One-stroke win
Tennessee narrowly holds off Delaware for championship win at Las Campanas
The first rule of championship celebrations: Don’t drop the trophy. Poor Ashley Gilliam’s strength couldn’t hold out as she held onto the team championship trophy designated for the winners of the USGA Women’s State Team Championships on Thursday afternoon at The Club at Las Campanas. The 16-year-old from Manchester, Tenn., dropped the trophy onto the ninth green as she posed for photos after Tennessee held off a hard-charging Delaware squad by one stroke with a three-day total of 1-under 431.
Gilliam complained that the trophy was too heavy for her to keep her pose and when she was about to hand it over to teammate Jayna Choi, it fell to the ground and the bowl top separated from its base. As bad as that sounded, the good news was that it was supposed to do that, so the two pieces returned to one whole trophy.
“It was very heavy,” Gilliam said. “I think I’ll be sore tomorrow.”
It will be a good sore, though, considering Tennessee’s win was a true team effort. The troika of Gilliam, Choi and 19-year-old Riley Rennell each had one of their rounds count toward the team score in a toptwo scores count format. On the final day, Rennell shot a 1-under 71, while Gilliam had an evenpar 72 to round out the scoring.
It was just enough to keep Delaware at bay, as it rebounded from an 8-over 152 opening round to shoot 8-under the rest of the way but come up short in its comeback. It was actually a two-stroke defeat because Choi’s 2-over 74 would have given Tennessee the tiebreaker over Esther Park, who had an 81, if the teams had finished tied.
“We were so proud of the way we played,” said Phoebe Brinker, of Wilmington, Del. “We knew that we played our best, so wherever we finished was fine.”
Still, it was a wild Thursday that saw 15 teams finish their second round earlier in the morning after rain and darkness on Wednesday suspended play before a popcorn of five teams shared or led during the third round.
At one point, Delaware, Tennessee, Alabama and New York were tied at even par before Tennessee made a late breakaway. Almost simultaneous birdies by Rennell on the seventh hole — which was her 16th because the team started its round at No. 10 — and Gilliam on the sixth gave Tennessee a two-stroke lead over Delaware.
Meanwhile, New York and Alabama sputtered over the final few holes, while Delaware simply ran out of them. Brinker shot a 4-under 68 that brought
her to second place overall on the individual board. She had an eagle and two birdies over the final six holes, but Jennifer Cleary had a pair of bogeys to
offset some of those gains.
It was a double dose of second best for the state, as Indiana’s Julia Potter used a steady stream of 2-under 70s for each round to win the individual honor at 6-under. Her primary challenger for most of the day was Ashley Menne of Surprise, Ariz. Menne used a 4-under 68 in the second round to move into contention at 3-under, a shot behind Potter entering the finale.
She tied Potter with a birdie at the first hole (her 10th) but bogeyed two holes later to break it. The tide turned at the par-4 No. 7 when Menne double-bogeyed to fall behind Brinker. Menne followed with a pair of missed birdie tries, while Potter used her short game to get her safely out of the rough off the green on the par-3 No. 8 and the bunker on her final hole, the ninth, to preserve par both times.
“My short game has always been my strong suit,” said Potter, who resides in South Bend. “And I’ve played in enough USGA events to know that when you get tired and things waver, I am lucky enough to fall back on my short game.”
Florida tried to make a lastditch run behind 13-year-old phenom Alexa Pano of Lake
Worth, who birdied her last three holes to finish at 1-over for the day. A two-time national Drive, Putt and Chip champion who already was featured in a 2013 documentary The Short Game, Pano struggled for most of the day, falling to 4-over through 14 holes before something finally clicked.
“I kinda hit a rock bottom for myself,” Pano said. “I literally wasn’t doing anything right. Mentally, it was really hard. Toward the final three, something in my head changed and I started to go back to what I was used to — something good.”
It wasn’t enough for the state as Meghan Stassi finished with an even-par 72 to round out its scoring.
The tournament came down to Gilliam simply making bogey at worst for Tennessee to win. As Rennell and Choi watched with nervous anticipation and hushed tones from off the ninth green, Gilliam two-putted for a par and the win.
“I putted to around two feet and I didn’t know I had to make it, so … ” Gilliam said.
“We tried to kind of make it that way, keep it chill,” Rennell interjected. “Like be quiet, be quiet, she’s putting.”
After Gilliam tapped her final putt in, Choi and Rennell screamed and sprayed water on Gilliam as they surrounded her. About a half-hour later, the threesome held the trophy up for the final round of mementos — a simultaneous kiss of the not-so-broken trophy.
It’s the best way to finish off a championship pose.