Making an eagle on the first hole of a scheduled 36-hole match-play event doesn't guarantee a golfer is going to have a great day, but another eagle on the 28th hole made sure of one for Ashley Lance.
The University of Mississippi golfer from Franklin, Tenn., put on a show with her putter all week at the Lookout Mountain Golf Club, but Lance saved her best for last Friday when she defeated University of Arkansas player Corinna Rees 9 and 8 to win the championship flight in the Women's Southern Amateur tournament.
Lance, who will be a junior at Ole Miss next season, rolled in a 40-footer on her first putt of the day. She said it was the first time all week that she won the first hole.
Her college coach, Michele Drinkard, made the long morning drive from Oxford and got to the course in time to see Lance walk off the 11th green. She had a three-hole lead at that point and was up four after the first 18.
The pivotal stretch came midway through the front nine the second time around. Lance bogeyed No. 4, but Rees bogeyed, too. Rees outdrove Lance on No. 5 but ended up away after their approach shots.
Rees missed her birdie try before Lance calmly made an uphill 15-footer to win the first of three consecutive that put her seven holes ahead. Her shot on No. 10 that ended it was a lengthy downhiller.
"All I was trying to do was get it close to the hole," Lance said. "I was trying to get it within 3 or 4 feet for birdie. I actually thought it was going to be past the hole. When it went in, that was icing on the cake."
Lance played at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, where she was TSSAA Class A/AA state medalist in 2005 and '06 and runner-up in '04. Monday she was one of three to shoot even-par 72, which were the best scores in the qualifying round.
Her match-play opponents ranged from Soddy-Daisy High School's Haley Cothran to 2004 USGA Women's Senior Champion Carolyn Creekmore. She needed 19 holes to defeat the University of Alabama's Brooke Pancake, who was TSSAA state medalist four times in Division II for Baylor School.
"When I got ready to play in this tournament, I was looking at the tee times and saw the names," Lance said. "I was saying, 'This one just played in the nationals. She's from the SEC. She's from the Big Ten.' This is one of the best fields I've seen this summer. It was awesome to get to play against these caliber of players, and on such a great golf course."
Drinkard said Lance's game has improved since they talked after Mississippi competed in the NCAA Central Regional in early May in Columbus, Ind. The coach said Lance getting fitted for a putter that suits her "straight-back, straight-through swing" has helped, and this week she had the speed of the greens figured out.
"She told me how much she wanted to get better and come into fall ready to compete," Drinkard said. "She has worked extremely hard since about May 12th and has played really well."
The only local golfer still competing on the final day was University of Tennessee at Chattanooga incoming freshman Jordan Britt. The recent Signal Mountain High School graduate and medalist in 2009 at the TSSAA Class A/AA state tournament lost 1 up in the first-flight final to Taylor Babcock, who is from Lake Oswego, Ore., and will be a sophomore at NCAA Division II Barry University in Miami, Fla.