Championship website | Scoring | Record book
Dates: Tuesday, August 5 - Thursday, August 7
Format: One round of stroke-play qualifying on Tuesday. The top four teams will advance to the championship flight, while all remaining teams will be flighted into consolation brackets. The semifinals in each bracket will be played Wednesday, with the final matches in each bracket scheduled for Thursday. Each team consists of six players split into three two-player sides. In match play, one point is available per hole, and each match is played to completion. The points from each of the three matches are then added up to determine the final score. Example: Team 1's A side wins 12-6 against Team 2's A side; Team 2's B side wins 9.5-8.5 against Team 1's B side; Team 1's C side ties Team 2's C side 9-9. The result is Team 1 wins 29.5-24.5.
Host site: Hermitage Country Club (Manakin Course)
Day 3: Mount Vernon claims title in a playoff
(Kim Palko, left, celebrates with Linda DiVall after making birdie on the first playoff hole. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
By Chris Lang
MANAKIN SABOT -- It was everything Bide-A-Wee's Mallory Kane wanted out of a putt. Until it wasn't.
Kane said she thought she hit the perfect putt on the second playoff hole of the 79th Virginia State Golf Association Women's State Team Matches on Thursday at Hermitage Country Club. Mount Vernon's Kim Palko had just sunk a kick-in birdie putt of her own, and as Kane's answer barreled toward the hole, thoughts turned to a third playoff hole. Then the putt caught enough of the edge to do a full 360 spin out of the cup, leaving Kane to recoil in horror and Mount Vernon to celebrate.
The teams finished regulation tied at 27, necessitating the playoff. Palko birdied both playoff holes to help the club to its record tying 16th victory in the event and its second in a row. It also knotted the series in championship matches between the clubs at one apiece, with Bide-A-Wee winning the first time the teams met in 2023.
"I thought it was going in," Palko said of Kane's putt. "From where I stood, I was ready to go to No. 3. And I don't know how many birdies I had left in me. I feel bad because it's tough to lip out a putt and lose like that, but she played great all day. She's obviously a fantastic golfer, and it was a lot of fun."
The regulation matches between the sides were tight. Bide-A-Wee's Leah Onosato and Gigi Smith topped Susan Podolsky and Joan Gardner 10-8. MVCC's Sarah Alvarez and Shawn McCullough beat Pam Fisher and Carley Rudolf 10.5-7.5. Kane and Cyndi Carlson barely beat Palko and DiVall in regulation, winning 9.5-8.5 to set up the playoff.
Event rules forced each club to pick one side to play in the playoff, leading essentially to an extension of the Kane/Carlson vs. Palko/DiVall match. On the first playoff hole, Palko hit her approach to 6 feet, only to be one-upped by Kane, the Old Dominion University women's golf coach who spun a wedge back to inside 2 feet. Knowing Kane was essentially in for birdie, Palko settled her nerves and drained her downhill putt to extend the match.
"I knew it was a slippery, downhill sidehill putt," Palko said. "But I did what I did all day. I kept my head still, don't look up, make a smooth stroke and let it go in. It did, thankfully. My partner (DiVall) confirmed my read, which helps. She's a great partner that way."
No. 2 at Hermitage's Manakin Course is a par 5 that is plenty reachable for the longer hitters in the field, and Palko and Kane were both just off the green hitting their third shots on the hole. Palko was in the fairway short of the apron and stopped a 56-degree pitch shot inside of 2 feet, putting all of the pressure on Kane to counter from the right greenside bunker.
"Mount Vernon has a new practice facility and I've been hitting those shots for the last month," Palko said. "I just kind of visualized being there and just ignored all of the people and it worked. It's nice when hard work pays off."
Kane got out of the bunker and had 15 feet left for her birdie to extend the match, but the lipout closed the deal.
"I had absolutely no doubt I was going to make it," Kane said. "I felt great. It's my favorite kind of putt, a left-to-right slider, mid-range. It never even crossed my mind that it would miss. To see it do that 360 was absolutely shocking. I don't really miss putts like that. But it was such a great fight, and so much fun."
Finals were contested in five consolation flights as well. Those winners:
- First flight: Richmond CC 28, Hermitage CC (A) 26
- Second flight: The Piedmont Club 27.5, Spotswood CC, 26.5
- Third flight: Meadowbrook CC 32, Willow Oaks CC 22
- Fourth flight: Greenbrier CC 33.5, Twin Lakes GC 20.5
- Fifth flight: Piankatank River GC 33.5, The Club at Viniterra 20.5
Day 2: Mount Vernon, Bide-A-Wee advance to championship match
(Bide-A-Wee's Pam Fisher and Carley Rudolf try to stay dry on Wednesday at Hermitage Country Club. Credit: Chris Lang/VSGA)
By Chris Lang
MANAKIN SABOT -- Mount Vernon Country Club and Bide-A-Wee Golf Course won semifinal matches in very different fashion on Wednesday at Hermitage Country Club, advancing to Thursday's championship flight title match at the 79th Virginia State Golf Association Women's State Team Matches.
Mount Vernon squeezed by old nemesis Country Club of Virginia 28-26, with MVCC's C team winning the final hole of its match to secure the winning point. Bide-A-Wee's victory over Army Navy Country Club was mostly devoid of drama, with the Portsmouth club racing to a 37.5-16.5 victory in the other semifinal.
Thursday's championship match -- part of a 9 a.m. shotgun start featuring the final match in each flight -- is a rematch of the 2023 Women's State Team Matches final at Indian Creek Y&CC, won 28.5-25.5 by Bide-A-Wee. Should Mount Vernon prevail, it would tie CCV for most event victories with 16.
"I'm proud of our team," MVCC captain Joan Gardner said. "All credit to CCV for being right there until the end. But the depth of our team is what really makes us a team. I couldn't be happier."
Bide-A-Wee didn't field a team in last year's event due to a key player's unavailability because of a work commitment. This is the club's fourth straight appearance in a final when it has fielded a team.
Five of the six players who won for Bide-A-Wee in 2023 are back. Alice Striffler is gone from that team, but in her place is recent Old Dominion graduate Carley Rudolf, adding another young, long hitter to a team that also features former ODU standout Leah Onosato.
"For Bide-A-Wee, it's all about the chemistry, about the six of us and how we all jell together," captain Gigi Smith said. "We're steady. All six of us are steady in whatever game we bring, and usually we don't vary too far from our game, even in the rain today."
The championship flight contenders dealt with steady rain throughout the morning, though nothing heavy enough to threaten to suspend play. Onosato shot 64 on her own ball as she paired with Smith for a 14.5-3.5 rout of Army Navy's Angela Baskette and Shelley Savage. Mallory Kane and Cyndi Carlson also cruised, beating Marie Anderson and Corrie Myers 14-4. Rudolf and Pam Fisher tied their match with Katelynn Waclawski and Andi Carpenter 9-9.
"How things team up, they have some younger players than we have and some great hitters," Gardner said. "But we have such a great team together. That's what I'm looking forward to, a great team result, and hopefully doing it."
For Mount Vernon, the sides of Sarah Alvarez/Shawn McCullough and Kim Palko/Linda DiVall each record 11-7 victories, enough to counter CCV's Liza Lewis and Brenda Baril besting Gardner and Susan Podolsky 12-6. The outcome came down to the final hole of the Palko/DiVall match, with the Mount Vernon side prevailing when CCV's Lindsay Wortham and Peggy Crowley made double bogey on the par-4 finishing hole.
Matches were conducted in five non-championship flights as well on Wednesday. Please see the scoring link above to find details of those matches.
Day 1: Defending champions earn top seed for match play
MANAKIN SABOT -- Defending Virginia State Golf Association Women's State Team Matches champion Mount Vernon Country Club posted a 12-under total of 204 on Tuesday at Hermitage Country Club to earn medalist honors and the top seed for championship match play, which begins on Wednesday at the club's Manakin Course.
Mount Vernon used a balanced effort from its three sides to finish two shots clear of Bide-A-Wee Golf Course, which posted a 10-under total of 206. Captain Joan Gardner and Linda DiVall returned a 5-under 67; Kim Palko and Susan Podolsky carded a 4-under 68; and Sarah Alvarez and Shawn McCullough postd a 3-under 69.
"I know in playing with Linda, she was so, so steady. She couldn't have played a steadier game," Gardner said. "We had some birdies in there. The other two teams ... it seems like if one person stumbled, the other one was right there, whether it be for a par or a birdie. We really couldn't have been happier with how each of the three teams played."
Bide-A-Wee's sides of Leah Onosato and Cyndi Carlson and Carley Rudolf and Gigi Smith each returned scores of 4-under 68, with Mallory Kane and Pam Fisher finishing at 2-under 70.
Army Navy Country Club and The Country Club of Virginia round out the championship flight. ANCC posted a 2-under 214, with Shelley Savage/Angela Baskette and Katelynn Waclawski/Andi Carpenter each posting 1-under rounds of 71. Led by Liza Lewis and Brenda Baril (2-under 70), CCV earned the final championship flight spot via tiebreaker over homestanding Hermitage. The teams' top two scores were used to break ties, and CCV's top two scores totaled 1-over 217 compared to Hermitage's 2-over 218.
Mount Vernon will open match play Wednesday morning against CCV. The Richmond club holds the record for victories in this event with 16, followed by Mount Vernon with 15.
"We cannot seem to avoid them, but it's great," Gardner said. "We both have good teams. I wouldn't say it's inevitable, but we know they're always going to be in the mix. We absolutely look forward to it."
Bide-A-Wee will face Army Navy in the other championship flight semifinal. Bide-A-Wee won in 2021 and 2023 but did not field a team last year. Spotswood Country Club is the only one of last year's four semifinalists not to make it back this year.