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By Sara Buechler
HOT SPRINGS — The end is near for the Virginia State Golf Association Senior and Super Senior Women’s Amateur Championships at The Omni Homestead Resort. Dot Bolling and Fran Hensley earned their spots in the Super Senior championship match. Meanwhile, defending champion Andrea Miller advanced to the Senior semifinals.
Top-seeded Bolling (Hidden Valley CC) won her match against Marie Anderson (Army Navy CC) 3 and 2 Wednesday.
“It was an OK round,” Bolling said. “I didn’t make any birdies, but my putting was good.”
She continued by saying her making four on the par-3 hole 5 was the highlight of her day because she lost her ball and had to hit from the tee box again.
As the defending champion, Bolling does have a certain expectation of herself to make it to the finals.
“Tomorrow, I will be a lot more relaxed,” Bolling said. “Even though I am playing for the championship, I am still going into it relaxed,” she continued. “You can’t take any competitor for granted because the two I played [Tillie Aguiar and Marie Anderson] were tough.”
Fran Hensley (Forest Park CC) also won her match 3 and 2 against Barbara Wetters (Williamsburg GC).
“I was able to stay focused today,” Hensley said. “I had some good holes, I had some bad holes, but I was able to overcome that part of it, and I stayed with it.”
Hensley started off her round strong, winning holes 1, 3, 4 and 5, but then tied with Wetters on hole 11.
“On some of the holes I was on, I misread some putts,” Hensley said. “Putting is always an issue with me because I want to make every single one of them.”
When asked if she has a strategy going into the championship match, Hensley only laughed and said, “playing Dot; Dot is my strategy.” As the finalist in 2019, she said it’s a good feeling to be back in the finals and she hopes to do a lot better this time around.
In the Senior championship, Shelley Savage (Army Navy CC) won her match against stroke-play medalist Boodie McGurn (CC of Virginia) 6 and 5.
Savage started off her round great by winning the first hole. She said it’s rare for her to hit the first green in two, but she hit two nice shots. Compared to Tuesday, Savage played steadier, making key putts and chipping better, she said.
“Anything from here, the way I look at it, is gravy,” Savage said. “You’re lucky to get this far in this kind of competition.”
Savage had a winning streak between holes 10-12. On 10, Savage said she hit a nice drive and then a wedge up to 3 or 4 feet from the hole and made the putt, and on 12, she chipped up to 2.5 feet and made the putt.
Savage has previously won the Senior championship three times and has also made it to the finals a handful of times in recent years.
“The big story this week is being happy to make championship flight because there are so many good players here and three former champions that didn’t even make the championship flight,” Savage said. “This is just an accomplishment to make championship flight, and to win two matches is phenomenal for me.”
At under 5 feet tall, Savage laughed and said the real success to her playing is “pure power and brute strength.”
The No. 2 seed, the defending champion Miller (The Club at Glenmore), is still in the running, winning her match against Cheryl Grigg (CC of Virginia) 5 and 4.
“I’m hitting the ball really well, and I am putting well,” Miller said. “I think with the heat, I got a little fatigued and got sloppy on the 13th hole, but other than that, I played steady and strong.”
Miller achieved her goal of mostly making pars and birdies when it comes to match play, and she has her putting to thank for that.
“I had a couple five and six footers that I had to make, and I couldn’t miss them, so I putted confidently and made them,” Miller said.
Besides hole 10, Miller won holes 7-12 which all but secured her win.
Going into the semifinals, Miller said she isn’t nervous because with every match getting more difficult, she doesn’t have time to get nervous about making it, she just has to play her best.
Also advancing to the semifinals on Thursday is Joanne Kitusky (The Dominion Club) who won her match against Shawn McCullough (Mount Vernon CC) 6 and 5, and Mary Cabriele (CC of Fairfax) who won her match against Katie Cox (Spotswood CC) 2 and 1.
Buechler is a P.J. Boatwright intern with the VSGA.