Symetra returns with stories, not championship
The defending champion won’t be back and that’s the goal — not to return. After all, if you achieve enough at one level of the ladder, you climb.
That’s what happened with Jackie Barenborg Stoelting, whose parents grew up in the area (dad in Niskayuna and mom in Clifton Park). She won the Symetra Tour stop here last year in dramatic fashion, rolling in a 28-foot putt on the second playoff hole.
“Last year my win in Albany meant just as much as my first,” Stoelting told me via Facebook. “I played my first professional event there and so it was surreal to win many years later on the same course.”
That win, plus another, propelled her to third on the money list. She re-earned her LPGA card. Last weekend, she was in Ann Arbor, Mich., for the LPGA Volvik Championship where she tid for 78th after shooting 70-73-75-72 (+2) and earned $2,367. She posted on Facebook: “Didn’t have my best this week but another cut made,” adding, “#ontothenextone.” The next one will be this weekend in New Jersey. Meantime, the Symetra Tour stops at Capital Hills @ Albany for the Fuccillo Kia Classic of NY. That’s the spot she made her pro debut in 2008.
“I’ve always felt like Albany was a second home for me as my parents grew up there and still have family and friends in the area,” she messaged. “It was special having my dad on the bag and mom watching in the gallery. I’ll never forget that winning putt and then the excitement of realizing I won a car!
“It’s bittersweet to not be there to defend or get my annual Stewart’s sundae but hopefully a friend can defend my title for me!”
After a two-week hiatus, the Symetra Tour resumes with the Fuccillo Kia Classic of NY this Friday through Sunday (54 holes). It’s the eighth tournament of 22 this season. The Symetra Tour — formerly the Futures Tour — has played in our area since 1984. It has been at Capital Hills for 14 consecutive years.
Besides Stoelting, Dottie Pepper won in the area in 1985 and, in 2014, Sadena Parks became just the third African-American to win in the history of the tour. After her win, Parks gave Ianah Mackey, then a 7th grader in Colonie, her signed winning golf ball. Ianah and her dad offered Sadena some water because that day was particularly hot as they followed her over the final 12 holes. Those stories that make it worthwhile attending the tournament.
“Amazed and she made it, like, effortless,” Ianah’s dad Troy, also a golfer, told me at the time.
“Whereas I’m hacking and struggling to make bogey, she was knocking in birdies.”
The field of 144 from the U.S. and a season-high 31 nations will vie for a purse of $125,000. Nine of the top10 on money list are in the field including No. 1 AnneCatherine Tanguay of Canada, who has five top-10 finishes in six starts. The winner earns $18,750 and a new Kia Forte. It’s the third year in a row that the winner gets a new car, the only stop on tour where that happens.
MEMORIAL DAY
While I know that Monday was to remember those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country, this week I did talk to a U.S. Navy veteran, who turns 90 on July 14, and still plays golf. Everett “Red” Brownell is a Mechanicville-native who now lives in Loudonville with his wife of 60 years. They have three children, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter and love to garden.
He enlisted in WWII and began in Sampson in central N.Y., south of Geneva. It’s now a state park. He served on the U.S.S. Princeton. Two years ago, he took the Patriot Flight to see the WWII Memorial: “That’s really a nice trip if you have a chance to go.”
I asked him about Memorial Day: “I think a lot of people aren’t really that interested, not unless you’re in the service yourself or if you’ve had people in the service.
He enjoys curling and skiing and golf, playing with the Second Milers at Stadium in Schenectady: “Always room for improvement,” he said with a chuckle.
ACE
Congratulations to Jonas Ettlinger who had his first hole-in-one on the second hole at CC of Troy. It came from 129-yards with a 9-iron on May 17.
LARRABEE NAMED
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) junior Erik Larrabee has been named to the Division III PING All-Region team, one of 15 from the Northeast, according the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Larrabee of Jackson, Maine, is an aeronautical engineering major. He averaged 77.67 this season. He shot in the 70s in 15 of 19 rounds over nine tournaments; shooting 73 once and 74 three times.
He earned four top-10 finishes, including sixth (74-73) at the Duke Nelson Invitational at Middlebury College in September. He tied for ninth three times: the Lake Placid Club Invitational (79-79) in September, the NYU Invitational (7680) in early April, and the Liberty League Championship (78-83-77-79), which is played in the fall and spring semesters. John Craig writes about golf on Thursdays in The Record and The Saratogian. He may be reached at jcraig@ troyrecord.com.