WWGA NATIONAL AM
Today: Stroke play
Wednesday: 1st round match play.
Thursday: 2nd and 3rd round match play.
Friday: Championship quarterfinals, semifinals all flights.
Saturday: 36-hole championship flight final.
The rush to play tournament golf is on for Jessie Jordan. Facing yet another idle year after transferring from the University of Wisconsin to Iowa, it’s game on this summer.
“I’m trying to find as many tournaments as I can just because I know that I have to sit out again,” said the 2011 Graham High School graduate after Monday’s first round of the 113th Women’s Western golf Association National Amateur Championship at Dayton Country Club.
“Last year was just hard not to play. You need to play to sharpen yourself. Practicing only gets you so far. There’s something to be said about competing.”
That’s what Jordan and 153 other amateurs from 28 states and six foreign countries will do at DCC through Saturday. Two rounds of stroke play will conclude today. The top 64 players players will be flighted out and match play will ensue on Wednesday. The championship final will be 36 holes of match play on Saturday.
The field is mostly comprised of collegiate-age players and the best high school players. A contestant must be a WWGA member and have no more than a 10 handicap. More than a dozen college coaches were lured by uncommitted junior players.
Brooke Henderson (Ontario, Canada) shot a low round of 68 on the par 71, 5,948-yard Donald Ross layout that has been modified for this tournament. Ashlan Ramsey (Clemson) and Isabel Southard (Denver) both shot 69.
Jordan and Chaminade Julienne standout Mikaela Hadaway were paired together. Both flew a downhill par-3 on the second hole and landed in a creek. Jordan coaxed a chip near the hole but a putt for par rimmed out. That was the first of three straight doubles for Jordan, the daughter of U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan.
“After that, it was just sloppy,” she said.
Jordan, who redshirted her first season at Wisconsin and was inactive last year, fired an 81. She mostly plays at Windy Knoll in Springfield. An Urbana resident, she grew up on Woodland Golf Club in Cable.
Hadaway shot 85. She recently landed a golf scholarship at Wingate (N.C.), an NCAA Division II program. As CJ’s No. 1 player she led the Eagles to a D-II state team title in 2011 and a runner-up last fall.
Miamisburg senior Molly Skapik led all area players with a 76.
The field’s order of play reverses today. Everyone is guaranteed at least one match-play round on Wednesday.
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