98th VSGA Women's Amateur Championship
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Dates: Tuesday, July 25 - Thursday, July 27
Format: One round of stroke-play qualifying with the top 16 players advancing to championship-flight match play. The remaining players will be placed in consolation flights. Round of 16 and quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday, with the semifinals and 18-hole championship match scheduled for Thursday.
Host site: Cedar Point Club
Day 3: Makayla Grubb wins 98th VSGA Women's Amateur
(Makayla Grubb breathes a sigh of relief after sinking the winning birdie putt. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
SUFFOLK -- Rising Colonial Forge High School junior Makayla Grubb entered this week as a relative unknown on the Virginia women's golf scene.
No longer.
Grubb sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole on Thursday at Cedar Point Club for a 1-up victory over stroke-play medalist Melanie Walker in the championship match of the 98th Virginia State Golf Association Women's Amateur Championship.
Grubb, a member at Augustine Golf Club in Stafford, became the third junior winner of the event since 2019, joining Rory Weinfurther and Tatum Walsh. And she recorded the victory in her debut in the event, navigating sweltering conditions as temperatures reached 95 degrees and the heat index made it felt closer to 105.
Walker was the latest impressive opponent that Grubb defeated in her run to the championship. She opened with a win over Roanoke's Kathryn Ha, who on Thursday was named to the U.S. roster for the 2023 Junior Solheim Cup team. In the quarterfinals, she ousted past USGA champion and two-time Women's Amateur champion Lauren Greenlief. On Thursday morning, she bested Old Dominion women's golf coach Mallory Kane. And she defeated Walker, the University of Missouri sophomore, in the final.
Not bad for a 16-year-old.
"It's really huge," said Grubb (pronounced Groob). "It's an exciting tournament to win. I've been working really hard on my game so it's good to see it finally show itself. It's really exciting, especially with the amount of competition and the great players I had to beat. ... It's kind of surreal."
The final match was an incredibly tight affair in which Grubb never trailed but also never held more than a 1-up lead. The heat began to affect both players on the back nine. Walker chose to walk during the week and didn't relent on that strategy until she started to feel overheated after hitting her tee shot on 13. After tying the match with an up-and-down from the bunker for par on 13, she jumped in a cart for the remaining five holes.
"I tried to walk all of it, and I think that really caught up to me, with the heat advisory," Walker said. "It's either spending more time in the gym trying to figure it out, or be more aware of my limits and what I need to do."
Walker, who defeated Delaware's Christina Carroll in the semifinals, didn't lean on the heat as an excuse, instead choosing to praise Grubb's play. Grubb made two huge putts down the stretch: an uphill 25-footer for birdie to win No. 14 and the final putt on 18.
Walker hit her tee shot on the final hole some 40 yards behind Grubb's drive, and her approach went to the far right side of the green, leaving her about a 45-foot putt for birdie. She had plenty of work left for par after her lag putt, but Grubb never gave her a chance to tie the hole, making her birdie putt to clinch the win.
"I honestly just took a deep breath in, deep breath out, and I was like, 'You've got this,'" Grubb said. "I said, 'Trust your line,' and then I putted it and it went in. ... Yeah, it was pretty nervy."
She controlled those nerves like a champion.
Notable:
- Grubb is good friends with Grayson Wood, the VSGA Amateur champion who also won his final match 1 up.
- Winners were crowned in four non-championship flights:
- First flight: Addie Doroh (Birdwood Golf at Boar's Head Resort) def. Amber Mackiewicz (VSGA Junior Golf Circuit), 3 and 2
- Second flight: Faith Garcia (Cedar Point Club) def. Lillian McDermott (VSGA JGC), 6 and 5
- Third flight: Katie Hall (Glenrochie CC) def. Elizabeth Coffren (VSGA eClub), 3 and 2
- Fourth flight: Alexis Danielle Goboy (VSGA JGC) def. Kyndall Campbell (First Tee Greater Washington DC), 22 holes
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Day 2: Medalist Walker among four semifinalists
(Pictured: Melanie Walker. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
SUFFOLK -- Stroke-play medalist Melanie Walker, the University of Delaware's Christina Carroll, Old Dominion women's golf coach Mallory Kane, and rising Colonial Forge High School junior Makayla Grubb all won two matches on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals of the 98th Virginia State Golf Association Women's Amateur Championship at Cedar Point Club.
Walker, a member at Springfield Golf & Country Club and sophomore at the University of Missouri, bested Langley High School's Alina Ho 5 and 3 in the morning before defeating her U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball partner Sydney Hackett 2 and 1 in the quarterfinals. Hackett is set to start her second season at Western Kentucky University this fall.
Carroll, who finished tied for third at the Women's Open of Virginia in June, ousted Hidden Valley Country Club's Macy Johnson 3 and 2 in the round of 16 before slipping past 2022 Women's Amateur finalist Danielle Suh 1 up in the quarterfinals. She'll meet Walker in the semifinals.
Kane, a finalist in the 2019 VSGA Women's Amateur, defeated Paris Fieldings 3 and 2 in the morning before beating High Point's Vynie Chen 5 and 4 in the afternoon. She'll face the 16-year-old Grubb, who ousted the only past champion in this year's field, two-time winner Lauren Greenlief, 1 up by making a two-putt par on 18.
Semifinal action is slated to begin at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, with the 18-hole final scheduled for an 11:30 a.m. start.
Notable:
- Walker is making her third appearance in the semifinals since 2019. She lost to Kane at Princess Anne that year and fell to eventual champion Tatum Walsh in 2020.
- Hackett knocked Walker's sister Raquel out in the round of 16. Raquel then jumped on the bag to caddie for Melanie in the quarterfinal round.
- Walker rallied from 2 down at the turn to defeat Hackett. She won holes 11 and 13 with pars before making a birdie on the par-5 14th to take the lead for good. Walker finished with birdies on three of her last four holes.
- Carroll was 4 up on Suh through 13 holes when played was delayed for dangerous weather in the area. Suh came out of the break firing, winning three straight holes to come to 17 down just one. But the players halved the final two holes with pars, securing the win for Carroll.
- Chen won the first hole against Kane but didn't win another hole until making a birdie on No. 12. By that time, she was down four, and Kane was able to close the match out with a par on 14.
- Grubb lost the first two holes of her match with Greenlief when the 2015 U.S. Women's Amateur champion birdied the first two holes. The match went back and forth but Greenlief still led 2-up through 12 before Grubb won the next two holes. Grubb made birdie on 17 to take the lead and both players were in the fairway on 18 when the delay hit. Greenlief missed a long birdie putt on 18 and Grubb made a two-putt par to secure the win.
- Kane is the lone semifinalist to have reached the final of the VSGA Women's Amateur.
- Grubb is vying to become the third junior golfer to win the title since 2019. Rory Weinfurther won the title as a junior that year, and Walsh won as a junior in 2020.
- Click on the Instagram post below for interviews with the four semifinalists.
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Day 1: Melanie Walker earns stroke-play medalist honor
(Pictured: Melanie Walker. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
SUFFOLK -- Springfield Golf & Country Club's Melanie Walker posted a 3-under-par 69 on Tuesday at Cedar Point Club to earn stroke-play qualifying medalist honors at the 98th Virginia State Golf Association Women's Amateur Championship.
Walker will be the No. 1 seed in the 16-player championship match-play flight and will open play on Wednesday morning at 8 against No. 16 seed Alina Ho, who was the VHSL 6A individual champion last season for Langley High School.
Walker, who plays at the University of Missouri, finished a stroke clear of High Point University's Vynie Chen, a member at Twin Lakes Golf Course. Chen returned a 2-under-par 70. Four players tied for third at 1-under 71: two-time Women's Amateur champion Lauren Greenlief (International CC); 2022 finalist Danielle Suh, a teammate of Chen's at High Point; Roanoke Country Club's Kathryn Ha; and Hidden Valley Country Club's Macy Johnson.
Walker finished with four birdies and a bogey. She erased the lone bogey on No. 11 by making a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 12 before parring her final six holes.
The round of 16 and quarterfinals in the championship flight are scheduled for Wednesday. The semifinals and 18-hole championship match are scheduled for Thursday.
Notable:
- Walker is a two-time semifinalist at the Women's Amateur. She fell to eventual champion Tatum Walsh in 2020 and lost to Old Dominion women's golf coach Mallory Hetzel (now Kane) in 2019.
- Walker's younger sister Raquel shot an even-par 72 to tie for seventh and advance to championship-flight match play. The sisters won the 7th VSGA Women's Four-Ball Championship in May. If both win, they would meet in the quarterfinals.
- Sydney Hackett and Melanie Walker have played together in two U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball championships. Hackett will face Raquel Walker in the round of 16.
- Chen finished with four birdies and two bogeys. She had a chance to join Walker as medalist but bogeyed the 18th hole.
- Chen was a semifinalist last year at Meadowbrook, where she lost to Suh. The other semifinalist from 2022 in the field, Amber Mackiewicz, posted a 5-over 77 and did not make the championship flight.
- Those who did not advance to the championship flight were flighted in consolation brackets. Those can be found at the championship website.
- An interview with Melanie Walker can be found at the end of the Instagram post below.
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