Waterbury’s Devaney, 16, qualifies for U.S. Girls Junior
Aoife Devaney kept looking at her phone, refreshing the website to see if any new golf scores came in.
The rising junior at Kennedy High in Waterbury had shot a 1-over-par 73 at The Club at River Oaks in Sherman. Now she waited on the grounds for everyone else to finish the qualifier to get into the U.S. Girls Junior Championship. Granted, there were only 18 girls attempting to qualify on Monday, but waiting is never easy.
Two spots were available. Only one other player had shot a 73. None of the remaining golfers were able to match it. Devaney qualified.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Devaney said. “When they all came in and (no one beat it), I was like, ‘No way’!’”
Devaney and Valeria Ramirez, who is from Colombia, will head to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the U,S. Girls Junior, which will be held July 18-23 at The Club at Olde Stone.
Devaney, 16, gave a lot of credit to her caddie, Lynn Scully. Devaney ended up caddying for Scully later that afternoon in the qualifier for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, also held at River Oaks (Scully came up short).
“If she wasn’t there, I don’t think I would have done so well. She is really, really good with the mental part of the game,” Devaney said. “This is something I struggle with. My head gets in the way. If she wasn’t here, I would have done something that probably would have cost me.“
Devaney played for the Sacred Heart High girls golf team as a freshman. After the school closed, a Waterbury co-op team was formed.
Devaney was a GameTimeCT all-state selection this past spring season.
After qualifying Monday, Devaney played in the Connecticut Junior PGA Championship, held Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week, she will participate in the 57th Connecticut Women’s Amateur.
Then, before she leaves for Kentucky, there is the first Connecticut Girls Junior to participate in.
The 156-player field at the U.S. Girls Junior will be reduced to 64 for match play, which begins July 20.
“I know there will be really, really good players, 156 of the best girls in the world,” Devaney said. “I know that no one is shooting in the 90s or 100s. I hope to play my best and play like that for the whole week,” Devaney said. “This will be much different than any tournament I’ve played before.”
STATE WOMEN’S AMATEUR
Tashua Knolls GC in Trumbull will play host to the 57th Connecticut Women’s Amateur for the first time Wednesday and Thursday.
There will be a new champion as defending champion Kyra Cox is not competing. But two of the previous champions will be competing: 2020 winner Sophia Sarrazin (The Patterson
Club) and 2019 champion Megan Mitchell (CC of New Canaan).
Jen Holland of Guilford, the 2008 champion out of Lyman Orchards GC, is also back. Holland did qualify for the U,S. Senior Women’s Amateur at River Oaks Monday. That event will be held July 30-Aug. 4 in Anchorage, Alaska.
Mia Grzywinski (CC of Farmington), the former Quinnipiac University standout, and past Borck Junior champions Mia Holbrook (the defending champion on her home course, Silver Spring CC) and Mia Scarpati (Ridgewood CC) will be trying to win the Amateur for the first time.
Other members of the GameTimeCT all-state high school girls team Molly Mitchell (New Canaan), Ava Gross (Amity) and Sydney Hidalgo (Cheshire) are also competing.
There is no cut in the 36-hole championship.
LI BACK ON TOP
Leslie Li defeated Jean Sennett 6 and 4 Thursday morning to win the 103rd Connecticut Women’s Golf Association Championship at the Black Hall Club in Old Lyme.
This was a rematch of the 2021 CWGA Championship Flight, won by Sennett. This is the third title in two years for Li, a member at Tumble Brook CC in Bloomfield.
In the Founders Cup final, Ann Newman defeated Hollis Barry 6 and 5.