Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Match play brackets [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Qualifying round recap | Championship preview [icon name="file-pdf-o" class="" unprefixed_class=""]
By Arthur Utley
HOT SPRINGS — Defending champion Mimi Hoffman (Belle Haven Country Club, Springfield) and three-time champion Shelley Savage (Army Navy CC, Alexandria) scored victories in matches against other past champions and advanced to the quarterfinals of match play at the 60th Virginia State Golf Association Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.
Three of the six past champions who qualified for match play – Hoffman, Savage and Fran Hensley (Gordon Trent GC, Ridgeway) – made it through the round of 16 Tuesday on the Old Course at The Omni Homestead Resort.
Hoffman, a four-time champion, had the toughest road, winning on the 20th hole against three-time winner Linda DiVall (Mount Vernon CC, Alexandria). Savage routed three-time champion Boodie McGurn (CCV, Richmond) 6 and 5. Hensley, the most senior competitor in the field at the age of 73 and the 1999 Senior Women’s Amateur champion, recorded a 3 and 2 victory over Kay Tyler (Belle Haven CC, Springfield).
The top two seeds, medalist Bev Lane (Reston National, Great Falls) and No. 2 Natalie Easterly (CC of Virginia, Charlottesville), were soundly defeated. Lisa Cox (Meadowbrook CC, North Chesterfield) eliminated Lane 5 and 4, and Joan Gardner (Mount Vernon CC, Alexandria) took out Easterly, the reigning VSGA Senior Women’s Stroke Play and Senior Women’s Four-Ball champion, 4 and 3.
Past finalist Cindy Morris (Elizabeth Manor G&CC, Portsmouth) squeaked by another past finalist, Lindsay Wortham (CCV, Richmond), 1 up, in the only other close match.
In the lower bracket, past finalist Joanne Kitusky (The Dominion Club, Glen Allen) registered a 4 and 3 victory over past finalist Sherry Bowman (Montclair CC, Manassas), and two-time Senior Women’s Stroke Play champion Mary Cabriele (CC of Fairfax, Vienna) beat Nevia Cashwell (GC at The Highlands, Chesterfield) 4 and 3.
Cabriele eliminated Cashwell by the same score in last year’s round of 16, and she faces Hensley for the second year in a row in the quarterfinals.
Hoffman built a 2 up lead through 11 holes, but DiVall won the 12th and 13th holes (back-to-back par 5s) with pars to pull even. DiVall went 1 up at No. 16, but Hoffman birdied the 17th for all square. Each made par on the par-3 18th and birdied the par-5 first (19th) before Hoffman advanced with a match-winning par on the par-3 20th hole. Hoffman plays Morris in the quarterfinals.
Morris fell behind when Wortham won the 5th through 8th holes to go 3 up, but she battled back to draw even with a birdie at the par-4 14th and an eagle at the par-5 15th. She won the match with a birdie on the par-3 18th.
Savage, the last player to win the tournament in back-to-back years (2012-13), spent the least amount of time on the course Tuesday, losing just one hole to McGurn.
Savage plays Cox in the quarters. Cox, who had to win a playoff to advance to match play, was 3 up at the turn against Lane, a first-time participant in the Senior Women’s Am, won the 10th and 13th to go 5 up then rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on the par-4 14th when Lane was sitting 3 feet from the cup for birdie.
“Oh, my gosh. I’m still shocked I think,” said Cox, who played with Lane in Monday’s qualifying round. “I haven’t played well this year…but I had my putter working today and that was the difference from (Monday). She (Lane) made all the putts (to win the medal with 1-under 71), and she didn’t make any today…I felt like I was stroking my putts today. I didn’t have any birdies (in qualifying), and I had four today…The golf gods were with me a little more today…I think I have shocked the entire field.”
Cox, playing in her sixth Senior Women’s Am, advanced to the quarters for the first time. She lost to Hensley on the 19th hole in the first round a year ago. Cox and Savage have played against each other in the past.
Like Cox, Kitusky bounced back from a first-round, extra-hole loss (to McGurn) last year to reach the quarterfinals. She won three holes in a row (Nos. 11-13) against Bowman, lost the 14th to a birdie, but closed the match out with a birdie at the 15th.
Kitusky, who lost to Savage in the 2013 final, is aiming to hit fairways and greens “then relying on my putting. If I miss a green, I seem to be able to get up and down. It’s the putter. I’m pretty consistent with that…a lot of confidence.”
Kitusky squares off against Gardner, who won three of the first five holes and never trailed against Easterly.
Kitusky and Gardner are among the core group of senior women who have played against each other for years and not just in the Senior Women’s Amateur.
“All of us have played each other so many times. We’ve won; we’ve lost. It’s just who is the better player that day, basically,” Kitusky said. “You go out there with a positive attitude…You give it your best. Put a smile on your face… It’s match play. It will be a lot of fun.”
Cabriele and Cashwell were all square before Cabriele won four consecutive holes (Nos. 8-11) to build an insurmountable lead.
Cabriele defeated Hensley in last year’s elite eight. Henley’s victory over Tyler on Tuesday thwarted the possible pairing of Cabriele and Tyler, the co-captains of the winning Virginias team in the recent Women’s Virginias-Carolinas Matches.
First-round losers drop into the championship consolation flight. Matches also are being played in five other flights. First-round losers in those flights drop into consolation flights as well.
Retired Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Arthur Utley is a frequent contributor to coverage of VSGA championships.