U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur starting times
By Chris Lang
In the summer of 2015, Lauren Greenlief’s employer, Boston Consulting Group, gave her the green light to concentrate on golf, and the results were easily visible come October, when she became the youngest player in history, at 25 years and 25 days, to win the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
Long a successful player in VSGA events, that victory — the first by a woman from Virginia in a USGA championship — put Greenlief on the national amateur stage. She followed that victory up by teaming with Alex Austin to reach the semifinals of the USGA Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in the spring.
Greenlief will begin defense of her Mid-Am title on Saturday at The Kahkwa Club in Erie, Pa., as the 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur gets underway. She’s scheduled to tee off at 8:20 a.m. Her work schedule hasn’t been quite as flexible this summer, as she’s gotten back to the routine of traveling during the week and meeting face-to-face with clients.
Her clubs? “They’re in the garage Monday through Thursday, but I try and get my workout schedule in while I’m on the road,” Greenlief told the USGA’s Scott Lipsky. “I try to play Friday afternoon. I use the playing as a way to diagnose the weaker areas in my game, so I can then go focus the work that weekend on fixing those areas.”
Greenlief, who competed in the LPGA’s Kingsmill Championship in May, finished third at the VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in June and reached match play at the VSGA Women’s Amateur in July. She’s one of 10 USGA champions in the field this week in Pennsylvania, a group that included Margaret Shirley-Starosto, whom Greenlief defeated in last year’s championship match.
After two days of stroke-play qualifying, the field is cut to the low 64 players for match play, which will begin Monday.
Greenlief is the lone VSGA representative in the field for the Women’s Mid-Amateur. And while she has been able to balance work and golf to be able to play in the event, the same can’t be said for Dustin Groves (Glenmore CC), who posted the low score at a qualifier for the U.S. Mid-Amateur last month at his home course.
Of course, when golf is work, that’s understandable. Groves, a past VSGA Junior Match Play champion, has worked the bag for PGA Tour professional Kyle Reifers all season. After Reifers advanced to the BMW Championship, the third leg of the four-week FedEx Cup playoff schedule, Groves had to withdraw, since his services were needed at Crooked Stick this weekend.
In his place, alternate Ted Dougherty (Jefferson Lakeside CC) earned a spot in the field at Stonewall Links in Elverson, Pa. The 43-year-old Dougherty is one of seven VSGA reps in the men’s field. Jim Gallagher (Tidewater Amateur Golf Tour), Pat Tallent (Westwood CC), Mike Muehr (Trump National GC), Matt Sughrue (1757 GC), Craig Mason (1757 GC) and Chris Cassetta (Blue Hills GC) are the others. Gallagher, a past VSGA Senior Stroke Play Championship winner, was the second automatic qualifier at Glenmore. Gallagher did not qualify for last year’s Mid-Am but competed in the event in 2013 and 2014.
Cassetta, who competed in the Mid-Am in 2015 and moved to Virginia from North Carolina this year, shot 69 to earn a spot through qualifying at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in August. Cassetta survived a serious car accident in 2009 that left him with a shattered let humerus, several cracked ribs and a fractured scapula. Ten months later, he won the Forsyth Country Amateur in Winston-Salem.
Tallent, who at 63 was set to be the oldest player in the field, was exempt from qualifying thanks to his win in the 2014 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. He withdrew, though, and did not participate this weekend. Sughrue, Tallent’s partner at the VSGA Four-Ball Championship in May, is competing in his sixth Mid-Am. Muehr is also competing in his sixth U.S. Mid-Amateur. He advanced to match play in four of his previous five appearances, including a trip to the quarterfinals in 2011.
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager of digital media.