Scoring [icon name="external-link" class="" unprefixed_class=""] | Photos [icon name="facebook-official" class="" unprefixed_class=""]
By Chris Lang
PETERSBURG—Lauren Greenlief and Katie Miller met in 2015 at Squire Creek Country Club in Louisiana, where Greenlief won the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. After playing a practice round together, they struck up a fast friendship and figured it was only a matter of time that they would partner in four-ball competitions.
They had too much in common. They’re both high-level mid-amateur competitors (they were two of the three stroke-play medalists at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), and they both had previous partners turn professional. Greenlief and Miller played together for the first time in 2017 and qualified for this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, and that partnership proved fruitful again Tuesday at the Country Club of Petersburg.
Greenlief, the two-time reigning VSGA Women’s Amateur champion, and Miller, who lives in Pennsylvania, posted an 8-under-par 64 to earn the lone spot available for the 2019 championship, finishing four strokes clear of the field.
The 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be held April 27-May 1 at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla. Greenlief and Miller missed the match-play cut at this year’s championship, and they’ll be out to prove that performance was a fluke.
“It was pretty disappointing,” Greenlief said. “Katie and I talked before, and in previous four-balls, just getting to the championship was generally harder than making match play. Fifty percent of the field makes match play. Neither of us played well. We didn’t ham and egg, which was a bummer. But we wanted to give it another go.”
The duo switched their order off the tee, with Greenlief hitting first, and that paid off Tuesday. The side shot 4-under 32 on each of CCP’s nines, and as Greenlief put it, “Katie lit it up.”
On the par-5 11th, Miller hit her third shot from next to a greenside bunker. The ball was fluffed up perfectly, and she drained a chip for a key eagle. On the par-3 12th, Miller ran in a 25-foot putt for birdie, a 3-under swing over two holes that pretty much cemented their qualifying spot.
“I actually liked the lie, even though it was in the rough there,” Miller said of the eagle chip. “I hit a really good second shot, and I thought it was going to skip up onto the green. When it came up short, I was a little surprised. It set up well. It was a little bit uphill once it got on the green, and it was pretty straight. No big breaks on the green from the angle I had, and I liked the lie.”
Greenlief and Miller won the Women’s International Four-Ball this past winter in Florida, and they plan to attempt to defend that title in 2019 as a warm-up event to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball.
Old Dominion women’s golf coach Mallory Hetzel and former University of Virginia player Jessica Merrill will be the first alternates from Petersburg after posting a 4-under 68. They were within a shot of Greenlief and Miller at the turn but couldn’t sustain their momentum on the back. After a birdie on No. 11, they made par on the final seven holes.
Juniors Tatum Walsh and Danielle Suh earned the second alternate spot, posting a 2-under-par 70. They were two strokes better than Maryland juniors Jenny Hua and Amanda Levy.