PING Plate joy for Surrey pair

PING Plate winners Helen Atkinson (left) and Tina Thomas 

(image copyright Leaderboard Photography). 

Surrey golfers Helen Atkinson and Tina Thomas made their dreams come true when they won the Plate Final of the PING women’s fourball betterball tournament by two points.
They travelled to PING's Gainsborough Golf Club with high hopes of winning and pulled it off when they scored 45 points on the Thonock Park course, finishing ahead of Jane Monk and Karen Cook from The Links, Newmarket.
“I’m amazed and very proud,” said Tina, while Helen added: “It means such a lot, especially as we know how hard it is to get through to the final.”
The tournament – which is run by England Golf – attracted entries from 16,610 women from 885 clubs and the best qualifying score was 53 points. The top 50 pairs nationwide qualified for tomorrow’s Grand Final, and the next 50 played in today’s Plate Final.
Last year, Tina and Helen, from West Hill Golf Club, qualified for the Grand Final and they decided to renew their partnership for the 2017 competition. They missed out on a Grand Final place on countback but made the most of their Plate Final opportunity.
Their play dovetailed and they loved the championship experience: “It makes you feel special,” said Helen. “We’re not professionals but the treatment makes you feel like a ‘proper’ golfer.”
Helen, who plays off 11, has been a golfer for eight years, while Tina, a 27-handicapper, returned to the game three years ago after an absence of 21 years, stopping when her daughter was born.
Runners up Jane Monk and Karen Cook came very close to pulling off a remarkable double – for Jane’s sister, Lynn Lambert, was the 2015 Plate winner with Marcella Tuttle, also from The Links, Newmarket.
But Jane made sure it was an event to remember with her first hole in one in practice, with a six iron on the 138-yard third hole. “It was a real slam dunk,” she laughed. “We have had a really, really good time.” Karen added: “And we’ll be back!”
The remaining prizes were decided on countback after the next four pairs all tied on 40 points. Third place went to Emily Faldon and Claire Watson of Broke Hill, Kent. Fourth were Anne Armitage and Erica Rigg of Elsham, Lincolnshire; fifth were Eileen McMullan and Lynda Thorpe of Richmond, Yorkshire; and sixth place went to Annie Goodchild and Sue Kreft of Northampton Golf Club.
The championship finals also offer the players the chance to visit PING’s European Custom Fitting Centre and to take part in competitions. Paula Kidby (Kirton Holme, Lincolnshire) and Lynda Thorpe won the putting competition; Gail Parry (Chilwell Manor, Nottinghamshire), Clare Jones (Beeston Fields, Nottinghamshire) and Paula Ferris (Swinton Park, Lancashire) won the ‘hit your yardage’ event.
Dave Fanning, marketing director for PING Europe, announced the return of the championship in 2018 and remarked: “It’s 12 years since we came up with the concept of a ladies’ championship which was inclusive of all standards of golfer. Ladies’ golf is at the heart of the Solheim family and we are really keen to support it and see it grow.”
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AIG Ladies Cups & Shields District Finals Round Up

Carlow Senior Foursomes Team take a
celebratory team selfie at Tramore & Ailish Dilger – 

Lady Captain of Limerick Golf Club at the AIG Ladies Cups and Shields Finals

Photos above by Pat Cashman/Ronan Lang

The teams to compete at the AIG Ladies Cups and Shields National Finals have been decided as the District Finals took place across the country over the weekend. Cahir Park, Tramore, Ballinrobe, Bangor and Charlesland hosted teams bidding to win a District Pennant in one of the six categories of AIG Ladies Cups and Shields; Junior Cup, Minor Cup, Intermediate Cup, Challenge Cup, Senior Foursomes and Junior Foursomes.

The AIG Ladies Cups and Shields National Finals will be hosted by Malone Golf Club from 27 – 30 September.

Full Results for each District are available through the following links;
Junior Cup Results
Intermediate Cup Results
Minor Cup Results
Challenge Cup Results
Senior Foursomes Results
Junior Foursomes Results

District Finals Results Round-Up
AIG Ladies Junior Cup
Connacht— Ballina 1, Athenry 4
East Leinster — Delgany 1.5, Stackstown 3.5
Mid Leinster — Royal Curragh 3, Enniscorthy 2
Munster — Tipperary 1.5, Limerick 3.5
Ulster — Letterkenny 1.5, Lurgan 3.5

AIG Ladies Intermediate Cup
Connacht — Mountbellew 3, Gort 2
East Leinster — Castle 2, Carton House 3
Mid Leinster — Tullamore 1.5, Wicklow 3.5
Munster — Ballykisteen 1, Cahir Park 4
Ulster — Shandon Park 4, Lisburn 1

AIG Ladies Minor Cup
Connacht — Mountbellew 3, Carrick-On-Shannon 2
East Leinster — Headfort 3, Corrstown 2
Mid Leinster — Mullingar 2, Wexford 3
Munster — Lee Valley 3, Co. Tipperary 2
Ulster — Donaghadee 3.5, Dunmurry 1.5

AIG Ladies Challenge Cup
Connacht — Ballyhaunis 1, Mountbellew 4
East Leinster — Craddockstown 1.5 v Malahide 3.5
Mid Leinster — Mullingar 1.5, Courtown 3.5
Munster — Doneraile 4.5, Muskerry 0.5
Ulster — Royal Belfast 2, Fintona 3

AIG Ladies Senior Foursomes
Connacht — Castlebar 0.5, Roscommon 2.5
East Leinster — Hermitage 0.5, Lucan 2.5
Mid Leinster — Carlow 2, Kilkenny 1
Munster — Castletroy 0.5, Killarney 2.5
Ulster — Shandon Park 1, Lurgan 2

AIG Ladies Junior Foursomes
Connacht — Portumna 2.5 Ballinasloe 0.5
East Leinster — Woodbrook 2.5 v Malahide 0.5
Mid Leinster — The Heath 2, Castlecomer 1
Munster — Ballykisteen 2.5, Lee Valley 1.5
Ulster - Larne 1, Shandon Park 2

AIG Ladies Cups and Shields District Finals Venues
2 September - Connacht Finals – Ballinrobe
3 September – East Leinster Finals – Charlesland
2 September – Mid Leinster Finals – Tramore
1 – 2 September – Munster Finals – Cahir Park
2 – 3 September – Ulster Finals - Bangor

CELINE BOUTIER SECURES 2018 LPGA TOUR CARD

Celine Boutier

Celine Boutier (Montrouge, France) built a big lead on the back nine and held off Benyapa Niphatsophon (Bangkok, Thailand) to win the Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge by one-stroke on Sunday on the Symetra Tour. She carded an even-par, 72 in progressively more difficult conditions as the day continued and finished with a four-day total of 11-under, 273 to edge Niphatsophon. Katelyn Dambaugh (North Charleston, S.C.) finished third at 8-under, 276.
Boutier picked up her second win of the season and locked up a spot on the LPGA Tour for the 2018 season. Boutier’s first-place check of $31,500 moves her to $96,748 earned in 17 starts. Boutier moves to second on the Volvik Race for the Card money list and has now earned the fifth most in a single-season in Tour history. Niphatsophon earned the second place check of $19,887 to get to $102,288, the third player in Tour history to crack $100,000 in single-season earnings.
“It’s amazing, I definitely wanted to win again this season,” said the 23-year-old Boutier. “It’s so great that I had my chance this week at the biggest tournament of the season. I’m just ecstatic.”
Boutier has made eight starts on the LPGA and now will get to play the Tour full-time for the first time in 2018.
“It is something I’ve been working on for a long time because I’ve always wanted to be on the LPGA,” said Boutier. “I’m just going to use the last couple events on the Symetra Tour to get ready and prepare for next year on the LPGA.”
Boutier has developed a knack for winning big events and she hopes that translates to the LPGA. Her other win came at the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic, which carries the second largest purse of the season.
“I guess I’m a little lucky on the big events, timing wise this has been perfect,” said Boutier. “Hopefully next year I can play well at the majors.”
After a 63 on Saturday, Boutier wasn’t as hot on the front nine on Sunday. She started the day with nine pars including a clutch 8-10 footer on hole nine. She made the turn just one-stroke in front of Katelyn Dambaugh. Boutier made a 10-footer for birdie on the par-5 10th and also made birdie on 12 to get to 13-under. At that point, her lead swelled to four shots.
It remained that way until the 17th hole when Boutier made her first bogey of the day and Niphatsophon made birdie. The lead was two-strokes to the 18th hole and Boutier sprayed her tee shot right. She had an angle to the green, but was playing from the almost the first fairway. She recovered with a nice approach to the left fringe. Niphatsophon missed her approach short and left, but nearly chipped in for birdie. Boutier three-putted for bogey, which was good enough for a one-stroke win.
“The conditions were tough,” said Boutier. “I kind of had a slow start with nine pars on the front so it wasn’t bad, but not amazing either. The wind started to pick up late on the back nine and I made bogeys on the last two, but I feel like overall my game was solid.”
Boutier grew up watching The Evian Championship in France and that spured her interest in playing golf professionally.
“Every year, I would watch The Evian Championship and get excited,” said Boutier. “When I went to college (Duke), I always had the LPGA in mind and college was a great stepping stone. It was one foot into the U.S. and I started to learn more about the country and the language.”
There is one new member of the Volvik Race for the Card money list top 10. Lindsey Weaver (Bellefontaine, Ohio) finished T8 and moved from 11th to 10th. Dambaugh also made a big move up the money list. She jumped from 29 to 16. Kim Welch (Sacramento, Calif.) finished fourth to move from 24th to 15th.

STACY LEWIS WINS FOR HOUSTON

Stacey Lewis

 

There were so many close calls over the years for Stacy Lewis, so many moments when victory seemed well within her grasp. Twelve runner-up finishes in 83 starts over the course of three years, to be exact. All those heartaches, those head-scratching misses and fast-walking bee-lines to the range (with steam coming from both ears) led to this beautifully serendipitous moment.

Stacy Lewis won for Houston.

The now 12-time winner played for a cause bigger than herself, pledging early in the week to donate all her winnings to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Lewis' first-place check at the Cambia Portland Classic meant $195,000 would go toward helping people in her hometown rebuild their lives. Her sponsor, KPMG, surprised Lewis on Sunday by announcing that the company would match that number, bringing the total to $390,000. Lewis also collected shoes from fellow players to ship back to Houston.

This was personal.

"It's hard to even think about the win itself," she said.

Instead, she's thinking about how to best put that money into action. It's the reason why Lewis' long-awaited victory became the best kind of sports story. The kind that gives hope.

"I was so focused on giving every shot 100 percent because I knew what it meant,"said a noticeably calmer Lewis.

When the race against In Gee Chun grew tight on Sunday, Lewis gave the wheel to a greater force.

"I don't know," she said, "just kind of handed over control and said, 'Take me. Take me to the finish line. Let me know what happens, God.' "

Lewis moved to The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb of Houston, at age 11. She now makes her home with husband Gerrod Chadwell at the Golf Club of Houston, where the PGA Tour's Shell Houston Open is played.

While the couple's home remained safe, Chadwell, head women's coach at the University of Houston, took his team to Dallas after the campus shut down due to flooding. He even kayaked to the team's facility at the Golf Club of Houston to try to rescue some of the team's electrical equipment.

Dale Lewis can't remember the last time he felt so nervous watching his daughter compete. The Lewis' had decided not to travel to Portland this year, which worked out since they couldn't have made it anyhow. Their house in The Woodlands sits up about 8 feet above the street so it remained dry. But their friends have had 7 to 8 feet of water in their homes and will lose everything.

Dale has seen the images on TV of heaping trash – everything people owned – stacked up as tall as a car lining both sides of the street in neighborhoods all over Houston. The devastation is overwhelming.

"They're estimating only 20 percent of the people have flood insurance," said Dale. "(Stacy) is leaning toward helping people rebuild their homes."

Lewis first won on the LPGA at the ANA Inspiration (then the Kraft Nabisco) in 2011, four months after she and her mother returned from a humanitarian trip to Rwanda with LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King. Africa was a life-changing experience for Lewis, and she returned to the LPGA with a renewed sense of purpose. Likewise, Lewis played with a greater sense of appreciation this week in Portland.

"Say what you want," said her mom Carol, "it's a God thing."

Chadwell was supposed to travel with his team back to Houston on Sunday, but he instead made a surprise trip to Portland to support his wife. Lewis didn't know he was in town until it was over. She broke down in tears on the 18th when she saw him. It's the first time Dale can remember seeing his middle child cry after a victory since the 2011 Kraft.

Lewis hadn't won since Chadwell came into the picture. Sharing a life with someone changed the two-time major winner's focus. Not away from winning, of course, but from putting in what it takes to be No. 1 again. Lewis didn't simply fit Chadwell into her life, she made him a priority. And for an athlete who was the best in the world not long ago, that was a major adjustment.

Chadwell was by her side for all the close calls, and now it was time to celebrate.

"You know, you go through all the emotions of finishing second when sometimes it's your fault and sometimes it's not," said Lewis, "and things just don't seem to ever go your way and you get really frustrated at times. He went through all of that with me, and it was probably as hard on him as it was on me."

Lewis was diagnosed with scoliosis the same year she moved to Texas and wore a back brace under her clothes until she graduated from high school. During her freshman year at Arkansas, doctors placed a steel rod in her back.

This is a tough-as-nails player who has made a career of inspiring others. Dale thinks back on all the other Sundays that could've gone Stacy's way. No other victory would've garnered this much attention thanks to her selfless act.

"I think things happen how they are supposed to," said Lewis.

In other words, it was worth the wait.

LINK TO LEADERBOARD

Results | LPGA | Ladies Professional Golf Association