{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
by Stan Awtrey
Most of the competitors in last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship prepared for the event by working at their home courses. Savannah Barber and Alexa Saldana chose a different route.
The two 17-year-old high school juniors spent their time prepping at Oakmont Country Club, a nine-time host of the U.S. Open and considered by many to be the most challenging course in the country.
So, when the other 63 teams in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball field were complaining about the difficulty of host Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, Barber and Saldana only shrugged their shoulders. Once you’ve conquered the church pew bunkers and greens that make the game’s best players cower in fear, nothing seems quite so intimidating.
“After being at Oakmont, they didn’t find (Maridoe) very difficult,” said Justin Poynter, their coach at the Crown Golf Academy in Arlington, Texas.
Barber, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Saldana, of Mexico, completed a magical week by defeating Floridian’s Jillian Bourdage and Casey Weidenfeld 5 and 4 in the championship match to win the sixth edition of the Women’s Four-Ball.
“We’ve been preparing for this for a few weeks,” Saldana said. “We thought we had a good chance of winning.”
So did Poynter, one of four coaches on staff at the Crown Golf Academy, which is located at the Texas Rangers Golf Club. Crown accepts 11 players for its exclusive residents’ golf program and took all of them on a field trip to play Oakmont. Barber and Saldana, who are roommates at the school, got home around 1 a.m. a day before the competition began and got their first look at Maridoe a few hours later.
“They’re young, they’re energetic, they never got tired, they never got nervous. You could see their confidence when they were walking down the fairway.”
Justin Poynter
The side was hardly on the radar for the Women’s Four-Ball. Their rankings were non-existent – Barber was No. 1,504 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Saldana was No. 1,582 – and both were in the shallow end of the USGA experience pool. Turns out none of that was relevant.
“Rankings don’t mean everything,” Poynter said. “At the end of the day you have to play in events to be ranked. They’re still juniors in high school, but both have won a ton of tournaments. Alexa has won two national events in Mexico and Savannah shot a 65 to set a course record at Texas Rangers.”
Barber agreed: “I don’t think (the rankings) really mattered. We knew we were in a good spot.”
The experience at Oakmont infused Barber and Saldana with confidence and offset any perceived lack of national pedigree. They shot 72-73 to tie for 22nd in the stroke-play qualifier, never in danger of missing match play, and drew the No. 26 seed.
“Once they advanced to match play, I knew they had a chance. In match play you don’t have to beat the field, you just have to beat the team in front of you,” Poynter said. “They really played some phenomenal golf. Just look at their scores.”
Barber, who has committed to play at the University of Oklahoma, and Saldana, who is still mulling her offers, had the ideal game for the championship. They both crush the ball off the tee and were aggressive all week.
“If you can drive it, you’re on offense all the time,” Poynter said. “It’s paramount to tournament golf and they’re in the fairway all the time. On a challenging golf course that gives you a tremendous advantage. They kept hitting fairways and they’re both excellent putters. Even if they did miss a green, they’re both good enough wedge players to compete on the USGA level.”
Barber and Saldana took down No. 7 Tiffany Cao and Chelsea Romas 4 and 3 in the first match, going three up after seven holes and never leading by fewer than two. They dropped the first hole in the second-round match to No. 23 Vanessa Ho and Karen Tsuru, but won the next five holes en route to a 4 and 3 win. Their quarterfinal match against No. 31 Jensen Castle and Marissa Wenzler was tied after eight holes, but Barber and Saldana won four of the next five holes and closed the 4 and 3 victory with a birdie at No. 15.
“As soon as we started getting to know the course better, we started hitting better and better shots,” Barber said. “And it just created more momentum going into the other matches.”
Their toughest match came in the semifinals against No. 3 Gianna Clemente, 13, and Avery Zweig, 14, the youngest team in the championship. Barber and Saldana were 3 up through 10, but lost the next two holes with bogeys and were required to play extra holes when Clemente birdied the 17th. Barber kept the match alive with a clutch 6-foot par putt on the 19th hole and ended the drama by making a 9-footer on the 20th hole.
“I asked her if she needed a read,” said Poynter, who caddied for his students most of the week. “She said, ‘I’ve got this.’ She was very confident. That’s sort of how the whole week was.”
But Barber admitted, “There were a lot of nerves through those two playoff holes.”
There wasn’t nearly as much drama in the final. No. 4 Bourdage and Weidenfeld, who needed 20 holes to beat No. 1 seeded Paris Hilinski and Alexa Pano in their semifinal match, birdied the first hole and held that lead through eight holes. That’s where Barber and Saldana took over by winning six of the next eight holes. It could have been worse had Weidenfeld not made a 15-foot birdie on the par-5 11th hole just to earn a halve.
“They’re young, they’re energetic, they never got tired, they never got nervous,” Poytner said. “You could see their confidence when they were walking down the fairway.”
Afterwards the entire Crown Academy family met for a celebration meal at Del Frisco’s Grille. Poynter predicted it would be the first of many occasions. Crown Academy has been represented in four USGA finals and now has two wins.
“You’ve got to win something before people know you. Now everybody knows,” Poynter said. “It’s not a surprise to us. They’re exceptional players.”
Top: Savannah Barber and Alexa Saldana celebrate a made putt during the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship
E-Mail STan