By Arthur Utley
HOT SPRINGS — A pair of Northern Virginians, Mimi Hoffman (Belle Haven Country Club, Springfield) and Mary Cabriele (CC of Fairfax, Vienna), eliminated the top two seeds Wednesday and advanced to the semifinals of the 59th Virginia State Golf Association Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Old Course.
Joining them in Thursday’s final four are Lindsay Wortham (CC of Virginia, Richmond) and Dot Bolling (Hidden Valley CC, Salem).
Hoffman, the No. 9 seed, edged defending champion, medalist and No. 1 seed Boodie McGurn (CCV, Richmond) 1 up.
Hoffman’s opponent in the upper bracket is No. 13 seed Wortham, who rolled to a 5-and-4 victory over 12th seeded Cindy Thompson (Glenmore CC, Keswick). Wortham, last year’s losing finalist to her friend and clubmate McGurn, reached the semifinals for the third year in a row.
Cabriele defeated No. 2 seed Fran Hensley (Forest Park CC, Ridgeway), at 72 the most senior competitor in the field, 4 and 2. Cabriele faces Bolling, another septuagenarian (70), in the semifinals. Bolling beat sixth-seed Shelley Savage (Army Navy CC, Alexandria) 4 and 3.
Only one match went fewer than 17 holes in Tuesday’s round of 16. The Hoffman-McGurn match, pitting two three-time Senior Women’s Amateur champions, was the only tight one on Wednesday.
Hoffman, who beat McGurn in the 2014 final, won three holes on the front nine and led 1 up at the turn. McGurn went 1 up with victories at the 11th and 12th holes, but Hoffman responded by winning the next three holes, including a birdie at No. 14 and an eagle at the par-5 15th. McGurn won the 16th with a birdie, but they halved the last two holes with pars.
“Boodie is an incredible competitor. She gets up and down. She’s a terrific putter. It was just very close. The only way you could win a hole was with a birdie. It was lots of fun actually,” Hoffman said.
Then there was the eagle at 15.
“Boodie hit a great chip shot close to the pin and for certain to get a birdie, and I had about a 30-footer downhill. I thought I just tapped it, but it was picking up speed, and it just dropped into the middle of the hole for an eagle. It was very exciting,” she said.
Thompson led briefly in her match with Wortham after winning the second hole, but Wortham took control from there. She was 3 up at the turn, went 4 up with a victory at No. 11, and she birdied the par-5 13th to be dormie. A halve at the 14th ended the match.
Wortham will be Hoffman’s third consecutive opponent whose home course is the Country Club of Virginia. Hoffman defeated Natalie Easterly in the first round. Hoffman thumped Wortham when they last met in the 2014 semifinals.
“I’ll just go out there and enjoy the moment. As Billie Jean King says, ‘pressure is privilege’,” said Wortham, a tennis standout before she turned to golf.
The 53-year-old Cabriele is the youngest player in the semifinals. She has won the past two VSGA Senior Women’s Stroke Play titles. Both players struggled on the front nine.
Hensley, winner of the 1999 Senior Women’s Amateur, won the first hole then didn’t win another in the match.
“Sometimes in match play you sort of feed off each other, and we weren’t feeding well off each other,” Cabriele said. “I think we were feeding off some of our bad shots.”
Cabriele won the third for all square and the sixth to go 1 up at the turn. Victories at Nos. 10 and 14 put her 3 up, and Cabriele closed out the match by winning the 16th.
“I gutted it out and started waking up on the back side,” she said. “My consistency started coming back, and I felt like I was starting to get more into my mojo.”
The age difference between Cabriele and Bolling doesn’t matter, says Cabriele, because the course “is short and brings everyone into it. Dot Bolling is one great competitor…She’s got the short game. She’s just incredible. Dot is a master of the short stick. I’m going to figure she’s going to drop everything. I just have to be prepared.”
Bolling, who had to go 22 holes to win her first-round match against Linda DiVall, logged five birdies against Savage, a three-time Senior Women’s Amateur champion. Bolling, who also had five birdies in Monday’s qualifying round, claimed the 2001 Senior Women’s Am crown and has been runner-up four times. One of those came against Savage in 2005.
Savage won the first hole Wednesday with a birdie. Bolling birdied the sixth and seventh holes to go 1 up, but Savage birdied No. 8 and they made the turn all square. Bolling broke away with victories at the 10th, 11th and 12th (her third birdie). Savage cut her deficit to 2 down with a birdie at No. 13, but Bolling responded with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 to earn the victory.
“We both played really well. I’ll just go out there tomorrow like I did today and play as well as I can; hope the putter works,” Bolling said. “I’m not even supposed to be in this position. I’m just here and I’m glad I’m here. It’s fun to be able to hit the ball and make a few putts. There’s no pressure on me.”
The VSGA Senior Women’s Amateur also features flights for players who did not attempt to qualify in the championship division, along with consolation brackets. For a full rundown of those brackets, click here.