Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Match play bracket [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Preview [icon name="file-pdf-o" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Day 1 recap
HOT SPRINGS — The No. 1 seed moved on Tuesday in the round of 16 at the 61st Virginia State Golf Association Senior Women’s Amateur Championship. The defending champion, however, did not.
Cheryl Grigg, the stroke-play qualifying medalist on Monday, survived a difficult first-round matchup with past champion Dot Bolling of Salem Tuesday at The Omni Homestead Resort’s Old Course, winning 1 up to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
On the other end of the bracket, defending tournament champion Mary Cabriele of Vienna (CC of Fairfax) bowed out, losing her match to Alexandria’s Joan Gardner (Mount Vernon CC).
The quarterfinals will be held at Wednesday, with championship flight matches beginning at 10:53 a.m. The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday morning and the 18-hole championship match is slated to begin at 9:17 a.m. on Friday.
Grigg, a member at Richmond’s Country Club of Virginia, fell behind after two holes against Bolling, the 2001 Senior Women’s Amateur champion who reached the final as recently at 2016. Grigg won holes 3 and 4 to go 1 up and never trailed again in the match.
Bolling (Hidden Valley CC) kept the pressure on Grigg, even after falling 2 down after eight holes. Bolling squared the match by winning holes 10 and 11, but Grigg took the lead for good with a par on 13. The pair halved the final five holes as Grigg advanced.
Grigg’s reward is a quarterfinal matchup with another past champion, four-time winner Mimi Hoffman of Springfield (Belle Haven CC). Hoffman, who beat Bolling in 2016 for her most recent championship, defeated Ridgeway’s Fran Hensley (Gordon Trent GC) 3 and 2. With the match all square at the turn, Hoffman won holes 10, 13 and 16 to clinch the match.
The top four seeds in the championship flight advanced to Wednesday’s quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Natalie Easterly of Charlottesville (CC of Virginia), easily defeated fellow CCV member Lindsay Wortham 6 and 5. She’ll see another familiar face in the quarterfinals: No. 10 seed Boodie McGurn, a CCV member who topped North Chesterfield’s Lisa Cox (Meadowbrook CC) 1 up in another round of 16 match.
McGurn held a 2-up lead after making a birdie on 16. Cox made things interesting by winning 17 with a par, but the pair halved the final hole as McGurn moved on.
No. 3 seed Shelley Savage of Alexandria (Army Navy CC) defeated Roanoke’s Valeta Pittman 4 and 3. Savage, who won the VSGA Senior Women’s Stroke Play Championship in June, will meet Gardner in the quarterfinals.
Gardner took control early in her match with Cabriele, nabbing a 3-up led five holes into the match. Cabriele chipped away and pulled even by making a par on No. 13. Gardner’s birdie on No. 16 gave her the 1-up lead, and she made par on No. 18 to win that hole and win the match 2 up.
No. 4 seed Cindy Thompson of Keswick (Glenmore CC) will meet Salem’s Sara Cole (Blacksburg CC) in another quarterfinal match. Thompson survived a back-and-forth match with Williamsburg’s Barbara Wetters (Williamsburg GC) to advance. She led 2 up after 13 holes, but Wetters won holes 14 and 16 to even the match. Thompson won the final two holes to advance 2 up.
Cole defeated Alexandria’s Linda DiVall (Mount Vernon CC) in 19 holes, in the only match Tuesday to go past the 18th hole. DiVall held a 3-up lead through eight holes, but Cole methodically chipped away, tying the match with a birdie on No. 15. She made a birdie on the par-5 1st hole to win the match.
The Senior Women’s Amateur Championship also features play in six non-championship division flights. For full results, please click the match play brackets link at the top of this release.