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By Chris Lang
LORTON — For all Lauren Greenlief has accomplished in golf, there’s one hole on her resume: A title in the Virginia State Golf Association’s Women’s Amateur Championship.
A three-time finalist, Greenlief (International CC) put herself in great position on Monday to secure a strong seed for match play at the 92nd VSGA Women’s Amateur at Laurel Hill Golf Club. Greenlief posted one of three par-or-better rounds Monday, a 2-under 69 that gave her a one-shot lead over Caroline Curtis heading into Tuesday’s second round of stroke-play qualifying.
“I’ve had some pretty close calls,” said Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion. “It’s the one tournament on my schedule that I haven’t won before, and it definitely would mean a lot. Every year I go into it, I try to focus and play my best. If it happens, it happens. If not, we’re going to keep plugging away and keep trying.”
The top 16 players after Tuesday’s second round will advance to match play, which begins on Wednesday with round of 16 and quarterfinal matches. Greenlief isn’t the only accomplished player near the top of the leaderboard after 18 holes.
Curtis (Hermitage CC) is a two-time VSGA Junior Girls Golfer of the Year and a two-time Women’s Amateur semifinalist. She rebounded from a rough front nine to shoot 31 on the back and return a 1-under 70. Victoria Tip-Aucha (VSGA Junior Golf Circuit), fresh off her second straight win in the VSGA Junior Girls’ Championship, shot an even-par 71 and is in third.
Alexandra Austin (Springfield G&CC), the 2016 VSGA Women’s Golfer of the Year, is tied for fourth with Karishma Thiagaraj (Dominion Valley CC) after both shot 1-over 72s. Lurking inside the top 16 are 2017 VSGA Women’s Stroke Play champion Amanda Hollandsworth (Great Oaks CC) and two-time defending VSGA Women’s Amateur champion Abby Portyrata (The First Tee of Greater Richmond). Hollandsworth shot 74 and Portyrata shot 76.
Greenlief’s round hit a snag on No. 12 when she was indecisive on the tee, chose driver, and hit a ball into a hazard. She failed to get up and down from behind the green and made double bogey. She didn’t let that bit of misfortune derail her round, however. She birdied the par-3 14th, bogeyed 15, then birdied her final two holes to finish the back nine even.
“I just tried to shake it off,” Greenlief said. “It’s early in the tournament, and if you’re going to make a double, today’s the day to do it.”
Curtis shot 39 on the front to make the turn at 3 over. She was bogey free on the back nine, though, and made four birdies, including three in a row from holes 15-17.
“It’s kind of drastic,” said Curtis, who was the stroke-play medalist in last year’s Women’s Amateur. “I didn’t have any putts fall for me on the front nine. I just didn’t really have the numbers. I didn’t feel comfortable on the course yet. But on the back, things started coming together for me. I made my first putt on 13, and when that dropped, I started getting the numbers I wanted and I started feeling really comfortable.”
Tip-Aucha, coming off a 10-stroke victory in the VSGA Junior Girls’ Championship last week, had to survive a rough patch of her own on Monday. She was 1 under before making consecutive bogeys on 13 and 14. She rebounded with a birdie on 15 to pull back even and closed her round with three straight pars.
Austin, who played college golf at Radford and Thiagaraj, who played at James Madison, both shot 37-35 to finish 1 over. Both players finished inside the top five at the VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in June, so their strong play was not surprising.
“The course was challenging, so course management was big for me,” Thiagaraj said. “I wasn’t hitting driver a lot off the tee. I was hitting a lot of woods off the tee, just trying to avoid the hazards, because once you get in there, it’s a couple of strokes to get out. Just playing smart.”
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager, Digital Media for the VSGA.