By Arthur Utley
HOT SPRINGS — A remarkable run by septuagenarian Dot Bolling (Hidden Valley Country Club, Salem) through the 59th Virginia State Golf Association Senior Women’s Amateur Championship continued in Thursday’s semifinals at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Old Course.
Bolling, 70, defeated Mary Cabriele (CC of Fairfax, Vienna) 2 and 1 and became the oldest player to reach the tournament’s championship match.
Her opponent in the final is three-time Senior Women’s Amateur champion Mimi Hoffman (Belle Haven CC, Springfield), who rallied from a 4-down deficit to eliminate Lindsay Wortham (CC of Virginia, Richmond) 1 up.
Bolling won the Senior Women’s Amateur title in 2001 and has been runner-up four times. The last time Bolling played in the championship match was 2005 when she lost to Shelley Savage, the opponent she defeated in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Hoffman, 60, won her first Senior Women’s Am crown in 2006. She was runner-up in 2008 and added a second title in 2011. Hoffman was victorious again in 2014 after beating Wortham in the semifinals.
A victory in the final would make Hoffman the first four-time winner of the tournament since Peggy Woodard of Virginia Beach, who won her fourth in 2000 when she defeated Bolling in the final. Woodard beat Bolling again in 2002 for her fifth title.
Wortham, the losing finalist last year and playing in the semifinals for the third year in a row, jumped on Hoffman at the outset, winning four of the first five holes, three with birdies. She holed out from a bunker for a birdie on the par-3 fifth.
“Starting out I played fine. She just played incredible the first five or so holes. She was on fire. All I kept saying to myself was ‘slow and steady.’ And bit by bit I started to make birdies and win holes,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman began chipping away at the deficit with a birdie at the par-4 seventh and made the turn 2 down after logging another winning birdie at the par-3 ninth.
They halved the next three holes before Hoffman won Nos. 13-15, going birdie, birdie, eagle (conceded), to take a 1 up lead. Wortham squared the match by winning the 16th, but Hoffman claimed the 17th with a par and halved No. 18 for the victory.
Hoffman remembers playing and losing to Bolling in the tournament years ago.
“I just turned 60 this year so I’m hoping that I still can win one of these at the age of 60. I know Dot’s 70. There’s 10 years difference between us, but that’s 10 more years playing on that golf course than I have,” Hoffman said. “She knows every nook and cranny. She knows every break on every green. She hits the ball very straight; she’s an incredible putter.”
Hoffman described her matches as adventures.
“Today’s adventure was coming back from 4 down. Playing Boodie [McGurn in the quarterfinals], the adventure was just incredible golf, hole by hole, back and forth. Today was slow and steady; just get it back, and tomorrow I’m sure there will be another adventure with Dot.”
Bolling, who logged five birdies in the qualifying round and five more in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, rang up four birdies, including three in a row on Nos. 6-8, on the front nine against Cabriele to take a 4 up lead into the inward nine. Bolling recorded six 3s on the front. She didn’t win a hole on the back, but steady play kept Cabriele at bay.
Cabriele, 53, won her first hole with a birdie at the par-3 11th. She picked up another birdie at the par-3 16th to trail 2 down, but they halved the 17th to send Bolling to the final.
“What I’ve been doing all week is going for the pin every time. I’m not trying to play safe. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow. You have to when you get to this point…You have to think they’re going to birdie the hole or you are. That’s what I’ll continue to do and hope my putting stays the same. It’s been pretty good so far,” Bolling said. “It’s been a long time [since her last final]. I did not expect I’d be here this time. You know, I don’t have any expectations; I’ll be fine because the reality is I’m not supposed to be in this position.”
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.