By Staff
SHOWDOWN Above, Leigh Phillips tees off on Hole No. 14 during Thursday action in the Briarwood Country Club Ladies Invitational Scramble. Photo by Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star
By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
July 13, 2001
The temperature reached a yearly high of 97 degrees Thursday. Throw in a heat index of 113 and its easy to see why scores also went up for the most part in the final round of the 32nd annual Briarwood Ladies Invitational Scramble at Briarwood Country Club.
It took two holes of sudden death to decide the 2001 championship as Margaret Carver and Lou Hart held off the challenge of Myra Horne and Sheila Haynes. Both teams finished regulation at 131, 17 strokes under par.
All but Carver played in the championship flight of the 2001 Mississippi Women's Golf Association State Amateur Championship earlier this summer.
After both teams birdied the first playoff hole early Thursday afternoon, Carver knocked a 5-iron to within eight feet of the hole from 140 yards out to set up the win. After Horne and Haynes salvaged par on the second extra hole, Carver ran in her birdie putt to secure the victory.
Both teams played two days without a bogey. In regulation, they both had 17 birdies out of 36 holes.
Carver and Hart opened the second round with four straight birdies to grab a four-stroke lead over the team of Haynes and Horne and a three-stroke advantage over the team of Pam Posey and Leigh Phillips.
Carver and Hart led both challengers by four strokes after six holes.
Haynes and Horne then caught fire with birdies at Nos. 7, 8, and 9 to close to within two strokes heading into the back nine. Posey and Phillips were five strokes off the lead at the turn.
Posey and Phillips closed to within three strokes of Carver and Hart with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 11 and 12. A birdie at 12 left Haynes and Horne just one stroke off the lead.
Haynes and Horne grabbed a share of the lead with a birdie on No. 13 and each of the top three teams birdied No. 14.
All three then parred No. 15 and Posey and Phillips birdied No. 16 to get to within two strokes of the leaders.
A birdie that was inches from being an eagle on No. 17 temporarily gave Haynes and Horne the lead, but Carver used her mulligan on No. 18 to hit a second shot close enough to give her team a birdie putt to force sudden death.
Posey and Phillips finished the two-day tournament with 14 birdies and no bogeys for a 134.
Fourth place went to the team of Dale Bounds and Cindy Hollingsworth, who both also made the 2001 state am championship flight. They shot a 68 Thursday to finish at 137 with the team of Charlene Hughes and Sissy Kern.
Bounds and Hollingsworth had 14 birdies in the two days to go with three bogeys.
Hughes and Kern had 13 birdies and two bogeys.
Completing the championship flight were Julia McKey and Lori Netterville at 139 and the teams of Amy Shelley-Sharon Alexander and Betty Swindle-Shirley Johnson at 143.
Mississippi State women's golf coach Christi Sanders and Lou Garick won the first flight with a 141.
Of the 46 teams in the tournament, only 16 bettered their opening round score. Twenty-five fared worse, while five remained the same.
Marty Stamper is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at mstamper@themeridianstar.com.