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By Arthur Utley
VIRGINIA BEACH – Soon-to-be member of the Virginia Tech golf
team Becca DiNunzio of Norfolk posted a par round of 70 at Princess Anne
Country Club on Monday to claim the overnight lead after the first round of
stroke-play qualifying for the 94th VSGA Women’s Amateur
Championship.
No one in the field
of 30 broke par. DiNunzio, who graduated from Granby High last month, was
1-under for her round until she bogeyed the 18th hole.
DiNunzio is one
shot ahead of Old Dominion University women’s golf team coach Mallory Hetzel,
who returned 1-over 71.
Trailing by three
after each posted 3-over 73 are Katie Muscatello of Blacksburg and Kendall
Turner of Chesapeake.
Grace Huffman of
Fairfield and Danielle Suh of Herndon each shot 74 and are four back.
Muscatello
(Virginia Tech) and Huffman (Longwood) are collegiate players. Turner, who will
begin her career at James Madison later this summer, and Suh come from the
junior ranks.
Tuesday’s second
round of qualifying will determine the 16 players who will advance to match
play on Wednesday. The stroke-play medalist earns the top seed in match play. Seventeen
players are at 79 or better through the first round.
The five players in
the field who made match play a year ago – Turner, Rory Weinfurther (76) of
Midlothian, Sidney Walker (77) of Springfield, Diana Domenech (78) of Henrico
and reigning VSGA Junior Girls champion Jayde Dudley (79) of Roanoke – are
among the 17.
The match-play
round of 16 and quarterfinals are scheduled for Wednesday with the semifinals
and final set for Thursday.
DiNunzio made
back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes and turned at 1-under after
a bogey at No. 4. Birdies at Nos. 10 and 16 were offset by bogeys at Nos. 11,
15 and 18 on the inward nine.
“My ball striking
was really good. I hit one of the par 5s in two, left me with an eagle putt
which is nice. I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, and I’m hoping to
continue that tomorrow and maybe some more putts will drop tomorrow as well,”
DiNunzio said.
“I’m just going to
keep doing what I did today. Focus on every shot and not get too impatient or
anything because it is just qualifying for the match play. Winning the stroke
play portion would definitely be nice; it’s a good honor…so hopefully another
good round tomorrow will get me in a good position.”
The bogey at 18
came after DiNunzio missed the fairway off the tee, had to deal with some
trees, missed the green on her third shot and didn’t get up and down. She
described the bogey as a bummer and noted it came on a par 5 as well.
Hetzel logged
birdies at the ninth and 17th holes but gave strokes back with
bogeys at the second, 12th and 13th.
“I just scored
well. I didn’t feel like I did anything particularly great. I made a few putts
when I had to; made a few really nice up and downs when I had to…just all
around a good solid scoring day. I scrambled when I needed to and got a few
breaks,” Hetzel said. “You’re just trying to make the top 16 and then the whole
tournament resets after that. I was just trying to avoid any huge numbers and
not taking any unnecessary risks, try to keep the ball in play, plod along and
understand that whether it’s one or 16, if you’re in the top 16 you are good to
go.”
No previous winners
of the tournament are in the field. Last year’s Amateur champion, Lauren
Greenlief, is playing a national schedule this year and is competing in the
North & South Women’s Amateur Championship in Pinehurst, N.C. Virginia Tech
graduate Amanda Hollandsworth, last year’s runner-up, has turned professional.
“It really stinks [that they aren't in the field],” Hetzel said. “They are such great competitors, and there certainly is a void without them here. We wish Amanda the very best as she pursues her professional career. Lauren is working really hard to build up her world amateur ranking…she has a lot of lofty goals for her amateur career.”
Said DiNunzio, “We
all have a chance at this one. I feel like it’s anybody’s [to win] this time.
We’ll be OK.”
Utley is a retired Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer and frequent
contributor to VSGA championship coverage.