CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Maggie Scott won the Tennessee Women’s Amateur golf championship in 1994, at the age of 45. Her opponent in the round of 16 at this year’s event, Mary Alice Murphy, was 2 years old when that happened.
The players, separated in age by 43 years, played an entertaining match Wednesday that went down to the wire. Scott was 1 up heading to the 18th hole at the Cleveland Country Club and Murphy had to make a 25-foot birdie putt to draw even and keep the match going.
Murphy, the Division II-AA state champion at GPS this spring, was aggressive with the uphill putt and it slammed off the back of the hole and bounced away, securing the 1-up win for Scott.
“I thought it was in — it was in and it just decided to come back out,” said a laughing Scott, from nearby Charleston.
The 61-year-old Scott will face defending state amateur champion Kendall Martindale, 17, in the quarterfinals this morning. The winner of that match will play in the semifinals this afternoon. Martindale, of Jefferson City, beat Sarah Mathews 2 up on Wednesday.