busey, who is entering her junior year at Santa Clara.

Jeray is chasing her third IWO title, which would come in a third different decade.

“I didn’t really hit anything close, but I played very solid,” Jeray said of her five-birdie, two-bogey double round.

“The weather itself was not too bad,” Matsubura said of a day that mixed heat, humidity, rain and the occasional cooling breeze.

Neither Busey nor Miller were put off by the switch in format to 36 holes on the first day.

“We play 36 on the first day of most college tournaments,” Busey said.

Miller played 36 holes in U.S. Open sectional qualifying a few months ago.

“Thirty-six hole days are more like a marathon,” Miller said. “You’ve got to keep grinding. But I feel like I have an advantage with the endurance exercising I do.”

– Tim Cronin