Thank you Ansley Rice!
Hole 2, Par 5, Olde Stone
Hole 14, Par 4, Olde Stone
When I arrived at Olde Stone, I was playing with house money coming out of the qualifier. I had bogeyed the first hole of sudden death in a 5 for 4 playoff when the only other bogey was a competitor who missed a putt inside of three feet for par. I closed her out on the second hole when I stiffed a 6-iron to four feet for birdie. Golf is a tough sport and we've all been on both sides of it.
I was having a great summer heading into the US Girls Junior:
Low Amateur Medalist, solo 4th at the US Women's Open Qualifier (+3 / 36 holes, field of 37)
Winner of the Medinah Invitational (-2 / 36 holes, field of 34)
Winner of the Golfweek Junior Tour Championship (-5 / 54 holes, field of 41)
T5 at the Illinois Women's Amateur (32 made the cut for match play, field of 52)
Runner-Up at the Women's Western Junior Amateur (16 made the cut for match play, field of 78)
3rd, Fully Exempt, AJGA Coca-Cola Jr Championship (-6 / 54 holes, field of 41)
I had met my scoring and other goals I set for the summer, such as becoming Fully Exempt on the AJGA and shooting under par from bigger yardages. My first practice round at Olde Stone told me what I already knew, that USGA setups are some of the most difficult in golf. On the bag for me was a local caddie, Ansley Rice. Ansley is a soccer player who didn't know much about golf, but she learned quickly during the practice rounds and I liked her positive attitude and calm demeanor.
One of my goals for every tournament is to keep the doubles and "others" off the card. The only time I was in danger of a double came during Round 2 on the first hole. I hit a hybrid off the tee and still went through the fairway of the dogleg left. From there, I did not make the best decision and ended up in worse trouble. By the time I was on the green I was 15 feet away and laying four. I drained the 15 footer and it meant so much to me to keep the double off the card that it felt like a birdie putt.
My other goal was to be in single digits over par after the two rounds of stroke play. I figured making it to match play was a bit out of reach after I had played my first practice round on the difficult course. One quick example of the difficulty was on Hole 10. During the practice round, my second shot to the hugely elevated green rolled off the false front. Ansley and I watched it roll off and spent 5 minutes looking for the ball before we gave up. My Dad finally found the ball after we had finished the hole because he said he just wanted to know if he could.
In the end I shot a 77 (+4) in the first round playing at 6498 yards and then a 75 (+2) in the second round when they lengthened the course to 6565 yards. Those are LPGA yardages when they are not playing majors.
There was a 9 person playoff for 7 match play spots for those who were at +5. So at +6 I ended up missing a 10 for 7 playoff by a single stroke. While I didn't reach the match play goal, I am very proud of the way I competed. My Dad has long told me that I play better under tournament pressure and I think he is right.