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It’s only fitting that an extra hole was required Saturday to decide the 118th North & South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2.
Both finalists – Rachel Kuehn (above) of Asheville, N.C. and Allisen Corpuz of Honolulu, Hawaii – needed playoffs to reach the final match. Kuehn went 20 holes in her quarterfinal victory Friday afternoon while Corpuz had to play 21 in outlasting Ivy Shepherd in Saturday morning’s semifinal.
Toss in an 80-minute rain delay and Saturday’s play extended nearly 11 hours from the time Corpuz first teed off at 7 a.m.
A par on the first playoff hole, the par-4 first, gave Kuehn the title and the Putter Boy trophy – 25 years after her mother, former Curtis Cup player Brenda Corrie Kuehn, came up just short of a championship in both the North & South event and the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur.
“I joke with my mom because she finished (short), and has been holding that over my head,” said Kuehn with a laugh. “I’m glad I could top her a little bit, but to add my name to the list of winners here is an unbelievable feeling.”
While Kuehn had to play five fewer holes to reach the final, the tight competition combined with North Carolina Sandhills summer weather extended the day.
“The Pinehurst heat and more than 36 holes definitely makes it a game of endurance, especially when you’re playing two matches in a day,” said Kuehn, who earned All-America honors as a freshman at Wake Forest where she won the Annika Invitational last September in her first collegiate start.
In Saturday afternoon's final, a par and a birdie on Nos. 8 and 9 gave Kuehn a 2-up lead at the turn. Corpuz, a graduate senior at Southern Cal, answered by winning the first two holes on the back nine to square the match.
Play was halted by thunderstorms as the golfers approached the 13th tee. Kuehn grabbed the lead again with par after the re-start, but Corpuz's two-putt for par on No. 17 squared the match again. Each player hit the fairway and the green on No. 18, and two-putted to send the match to a sudden-death playoff.
While Corpuz found trouble with her drive and her approach on the first playoff hole, Kuehn was able to two-putt from the front fringe to secure the title.
The rising sophomore at Wake Forest joined a list of champions in the North & South Women's Am that includes Hall of Famers Louise Suggs, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Hollis Stacy, as well as Brittany Land, Morgan Pressel and Yani Tseng.
Both Corpuz and Kuehn entered the North & South Women's Amateur as qualifiers for the 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland.
Staff and Wire Reports