KirkwoodGolf: SALLY WATSON AND TIGER WOODS' NIECE BEATEN IN QUARTERS

Friday, July 01, 2011

SALLY WATSON AND TIGER WOODS' NIECE BEATEN IN QUARTERS

FROM THE USGA WEBSITE
Sally Watson and Tiger Woods' niece, Cheyenne Woods, were both beaten in the quarter-finals of the 2011 US Women's Amateur Public Links Championship over the Old Macdonald course (6,098yd, par-71) at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Oregon.
Annie Park of Levittown, New York beat the leading qualifier and top seed, Cheyenne Woods, of Phoenix Arizona by 3 and 2 to advance to Friday afternoon's (local time) semi-finals.
Park, a 16-year-old high-school junior, trailed early in the match, as she bogeyed the first two holes to give Woods, 20, a quick two-hole lead.
“I chunked my second shot on the first hole. It was so bad,” said Park, who finished ninth at the recent 2011 Rolex Girls Junior Championship. “And on the second hole I missed a 3-footer. After that, I woke up and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to get it back.’ ”
Park was able to capitalise on Woods’ bogey on the par-4 fifth hole by converting her own par putt. From there, Park’s putting came together and she took the lead for good after another Woods bogey at the seventh hole.
“After that [putt on the fifth hole], I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got it now,’ and then I started to putt well,” she said.
Until Friday morning, Woods, a senior year student at Wake Forest University, had experienced few problems along the Scottish-inspired links at Bandon Trails and Old Macdonald. Calling Friday’s match the worst golf she’d played all summer, Woods pointed to her ongoing swing struggles as her ultimate downfall.
“I just wasn’t really feeling my swing,” said Woods, the niece of nine-time USGA champion Tiger Woods. “I wasn’t hitting it well this morning, so when I was out on the course, I was trying to find that one swing thought that would click and make me feel comfortable about there. But I never really was comfortable.”
Park will face 21-year-old Brianna Do in the afternoon’s first semi-final, a meeting of the youngest and oldest semifinalists. Do dispatched fellow UCLA Bruin Stephanie Kono, 20, of Honolulu, Hawaii, by a two-hole margin.
Do and Kono battled through a back-and-forth match that saw 10 halved holes over the first 13. Do’s birdie on the par-4 14th hole gave her the lead for good, but she considered the win over her good friend a bittersweet one.
“Kono’s a great player and I knew she was going to be a tough match,” said Do, who defeated Kono, a 2010 USA Curtis Cup participant, in the third round of the 2010 WAPL. “I’m happy I won, but at the same time I wish we both could have moved on.
While the first semi-final will include the youngest and oldest competitors, the second match features another breadth of competitors: Tiffany Lua, who at age 20 is competing in her 20th USGA individual championship, and Marissa Dodd, a 17-year-old from Allen, Texas, who is playing just her second USGA competition.
Lua, of Rowland Heights, California, rolled through her semifinal match, needing only 12 holes to defeat Brittany Altomare, 20, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, 7 and 6.
“I’ve been having the same gameplan all week – grind and definitely just try and play as smart as I can,” said Lua, who played with Kono on the winning UCLA team at the 2011 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship, as well as the victorious 2010 USA Curtis Cup Team. “Just try to plan my balls on the levels, on the flat spots, go with the flow.”
Dodd, whose only previous match-play experience was a first-round loss at the 2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior, went to the 18th hole with a 1-up lead over Scotland’s Sally Watson, the No 5 qualifier and herself a two-time Curtis Cup participant for Great Britain and Ireland. Despite a mis-hit on her second shot that left her well short of the green, Dodd took the match when Watson missed her 10-foot birdie putt.
“I’ve got a real attitude of letting things roll off my back and forgetting about the previous shot,” said Dodd, who put that attitude to good use after nearly losing a 5-up lead in her third-round 2-up win over Prima Thammaraks. “I didn’t let it phase me – just stepped up and did what I’ve been practicing to do and stuck it close.”
The 36-hole championship final will be played Saturday, also at Old Macdonald.
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS
Annie Park, Levittown, N.Y. (158) bt Cheyenne Woods, Phoenix, Ariz. (141), 3 and 2
Brianna Do, Viet Nam (155) def. Stephanie Kono, Honolulu, Hawaii (152), 2 holes.
Marissa Dodd, Allen, Texas (154) bt Sally Watson, Scotland (148), 1 hole.
Tiffany Lua, Rowland Heights, Calif. (154) def. Brittany Altomare, Shrewsbury, Mass. (148), 7 and 6

LATER NEWS 

Vietnam's Brianna Do and Texas high school star Marissa Dodd advanced to the Women's U.S. Amateur Public Links final over 36 holes at Bandon Dunes.
Do topped 16-year-old Annie Park 2 and 1 in the semi-finals. Park beaten Cheyenne Woods, the niece of Tiger Woods, 3 and 2 in the quarter-finals.
The 17-year-old Dodd, from Allen, Texas, edged Scotland's Sally Watson, a Stanford student, on the 18th green in the quarter-finals, and beat Tiffany Lua, a UCLA player from Rowland Heights, California, 2 and 1 in the semi-finals.


The US Men's Amateur Public Links championship is also being played at Bandon Dunes this week and its 36-hole final will be between leading qualifier Corbin Mills and Derek Ernst.

Mills, a 21-year-old Clemson player from Easley, South Carolina, beat University of Oregon player Andrew Vijarro 4 and 3 in the morning quarter-finals, then topped Georgia's Harris English 5 and 3 in the semi-finals.
Derek Ernst, the Clovis, California player who won the 2010 and 2011 Mountain West Conference titles for UNLV, routed Oregon player Daniel Miernicki 6 and 4 in the quarter-finals, and beat former Ole Miss star Jonathan Randolph 3 and 2 in the semi-finals.


The tournaments are limited to players who don't hold privileges at any course that doesn't extend playing privileges to the general public.

Labels: