Photos [icon name="facebook-official" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Semifinal Recap | Round 1 recap
By Arthur Utley
RICHMOND – As many times as the Country Club of Virginia and Mount Vernon Country Club have played each other in the championship match of the Virginia State Golf Association Women’s State Team Matches, none has been as closely contested as Thursday’s final at CCV’s Tuckahoe Creek course.
No. 2 seed Mount Vernon (Alexandria) squeaked by defending champion and top seeded CCV 27½-26½ and claimed its 13th title overall. CCV, trying to win its third championship in four years, also has 13 titles overall.
Army Navy CC (Arlington and Fairfax) holds the record for most wins (15) but hasn’t won in years and did not have a team in the field this year.
This was the 71st renewal of the second oldest, and perhaps most popular, tournament on the VSGA women’s schedule, and it was the fourth straight year the two clubs have played in the final.
The last time the tournament was held at CCV was in 2008 on the club’s James River course. Mount Vernon won that one, too.
In the format, each club is comprised of three (A, B and C) two-player teams with each hole worth a single point for 54 points total.
CCV’s “A” side of Boodie McGurn and Lindsay Wortham halved their match with Mount Vernon’s Linda DiVall and Debbie Simpson 9-9. CCV’s “C” tandem of Natalie Easterly and first-time participant Libbie Warner defeated Joan Gardner and Katie Cox 9½-8½. Mount Vernon’s Susan Podolsky and Shawn McCullough provided the tying and winning points with a 10-8 victory over Brenda Baril and rookie Liza Lewis.
“I’m still shocked and speechless. I mean to win by just one against CCV on their course. It could have gone either way. We are well aware of that. Two of our teams were down at one point and came back,” said DiVall, the team captain. “We just believed we could do it. We were inspired by Shawn McCullough this year. She’s overcoming cancer, and she made an effort to be here, and I think we were all inspired by the grittiness of her performance.”
Mount Vernon’s six players combined have well over 50 years of experience in this event. DiVall refers to the group as “steady veterans.” McCullough put together Mount Vernon’s first team in 1990. The club lost in the final to neighboring Belle Haven CC at Belle Haven that year. The same six made up the team that beat CCV at CCV’s James River course in 2008.
“Playing against Boodie and Lindsay, I knew it was going to be a tough match. They got up two, and we fought back. It ended up just the way it should have, dead even. I’m so proud of my team for hanging in there and fighting back under difficult circumstances,” DiVall said. “One point, it doesn’t get any closer than that…It came down to the very end. They have a growing team. They have some young people. It’s really nice to see. We have steady veterans and today it worked…The competition was friendly, but it was tense.”
CCV shuffled its lineup for the third day in a row. Mount Vernon changed its lineup after Tuesday’s qualifying round then stuck with the same groupings for the match play days.
McGurn, the CCV captain, and Wortham knew the overall match was close, but that’s all they knew.
“Usually we know somewhere on the course, like we get word that somebody’s doing this, and we did not know cause somebody was like we don’t know if they’re 3 up or 2 up; we don’t know if they’re 2 down,” McGurn said.
They knew they needed to win the last hole to square their match. McGurn sank her birdie putt on the par-5 18th with Wortham in position as well. They circled back onto the course and found out the “B” side had lost by two points. They knew Easterly and Warner had had a substantial lead, but Gardner and Cox closed the gap for Mount Vernon.
“We were pulling for a playoff, but we lost by one. They played great. Natalie made a good point at lunch (the teams sat together)…This whole thing for Shawn. It lifted them up.”
In the remaining flights, the stiff competition in Wednesday’s semifinal matches -- three matches ended in ties and went extra holes to determine finalists – set the stage for Thursday’s finals.
The playoff winners were Williamsburg GC, Evergreen CC and James River CC. The Golf Club at The Highlands and Belmont (Henrico) GC won their Wednesday matches by one point.
In the finals, No. 1 seed Williamsburg GC went on the win the first flight. No. 2 seed The Highlands captured the second flight over Evergreen. Top seed The Dominion Club claimed the third flight, and third-seeded Belmont, which lost in last year’s fourth flight final by two points, edged top seed Ivy Hill GC by a point.
THURSDAY FINALS
CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT
No. 2 Mount Vernon CC def. No. 1 Country Club of Virginia 27½-26½.
FIRST FLIGHT
No. 1 Williamsburg CC def. No. 2 Brandermill CC 30-24.
SECOND FLIGHT
No. 2 GC at The Highlands def. No. 1 Evergreen CC 30-24.
THIRD FLIGHT
No. 1 The Dominion Club def. No. 2 James River CC 29-25.
FOURTH FLIGHT
No. 3 Belmont (Henrico) GC def. No. 1 Ivy Hill GC 27½-26½.
Retired Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Arthur Utley is a frequent contributor to coverage of VSGA championships.