A Morrell victory
Toolbox
By Carleton Laird
staff writer - Published: July 9, 2010
KILLINGTON — Samantha Morrell said after Wednesday’s round when she was four shots out of the lead that she was just where she wanted to be, “lurking right behind.”
On Thursday, she went from lurking to leading ... and then winning the New England Women’s Golf Association Championship at Green Mountain National Golf Course by two shots over Tara Joy-Connelly.
Morrell, from North Kingstown, R.I., shot her third straight 74 to finish at 6-over 222, while Joy-Connelly carded a 75 to go with her 73 and 76.
“I didn’t want to start off on fire right away because then I would get too cocky, too comfortable,” Morrell said. “I would prefer to fight and come back that way.”
A misapplied rule on the second hole derailed second-round leader Teo Poplawski of Champlain, who took a four-shot lead over Morrell and five over Joy-Connelly into the final round. She finished with an 84 and in a tie for fourth.
Morrell made bogey on the first hole, Poplawski par and Joy-Connelly birdie.
Poplawski hit her second shot on No. 2 over the pond, into the bank and the ball rolled back into the water. After discussion with her group, Poplawski dropped on the green side of the water hazard and proceeded to make a bogey five.
When informed by a rules official that she had made a mistake, Poplawski went back across the pond and replayed the shot, making a six. She then was assessed a two-shot penalty for playing from the wrong position and put an eight on the card.
Visibly upset, Poplawski’s game began to unravel from there. She took two shots to just barely get out of the green side bunker on three, and made a double, and then added bogeys on six, seven and eight for a front nine 46, nine over par. She shot 38 on the back.
Mary Chamberlin carded the best round of the day, even-par 72, to finish third at 225, while Anne Fraser had a second straight 74 to tie with Poplawski at 228. First-day leader Sarah Whitney, who opened with a 71, shot 80-79 the final two days to finish alone in sixth at 230.
Joy-Connelly’s birdie on the first pushed her a shot ahead of Morrell but Morrell dropped a 9-footer for birdie on the tough fourth, chipped in from the left rough for a birdie two on the fifth and stuck her second shot on eight to 6 feet for a third bird to shoot 2-under 35 on the front and take a two-shot lead.
Joy-Connelly, meanwhile ripped off eight straight pars to finish the front in 1-under 36.
“I’m happy about the front,” Morrell said. “(In the first two rounds) I had been always making two or three birdies but then mess up on a hole and end up shooting even. I finally shot what I should have on the front.”
They both made par on 10 but the first of three three-putts led to a bogey for Joy-Connelly on 11. Morrell’s second shot to the elevated green came within inches of being great, but it began to trickle backwards and rolled off the false front to some 30 yards. She pitched it on and two-putted for her bogey.
Joy-Connelly chunked her second shot on 12 and then chipped well past the hole. She failed to get up and down and made double. Morrell, meanwhile, spun her second shot just off the front of the green and chipped to 4 feet, lipping out her par putt.
Although that increased the lead to its biggest margin (three strokes), Joy-Connelly, 37, is a tournament-hardened veteran. Recently named Massachusetts Golfer of the Decade, she came within 2 inches of holing her third shot for eagle on 15 as it spun just wide of the cup, leaving a tap-in for birdie.
Morrell hit her second shot into the greenside bunker and then lipped out her birdie putt. She then went long on her approach to 16, chipped 11 feet short and missed the putt, while Joy-Connelly two-putted for par to cut the lead to one.
Joy-Connelly missed the par-3 17th to the right and, with the pin tucked back right, faced a difficult chip. Meanwhile, Morrell knocked her tee shot onto the upper shelf, about 25 feet below the hole. Joy-Connelly chipped 19 feet past the cup and made bogey while Morrell two-putted for par and a two-shot margin.
The pair stood side-by-side in the 18th fairway, Joy-Connelly needing a birdie and a bogey from Morrell. Instead Joy-Connelly hit her shot some 40 feet past the hole while Morrell stuck it to 8 feet.
Joy-Connelly three-putted again and so did Morrell, but it did not matter.
“I didn’t make any of those putts early, I was knocking the pin down,” said Joy-Connelly, who won the event in 1996 and 1997 and was runner-up in 1998. “I knew it had to happen because when you stop knocking the pin down, it goes the other way.
“My three-putts on the back pretty much took the life out of me. I guess I didn’t have the right speed today because they lost their line and they just didn’t fall in.”
Morrell, 19, who will be a sophomore at Old Dominion, will now attempt to qualify for the USGA Women’s Amateur on Monday and will play in the Rhode Island Amateur later this summer.
DIVOTS: Vermonters fared better on the final day as 1992 New England Amateur winner Holly Reynolds shot 77, while Lindsay Cone and Keely Levins of Rutland shot 77 and 78, respectively, and 2004 winner Reggie Parker of Ekwanok shot 79. ... GMN head PGA professional Dave Soucy predicted 6-over would win the event and hit the number on the nose. ... Superintendent Peter Bissell and his staff did a splendid job of preparing the course, rendering it into perhaps its best condition ever.