{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Irish international Mark Power won for the first time on the US collegiate circuit when he claimed the individual title in the stroke-play competition of the East Lake Cup played at East Lake Golf Club, the famous home of Bobby Jones in Atlanta, Georgia, where both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have won the Tour Championship in recent years.
Power (above), a 19-year-old Wake Forest freshman who came into the event fresh from finishing tied third at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, carded eight birdies in a 5-under-par 67 to finish two strokes ahead of University of Texas duo Pierceson Coody and Travis Vick and become the first freshman to win the event.
The Kilkenny teenager was ably supported by English team-mate Alex Fitzpatrick, who fired a level-par 72 to help Wake Forest finish second behind Texas in the team stroke-play portion of the event.
“It’s amazing,” Power told Golf Channel moments after drilling a 12-foot birdie on the closing hole. “I have seen this place on TV many times watching Rory and Tiger. To get here was amazing but to be standing here now after winning the individual title is crazy altogether.”
“I’m not surprised at all that Mark played so well today,” said Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas. “He hits the ball long and the fairways here are in beautiful shape. He played the par-5s very well. Mark’s game is trending well. He shot 68 twice last week at the Golf Club of Georgia to finish third there so he must like playing in Atlanta.”
There was no repeat success in the subsequent match-play portion because Wake Forest fell at the first hurdle to Oklahoma State. Power lost, 3 and 2, to Austin Eckroat while Fitzpatrick fell, 2 and 1, to Brian Stark. Oklahoma State lost, 3-2, to Texas in the final the following day while Wake Forest went down by the same score to Vanderbilt in the third-place play-off.
There also was a European player at the top of the leaderboard in the concurrent women’s event at East Lake with Duke senior Ana Belac firing a 3-under 69 to share top spot with Wake Forest’s Vanessa Knecht.
Belac, a Slovenian, missed Duke’s previous tournament because she was competing unsuccessfully at LPGA Stage II Qualifying but she bounced back with a round which included three birdies on her opening nine and a further five coming home.
“This was one of my favourite tournaments my freshman year, probably my favourite,” she said. “Coming back here brings back all the good memories and to win it is really special.
“I’ve had quite a rough season. I played Q-School and didn’t make the Q-Series. I’ve been playing decent golf but could never shoot low because I was too tight all the time and could never really have fun. So, coming into this tournament I really wanted to have some fun on the course and let my golf do the job. On the back nine it really happened, I really started enjoying it and just took off from there.”
Duke went on to lose, 3-2, to Auburn in the first round of match play with Belac falling, 5 and 4, to Mychael O’Berry in the deciding match. Wake Forest beat Auburn, 4-1, in the final as freshman Lauren Walsh provided the winning point with a 3-and-1 victory against fellow Irishwoman Julie McCarthy.
Swiss amateur Albane Valenzuela earned her LPGA Tour card at the tour’s Q-Series at Pinehurst but may wait until next summer before she begins her new career.
The Stanford senior said she had some thinking to do after signing off with a 1-over 73 to finish tied sixth in the 144-hole competition behind Chinese professional Muni He but added she definitely will graduate from college next summer even if she elects to turn professional straight away.
If she decides to defer her LPGA membership until after next year’s NCAA Championship that would be the same course of action both Jennifer Kupcho and María Fassi chose after qualifying at last year’s Q-Series.
Valenzuela’s eight-round total of 7-under 565 was enough for her to finish first among four amateurs who earned LPGA tour cards. America’s Jennifer Chang slumped to a closing 75 to finish tied ninth on 567, Valenzuela’s Stanford teammate Andrea Lee was tied 30th on 575 while Thailand’s Bianca Pagdanganan finished in a share of 38th place, one shot further behind.
The top 45 finishers and ties at the Q-Series earned LPGA cards with varying degrees of status. Individuals in that group but outside the top 20 also earned status on the secondary Symetra Tour.
The other European players who made it into that elite group were Finland’s Matilda Castren, France’s Karine Icher and Swedish duo Louise Ridderström and Linnéa Johansson (all tied 26th on 574); Germany’s Esther Henseleit and Spain’s Nuria Iturrios (both tied-30th on 575); the Czech Republic’s Klára Spilková (tied 38th on 576); and France’s Céline Herbin (tied 41st on 577).
England’s Dan Bradbury claimed his second collegiate title in the space of a couple of weeks when he won the men’s South Region Preview at Irene Golf and Country Club in Memphis.
The 20-year-old Lincoln Memorial sophomore from Yorkshire came into the event with a victory in the State Farm Intercollegiate under his belt and he went on to conclude the fall season with rounds of 69, 71 and a course-record 65 to finish two strokes ahead of fellow Englishman Tom Forster (Carson-Newman) on 11-under 205.
Bradbury’s recent run of fine form also included a joint second place finish behind Japan’s Taisuke Ono (Queen’s University of Charlotte) in the Copperhead Championship at Innisbrook Resort in Florida.
“Dan played really well this week and tying the course record today was really special to see,” said Lincoln Memorial head coach Parker Jones. “He seemed to flip a switch on the back nine. His progression throughout the season has been steady and strong.”
There was more European success at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Nevada where the Czech Republic’s Tereza Melecká (East Tennessee State) used home advantage to the full to share medallist honours with Finland’s Elina Saksa (UNLV).
Melecká started the final round four shots off the pace but made up the deficit with a closing 68 featuring six birdies to tie Saksa on 4-under 212.
“My goal is to win each tournament and I am excited I managed to accomplish that goal today,” said Melecká. “I really enjoyed playing this course. The first two days the course played hard because of the weather but today the wind calmed down and we were given the opportunity to post some low scores.
“It feels good to finish the fall season with a win and I hope to carry it into our spring season starting in February.”
“It feels really good and it’s starting to sink in,” said Saksa, a freshman who closed with a birdie for a 72. “My team-mates and I worked so hard this fall and finally in the last fall tournament it paid off.”
“This is huge for us looking ahead and winning at home is terrific,” said UNLV head coach, Amy Bush. “Elina has been working day in and day out to be able to perform when needed. She is a long-ball hitter. I’ve had some others from Europe like that so having that again for our programme is nice.”
Melecká and Saksa were the only two players in the field to finish under par for the tournament.
Elsewhere, there was also a strong European showing at the White Sands Invitational at the Ocean Club Golf Course in Bermuda where Denmark’s Karen Fredgaard (Houston) carded rounds of 68, 69 and 68 to finish second, six strokes behind runaway winner Sophie Guo (Texas).
Guo’s teammate Sára Kousková from the Czech Republic was third and Italy’s Caterina Don (University of Georgia) tied fourth in the same event. Don previously was third behind England’s Alice Hewson at this year’s European Amateur Championship at Parkstone.
Euan Walker begins his quest for a European Tour card when he tees up in this week’s Stage II Qualifying event at Las Colinas in southern Spain.
The Scot turned professional after the Walker Cup at Hoylake and will have high hopes of progressing to the Q-School finals after finishing tied 40th on his European Tour debut at the recent KLM Open in the Netherlands. He was exempt from Stage I of qualifying on account of his prominent position on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, earned after an excellent 2019 season during which he won the African Amateur Stroke Play and finished runner-up at both the Amateur and European Amateur championships.
Walker is one of a large group of amateurs and recent converts to the paid ranks who are competing at the Stage II events at Las Colinas, Alenda, Desert Springs and Bonmont from Thursday through Sunday.
The Scot is joined at Las Colinas by fellow amateurs Alex Christie, Haider Hussain and Robin Williams of England; Yannik Emmert and Thomas Rosenmüller of Germany; Andreas Hillersborg of Denmark; and Kyle Michel of Australia. The amateurs in the field at Desert Springs include Iceland’s Rúnar Arnórsson, Germany’s Marc Hammer, Finland’s Alex Hietala, France’s Jeong woen Ko and Australia’s Blake Windred.
English amateurs Sam Broadhurst and Joe MacIlwraith compete at Alenda alongside Ireland’s Ronan Mullarney and Germany’s Brandon Dietzel, while England’s David Hague, Ben Jones and Laurie Owen are all in the draw at Bonmont together with Germany’s Jannik de Bruyn, Australia’s David Micheluzzi and Iceland’s Bjarki Pétursson.
This year’s St Andrews Links champion, Jake Burnage, competes as a professional at Las Colinas while England’s Tom Gandy, Ben Hutchinson and David Langley all play at Alenda alongside New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier and Scotland’s Ryan Lumsden. They have also joined the pro ranks.
This year’s Q-School finals will be played at Lumine Golf Club in Tarragona on 15-20 November.
Englishman Harry Hall has advanced to the final stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School.
Hall, a 2019 Walker Cup player from West Cornwall who graduated this summer from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, carded rounds of 66, 75, 67 and 69 to finish tied eighth at the first of the five second-stage events, played at the TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. Former German amateur international Max Rottluff, Australia’s Harrison Endycott and English professional Steve Lewton also made it through.
Meanwhile, English amateur Oliver Farrell is among those still to compete at second stage.
The Marquette University graduate from Worcestershire, who won this year’s Berkshire Trophy, came through the first stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Arizona and now takes his next step towards earning his playing privileges on America’s secondary circuit when he plays this week in a second-stage qualifier in Brooksville, Florida.
Farrell is joined at the second stage by a number of prominent former amateurs. Teenaged 2019 US Walker Cup player Akshay Bhatia joins Farrell in the field at Brooksville as does former world No. 1 and NCAA champion Braden Thornberry. Double Sunnehanna Amateur champion Alex Smalley and Western Amateur winner Norman Xiong play at the second-stage event in Dothan, Alabama, while Bhatia’s 2019 Walker Cup colleague Brandon Wu tees up in the qualifier in Murrieta, California.
Wu, 22, turned pro straight after helping the US to victory at Hoylake and made his PGA Tour pro debut at the recent Houston Open, where he finished in a tie for 17th place.
There will be 18-19 qualification spots available at each of the second-stage sites. The final stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School will be played at Orange County National Golf Club in Winter Garden, Florida, on 12-15 December.
E-MAIL COLIN