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By Chris Lang
RICHMOND — Willow Oaks Country Club presented plenty
of challenges during the opening round of the 42nd Virginia State
Golf Association Women’s Stroke Play Championship Tuesday, none bigger than
greens that were playing a bit slower than usual in hot, humid conditions at
the club flanked by the James River.
Three-time champion
Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn and Norfolk’s Becca DiNunzio navigated the course
as well as anyone Tuesday, as each posted 3-over-par rounds of 75 to share the
lead one day into the 54-hole championship. The second round is slated for
Wednesday with the third and final round scheduled for Thursday.
Herndon’s Danielle
Suh returned a 4-over 76 and stands a shot behind the co-leaders, with
University of Richmond junior Ally Steffen and Danville’s Mariah Hopkins tied
for fourth after registering 5-over 77s.
Greenlief
(International CC), who is seeking to become the first player to ever win four
Women’s Stroke Play titles, was 1 over through 16 holes before her round ended
with back-to-back bogeys.
“The course set up
nice for me, and I hit the ball solid,” Greenlief said. “But the greens are a lot
slower than what I’ve been playing at home normally. They’re probably stimped
at 8 at most. And I tend to struggle on slow greens, and I struggled today. I
had like 36 putts.
“It’s an optical
illusion. They roll smooth. And the surface looks smooth and it looks like
balls should be rolling faster. With the heat out here, understandably, they’re
trying to protect the greens, since they’re bent greens in Richmond in the
summer.”
DiNunzio, who will
begin her Virginia Tech career later this summer, rallied to gain her share of
the lead. She was 4 over through 14 holes before something clicked at the end
of her round. Though she made a double bogey on No. 16, she birdied 15, 17 and
18 to rescue the round.
Suh, a rising
senior at Westfields High School who has verbally committed to play for High
Point University in North Carolina, had a similar end to her round. Her front
nine was a struggle, as she made a double bogey on No. 2 before marking bogeys
on the scorecard for three of the next four holes. She made her first birdie of
the day at No. 13 and added another at No. 16, but a bogey on No. 17 cost her a
share of the first-day lead.
“I hit pretty much
all of the fairways, and my second shots, I stuck most of them to around 10
feet and in,” Suh said. “If my putting was better, I definitely would have shot
a lower score.”
Steffen is seeking
to become another in a line of recent Richmond Spiders to win this
championship. Elsa Diaz won in 2015 and Sophie DiPetrillo claimed the title
last year at Belle Haven Country Club in Alexandria. She was in position to
join the co-leaders but a double bogey on No. 18 proved costly. Hopkins was 1
over through 15 holes but a bogey-bogey-double bogey finish left her two shots
off the lead.
Centreville’s Vynie
Chen (Twin Lakes GC) posted a 78 and is in sixth place, while Longwood
University’s Diana Domenech, Old Dominion women’s golf coach Mallory Hetzel and
Midlothian teenager Rory Weinfurther all shot 79 and are tied for seventh, four
strokes behind Greenlief and DiNunzio.
The 36-hole 22nd
VSGA Senior Women’s Stroke Play and 2nd VSGA Super Senior Women’s
Stroke Play championships begin Wednesday at Willow Oaks, running concurrently
with the Women’s Stroke Play.
Lang is the editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager,
digital media.