Giovannettone wins Women’s Open
FAIRFIELD — Loretta Giovannettone tried to make sure she never wavered from her pre-shot routine in Wednesday’s final round of the Connecticut Women’s Open.
Whether she was leading or trailing, nothing changed.
“I tried to keep any swing thoughts out of my mind,” said Giovannettone, a teaching pro at Woodway Country Club in Darien. “As a teaching pro, it’s easy to think about tinkering with your swing while you are out there. I tried to stick with the same exact routine every time.”
Giovannettone pounded drivers, stiffed some iron shots and made some key putts down the stretch to win the 21st Connecticut Women’s Open by a stroke on Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m a little bit on Cloud Nine right now. I was not expecting to win this event,” said Giovannettone, playing in her third Open. “It’s a really good feeling.”
Giovannettone shot backto-back rounds of 70 to finish at 4-under-par 140, one shot better than Brooke Baker and three better than Jordan Lintz, Kellie Edelblut and amateur Jennifer Keim.
This victory comes a month after winning the Met PGA Women’s Championship held at Burning Tree CC in Greenwich.
“The members were pumped up up couple weeks ago when I won the Women’s Met PGA Championship, which was a shocker. To see me go back to back, the members will be really thrilled, ” Giovannettone said.
Giovannettone trailed Baker by two through 13 holes. Back-to-back birdies put her in the lead for good. She almost holed out her second shot on the par-4 14th, then birdied the par-3 15th. Giovannettone then bogeyed the par-4 16th while Baker and Lintz, both in the same group, bogeyed. Her lead was 2.
Baker, who plays on both the Symmetra Tour and the Ladies Australian Tour, was in a five-way tie for the lead after round one that included Giovannettone and Lintz. After Giovannettone eagled the first hole and Baker made bogey, she trailed by three.
“I’m proud how I came back and hung in there. It was fun fighting it out today,” Baker said.
Baker bogeyed 15 and 16, the latter a 3-putt on Brooklawn’s treacherous greens.
“When you have an 18footer downhill that breaks 20 feet, it’s kind of hard to match the speed up,” Baker said. “I could have taken 5 minutes to read that putt. It was an extremely difficult putt as far as the amount of break.”
Both players bogeyed 17. Giovannettone made a routine par, holing out before Baker made birdie.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t close a little better on 15, 16 and 17,” Baker said.
This was the first time Lintz, a teaching pro at
Oronoque CC in Stratford, had been in the final group since winning the title in 2011 at Oxford Greens GC. When she birdied out of a fairway bunker on 14, she trailed Baker by a stroke.
Then she airmailed the par-3 15th hole and made bogey. Then Lintz bogeyed the next two holes.
“Obviously there was a little adrenaline from the birdie and I juiced it over the green,” Lintz said. “I thought it would be up there in the middle of the green. To get up there and (find out) it was off the green, it was a total shocker. I hit the shot I wanted to.”
Tied for 20th place at 9-over 153 was Vinny Papa from Foster, Rhode Island. At age 10, Papa was the youngest player in the field.