Bennett stays hot, takes lead

HOT SPRINGS — After repeating in a state women’s golf tournament last week, Grier Bennett received a congratulatory call from her college coach, Vici Pate Flesher.

The phone lines between High Point, N.C., and Hot Springs Village could be hot again if Bennett keeps playing at the current rate.

Fresh off her second victory in the Arkansas Women’s Golf Association Stroke Play Championship, the 20-yearold took a two-stroke lead in the Arkansas State Golf Association’s Women’s Stroke Play on Tuesday at the Hot Springs Country Club. Bennett shot 37-37—74 on the Park course, where the tournament returns for the final round Thursday after 18 holes today on the adjacent Arlington course.

“She’s having a nice year, isn’t she?” said Hot Springs’ Pat Elliott, who leads the women’s open/senior division by four strokes over Jean Mowry of Hot Springs Village after shooting a 75. “She said only that she played well.”

“It was a good day,” Bennett said. “I made a double bogey, but I got up and down on a couple of holes and some birdies helped.”

Bennett is one of 10 players in the championship flight. Russellville’s Julie Oxendine is second after shooting 76, two strokes ahead of Bismarck’s Carrie Hall, Waldron’s Megan Jeffery and Pine Bluff’s Rachael Rickels. Fayetteville’s Micah Radler, Bennett’s house guest during the tournament and who along with Rickels completed her threesome Tuesday, shot 81, followed by Russellville’s Libby Croom (82), Natasha Chapman of Cherokee Village (84), Hot Springs’ Samantha Patrico (86) and Conway’s Bryce Wolfe (91).

Oxendine defeated Hall 4 and 2 in the ASGA Women’s Match Play Championship in early June at Maumelle Country Club.

“They’re playing at more yardage,” Elliott said. “They hit it a little farther than we [seniors] do.”

The AWGA Women’s Stroke, at Maumelle, represented Bennett’s first competitive tournament of the summer, during which she is working in Little Rock and playing when she can before returning to North Carolina next month.

“I’ve tried to play a little more quality golf,” she said. “I’ve tried to hit a lot of balls even if I can’t play every day.”