The competitors who Thursday earned their way into today’s final match in the championship flight of the Women’s Southern Amateur golf tournament have at least two things in common. Each plays golf for a Southeastern Conference university, and each has been able to solve the Lookout Mountain Golf Club’s greens — at least to this point.
Ashley Lance will play Corinna Rees in the 36-hole final beginning at 8 a.m.
Jordan Britt, a recent graduate of Signal Mountain High School, is in the first-flight final. She’ll take on Taylor Babcock from Miami in a match scheduled to start at 8:45.
Lance is from Franklin, Tenn., and will be a junior at Mississippi next school year. She thinks a recent purchase may have provided a spark in her short game this week.
“I got a new putter and it’s been tremendous,” Lance said. “I don’t know if it’s the putter or if it’s confidence. Whatever. I made a 20-footer for birdie on my next-to-last hole today and a 10-footer on the next hole to end it.”
Lance was recalling her final shots on Nos. 15 and 16 that enabled her to defeat Dallas’s Carolyn Creekmore, the 2004 USGA Women’s Senior champion, 3 and 2 during the afternoon semifinal.
Lance had defeated former Baylor School standout Brooke Pancake, who is about to be a junior at Alabama, in the morning quarterfinal. Lance also credited her putting for allowing her to make a comeback on the back nine in that match. She made a “7-foot downhill slider” on the last hole in regulation to tie the match and sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole to win it.
“Coming in, I knew the greens were going to be tough,” Lance said. “I’ve really taken my time on the greens this week. I want to make sure I see everything.”
Rees came to the University of Arkansas, where she will be a redshirt junior next season, by way of Pebble Beach, Calif. She defeated the University of Georgia’s Kendall Wright, from Suwanee, 2 and 1 in a semifinal after beating Dawn Woodard from Greer, S.C., by the same score.
“I love match play,” Rees said. “It just brings your game to another level. Playing another person is a completely different game. Sometimes you can be a little bit more conservative. Sometimes you can be a little bit more aggressive. You have to know when you can do that. One bad hole doesn’t kill your round in match play. It’s just one bad hole and it’s over.”
Rees played one weekend practice round at Lookout Mountain before shooting 78 in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying round that landed her in the championship flight. She said she’s where she is now because she’s improved her play each day.
“I had to figure out these greens, especially reading the speed,” Rees said. “Reading the speed is very important.”
Lance and former GPS and soon-to-be Mercer University golfer Mary Alice Murphy were among the three who shared medalist honors Monday with even-par 72s. Creekmore ended Murphy’s run in the championship flight by winning 2 and 1 in one of Thursday morning’s quarterfinals.
Britt, who signed with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, ended up in the first flight after shooting 83 on Monday. She advanced to the final in the first flight by winning 3 and 2 in a semifinal Thursday over the University of Georgia’s Tess Fordham, from Metter, Ga.