Clare Connolly (Top) and Ben Warnquist (Bottom) competed in match play at the 32nd U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur and 38th U.S. Mid-Amateur respectively. (Photos Courtesy of USGA/Matt Sullivan and Chris Keane).
2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur medalist Shannon Johnson, Norton, Mass., broke away from tenacious Clare Connolly, of Chevy Chase, Md., when she won the 10th hole to take a lead she would not relinquish in what became a 3-and-2 victory in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur quarterfinals in St. Louis, Mo, Wednesday, September 26.
Connolly, a sectional qualifying medalist, won the first hole, then had to rally with wins at Nos. 8-9 to turn all square. Behind all the way on the back nine, she won only one hole to get within one, but the more experienced Johnson won 15-16 to advance to the afternoon semi-finals.
Johnson was the 2016 runner-up in this event and is the reigning Massachusetts Women’s Amateur champion. Connolly won the 2017 Maryland State Women’s Amateur and reached the semi-finals of the same event this year, while she was the medalist (68) in U.S. Women’s Mid-Am sectional qualifying.
In the third round of match play, Connolly, who had overwhelmed her first two opponents, rallied from 4-down at the turn to win five of the first eight holes on the back nine, including the 17th, to draw even with Courtney McKim, Raleigh, N.C. She then won on the first extra hole to reach the quarter-finals.
Connolly, 25, whose father, Brian, is a past president of the Maryland State Golf Association, had qualified eighth, then stopped Patricia Ehrhart, Honolulu, Hawaii, 8 and 7, by going 3-up after six holes, then winning five holes in a row, including birdies at Nos. 10-11.
In Tuesday morning’s match against 2014 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Margaret Starosto, 32, Woodstock, Ga., Connolly was never behind for a second straight time and put away her foe with three winning pars in four holes for a 5-and-4 triumph.
At the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship in Charlotte, N.C., Ben Warnquist, Olney, Md., was the only MSGA member to qualify for match play by way of a 16-for-12 playoff that concluded Monday morning. He lost to Daniel Wittlinger, from Truckee Calif., 2 and 1 in the first round. Other MSGA members who did not qualify for match play included Daniel Walker, University Park, Md., Ben Shields, Timonium, Md.; Charlie Winegardner, Lothian Md., and Mark Cusic, California, Md.
Matt Sughrue and Frank Alafoginis, both Arlington (Va.) residents and the area’s final competitors, were eliminated in the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon. Sughrue lost to Stewart Hagestad, Newport Beach, Calif., 3 and 2, and Alafoginis to Kevin OConnell, Cary, N.C., 4 and 3. Hagestad won the first two holes and was not headed, while O’Connell took four of the first five holes and Alafoginis never recovered.
Earlier, Sughrue went 20 holes to beat Daniel MacDonald, Ridgewood, N.J., and Alafoginis turned back Jeff Koprivetz, Springfield, Ill., 3 and 2, in the first round. Then Sughrue defeated Daniel Wittlinger, Truckee, Calif., 4 and 3, while Alafoginis thwarted Michael Martin, Scottsdale, Ariz., in 19 holes in second-round action.
The USGA will conduct the 39th U.S. Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Co. and 33rd U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Az., September 14-19, 2019.
Reported by John Stewart
