News

USGA Women’s Mid-Am Delayed Again, Giaotti in Position to Make Match Play

The second round of stroke play at the 2011 Women’s Mid-Amateur was suspended at 6:58 p.m. due to darkness. As the situation was deemed non-dangerous, players were allowed to finish the hole they were playing before leaving the club for the night.
Play will resume at 8 a.m. Monday, followed by the match-play cut, a playoff (if needed) and the first round of match play.
42 out of 131 players were able to finish their second rounds, including first-round leader Brenda Pictor, 56, of Marietta, Ga. Pictor stuck her 80-yard approach to the par-5 18th to 1 foot for birdie, and she finished with an overall score of 2-over 146.
Utah’s two entries are Annette Giaotti and Julie McMullin. Giaotti ranks in 34th place with nine holes remaining and so she is in good position to get one of the 64 match play spots. McMullin has finished her rounds and did not play her best. She shot 88-86-174 and will not make match play.
“Bogeys are good out here today,” said Pictor, “and you’ve got to make a couple birdies to make up for it. It was a lot of fun to be able to get that last one to get it back under par on the back side.”
Pictor’s score was good for the clubhouse lead for stroke-play medalist honors. She was followed by Jennifer Lucas, 30, of Knoxville, Tenn., who finished at 5-over 149. Lucas had been vying for her second Women’s Mid-Amateur stroke-play medal, having tied for the honors with three other golfers in 2009 at Golden Hills Golf & Turf Club in Ocala, Fla.
Also finishing their first rounds were defending champion Meghan Stasi (10-over 154) and defending runner-up Carol Robertson (8-over 152).
Virginia Grimes, the 1998 Women’s Mid-Amateur champion who was in second following the first round, posted an up-and-down first nine holes of her second round. She carded three bogeys and two birdies and was one over par for the round at the turn, though her score is considered unofficial as her round is not yet complete.
Grimes will finish her round Monday morning, along with Tara Joy-Connelly, who turned at even par for her second round (also an unofficial score). Leigh Klasse, tied with Joy-Connelly for third at two over par following round one, did not start her second round and is scheduled to tee off at 8:20 a.m. 86 other players will also record their final stroke-play scores on Monday.
The wind kicked up as the day progressed. Gusts of up to 30 miles per hour were common through the morning hours, though they did abate some in the early afternoon. But as darkness fell, the winds again began to howl. It felt more like a mid-November night than it did mid-September.