CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A good start paved the way for a comfortable finish for Jordan Britt on Tuesday.
In the first round of match play in the 70th Tennessee Women’s Amateur golf tournament at Cleveland Country Club, Britt got up big on Amanda Randolph during the first eight holes and cruised to a spot in today’s championship flight round of 16 with a 4 and 2 victory.
The recent Signal Mountain High School graduate and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signee said she doesn’t have much match-play experience, but she enjoys the format.
“I like it,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about playing the course so much as playing your opponent, and you can go for those ‘hero’ shots, those shots that you normally play it safe.”
Britt was 4 up after eight holes against Randolph, a Cookeville resident and sophomore at Tennessee Tech. Randolph won the next two to briefly get back in the match, but Britt held a 3-up lead and was dormie heading into No. 16. A bogey by Randolph allowed Britt to close out the match with a par.
“I feel like I played pretty solid,” Randolph said. “I just couldn’t make some of the putts that I needed to make down the stretch.”
The two decided to go ahead and play Nos. 17 and 18 for the fun of it, and they sealed an enjoyable round together with ice cream sandwiches by the scorers’ tent.
Between their friendly banter in the golf cart they shared to their encouraging words to one another, Britt and Randolph seemed to be playing a casual round between friends.
“I haven’t seen her in a long time, so getting to play with her again was awesome,” Britt said. “The last four holes, we were just goofing around and just having a good time.”
Britt, the TSSAA Class A/AA state champion and a first-flight finalist at the Women’s Southern Amateur earlier this month, will face former Ole Miss golfer Rachel Ingram of Jonesborough this morning. Ingram advanced Tuesday with a 3 and 1 win over Alexandra Jasper of Clarksville.
Of the three current Rebels in the field, only Ashley Lance moved on Tuesday. Lance, who won the Women’s Southern Amateur at Lookout Mountain, defeated Bean Station’s Karen Williams 5 and 4, while Knoxville’s Jillian Brodd and Bolivar’s Shelby Sain lost their matches.
Sain lost 7 and 6 to Mary Alice Murphy, who was the Division II-AA state title as a senior at GPS this spring and will play at Mercer. Murphy plays this morning against 1994 women’s amateur champion and reigning state senior player of the year Maggie Scott of Charleston, who defeated Oak Ridge’s Savanna Schubert 3 and 2 on Scott’s home course.
Of the 16 matches Tuesday, only two reached the 18th green — and both of those needed extra holes to decide a winner. Linda Mullins of Cleveland edged Kristin Price of Dandridge on the 20th hole and Kayla Turner from Clarksville, who plays at Samford, needed 23 holes to defeat Soddy-Daisy High School senior Haley Cothran.