Pennington grabs 10-stroke advantage
Two-time defending champion Amber Pennington took a large step toward claiming her third title.
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » Two-time defending champion Amber Pennington took a large step toward claiming her third consecutive Ulster County Women’s Golf Association title by taking a 10-stroke lead Friday in the opening round.
The 15-year-old shot a par 3834—72 at the Lazy Swan Golf and Country Club to take command.
There is a three-way tie for second at 82 with Diane Myers (38-44), Chelsea Lapp (38-44) and Kathleen Murphy (41-41). Pennington’s Rondout Valley High teammate Mary Gersec is just a shot back of that group after a 44-39—83.
The 54-hole Championship Flight moves to the New Paltz Golf Club Saturday for the second round with the first group teeing off at 8:30 a.m. The 21-person First/Second Flight field will be playing the first of its two rounds.
It all winds up Sunday at Woodstock Golf Club.
Pennington had a rough start, going 5-over on the first six holes with bogeys on 1, 3 and 6 plus a double-bogey on 4. She turned it around with a birdie putt on 8.
“I just pulled it together. I was fighting my swing. I think I had like four three-putts on the front nine. I couldn’t click,” she said.
She was 2-under on the back nine with birdies on 11, 12 and 15. She was on track to match her 1-under 69 in last year’s second round at Lazy Swan, but came up short on a 15-foot eagle putt on 18 and threeputted.
“I had problems with blowing everything past and I actually left it four feet short, so I was actually okay,” Pennington said. “I got on a good streak. I knew I was 1-over. I was just trying to keep myself in my own head and not go for the 69. 72 is perfectly fine.”
“I’m just going to focus on the moment, That’s why I played so good on the back nine, because I focused on each shot,” said Pennington, who had her dad (Martin Pennington) caddying for her. She caddied for him during the Ulster County Men’s Tournament (Herd-
egen).
“On the first shot I remember joking around with my dad, ‘Alright, a nice power draw right here’ and I had the weakest cut,” she remarked. “It was so bad. I’m lucky I didn’t put it out of bounds. Then it was like, ‘Okay, I got to change my mentality.’”
Pennington had one rough round in each of her title runs, shooting 84-7577—236 in 2016 and 7869-87—234 last year. She is aiming for consistency this time around.
“I’d like to throw up another 72. That would be nice. I’m going to go home and work today on my putting and hopefully come back with something good,” she said. “If I could put up three rounds in the 70s or better, I would be happy. I would like for my worst round to be no worst than like 76 this year, keep my consistency. We’ll see.”
Her pursuers were all stymied by some bad holes.
Myers parred eight of the first 13 holes, but had a 7 on the par-4 14 and an 8 on the par-5 18.
The 14th hole also did in Lapp, who had an 8.
Murphy was 5-over on the first four holes and spent the rest of the round, which featured eight pars, trying to right herself.
Gersec, who had seven pars and also birdied the 12th hole during her day, was stymied by a triple-bogey on the par-5 8th.
Past champions Ellen Densen and Kim Hines bounced back from tough front nines to shoot 4540—85 and 46-40—86, respectively. They both rallied at the end with Hines getting a birdie on 15 and parring the last two holes and Densen parring 15-1617. Densen had to battle out of nine sand traps. TEE TIMES Saturday at New Paltz 8:30 a.m. — Kathy Interrante, Kathy Riisenberg 8:40 a.m. — Amber Pennington, Diane Myers, Chelsea Lapp 8:50 a.m. — Kathleen Murphy, Mary Gersec, Ellen Densen 9:00 a.m. — Kim Hines, Cindy Woebse, Lynne Fromica 9:10 a.m. — Cynde Modjeska, Brooke Bode, Emily Jacobsen 9:20 a.m. — Ann Meyer, Kim Klomm, Marianne Albamont 9:30 a.m. — Sandy MancusoLopez, Nancy Gogg, Pat DeCicco 9:40 a.m. — Linda DePuy, Marsha Weiss, Silvana Dudek 9:50 a.m. — Jackie Roudis, Linda Williams, Colleen Martin 10:00 a.m. — Jackie Olivet, Mary Furey, Joyce Brown 10:10 a.m. — Pat Marlow, Marge Bennett, Helena Baldyga ——