OSU's McGinty and Denver's Bean Tie for 1st at Westbrook Invitational ; Minnesota's Mesones & Carpenter Are Both Top 7

February 28, 2023 | 6 min.
By Michael R Fermoyle


PEORIA, Ariz. -- Caley McGinty, an Ohio State junior who has been as high as No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and is currently No. 26, looked the part on Tuesday as she birdied three of the last five holes to shoot a 5-under-par 67 in the final round of the Westbrook Invitational. 

Alyson Bean, a graduate student at Denver, is No. 604 in the WAGRs, but she looked slightly better than McGinty in the decisive round at Westbrook Village Golf Club. On a course where there had been only eight sub-70 scores out of 158 during the first two rounds, Bean birdied seven of the last 14 holes, which gave her a 65, and she tied McGinty for medalist honors with a 54-hole total of 207 (minus 9).

McGinty started the day tied for the lead, at 140 (70-70), along with two Minnesota players, Emma Carpenter (71-69) and Luisamariana Mesones (73-67). There was a shotgun start, and Mesones, who began her round on the fourth hole, took the early lead with four birdies in her first seven holes. But she bogeyed her eighth hole, the 147-yard, par-3 11th, and her ninth hole, the 389-yard, par-4 12th. 

Carpenter's first hole Tuesday was the fifth. She parred the five holes she played, but then bogeyed the par-4 10th (364 yards). The senior from DeKalb, Ill., rallied with birdies at the 13th and 14th, and another at the first hole, before suffering a bogey on her last hole, the 174-yard, par-3 fourth. That gave her a 71, and a seventh-place finish at 211. 

Bean, who began the day two shots out of first at 142 (69-73), moved into contention with four birdies in a five-hole span on the front nine -- at the par-5 fifth (487 yards), the par-4 sixth (390), the par-5 eighth (482) and the par-4 ninth (347).

 She, like McGinty, started on the first hole, and McGinty matched three of Bean's four front-nine birdies, at the sixth, the eighth and the ninth. So McGinty was at minus 7 and still one ahead of Bean when they made the turn. But Bean pulled even when she parred the par-3 11th, and McGinty bogeyed it. 

Up ahead, Mesones got back to 7 under when she birdied the par-5 14th (469) at about the same time McGinty was making her bogey at the 11th. But Mesones, who parred only two holes on the back nine, cost herself two strokes when she doubled the 183-yard, par-3 16th. The freshman from Peru bounced back with birdies at the par-5 17th and the par-4 18th, but she bogeyed her last hole, the 411-yard third. Neveretheless, she still managed to be 2 under for the day, with a 70, and finished alone in sixth at 210. 

There were two other players in the race all the way to the finish line on Tuesday. In fact, McGinty's Ohio State teammate Kary Hollenbaugh took the lead by making birdies on five of the first eight holes (she started on No. 1), which got her to 8 under, before she slipped back to minus 7 with a bogey at the 10th. She made one more birdie, at the par-5 14th, and matched McGinty's 67 -- but finished one shot out of first, in a tie for third at 208. 

And then there was Judith Rothman of Kansas. She tied Hollenbaugh for third at 208. Starting well ahead of all the other contenders at No. 8, Hollenbaugh parred her first six holes, and then proceeded to birdie five of the next six. So after 12 holes (her 12th hole was No. 1), she was in first at 8 under. She made her lone bogey of the day at the par-3 second, but got that lost stroke back with a birdie at the fifth, and she, too, signed for a 67.

It was on the last five holes that McGinty and Bean took over. McGinty birdied the  par-5 14th, the short par-4 15th (270 yards) and the par-5 17th (529) to get to 9 under, and she took a one-shot lead to the 18th tee. But Bean, who had matched McGinty birdies at the 14th and 15th, got the one last birdie she needed to claim a share of first place with a birdie at the 347-yard 18th.

In the team competition, Kelli Ann Strand led Nebraska to the title. She was in contention to win the individual medal before making bogeys at the 12th and 13th, but she birdied the 14th and the 17th holes for a 69, which put her at 209, one ahead of Mesones in fifth. The Huskers were tied with Ohio State after both teams finished the first round with aggregates of 286, but they took the lead with a 280 in the second round and an 11-under final-round 277 gave them an overall 843 and a seven-shot victory.

Ohio State had the best score on Tuesday, a 276, and that enabled the Buckeyes to finish second at 850, four ahead of Denver, which closed with a 280. Kansas was five behind Denver in fourth with a total of 859, two ahead of fifth-place Rutgers.

Minnesota, which got off to a slow start and was in 10th place out of 14 teams after a first-round 296, matched Nebraska's 280 in the second round, and followed that with a 286 on Tuesday. That put the Gophers in a three-way tie for sixth, along with UNLV and Oklahoma, at 862.     
 


Westbrook Invitational 

At Westbrook Village Golf Club

Par 72, 6,248 yards

Peoria, Ariz. 

Final results 


1. Nebraska                        286-280-277--843

2. Ohio State                      286-288-276--850

3. Denver                            287-287-280--854

4. Kansas                            294-286-279--859

5. Rutgers                           293-288-280--861

T6. Minnesota                   296-280-286--862

T6. Oklahoma                     294-293-275--862

T6. UNLV                            296-283-283--862

9. College of Charlseston   291-289-288--868

10. Penn State                    291-293-287--871

11. Kansas State                 296-291-286--873

12. Iowa                               293-298-288--879

13. Missouri                         298-284-297--889

14. Wisconsin                      300-302-291--893

Individuals

T1. Caley McGinty, Ohio State        70-70-67--207

T1. Alyson  Bean, Denver                69-73-65--207

T3. Jordan Rothman, Kansas          69-72-67--208

T3. Kary Hollenbaugh, Ohio State   70-71-67--208

5. Kelli Ann Strand, Nebraska          71-69-69--209

6. Mariana Mesones, Minnesota   73-67-70--210

7. Emma Carpenter, Minnesota     71-69-71--211

T33. Grace Curran, Minnesota       75-72-72--219

T49. Bella McCauley, Minnesota    77-72-73--222

T78. Leah Herzog, Minnesota        78-82-76--236






 

 

Michael R Fermoyle

Mike Fermoyle’s amateur golf career features state titles in five different decades, beginning with the State Public Links (1969), three State Amateurs (1970, 1973 and 1980), and four State Four-Ball championships (1972, 1985, 1993 and 2001). Fermoyle was medalist at the Pine to Palm in 1971, won the Resorters in 1972, made the cut at the State Amateur 18 consecutive years (1969 to 1986), the last being 2000, and amassed 13 top-ten finishes. Fermoyle also made it to the semi-final matches at the MGA’s annual match play championship, the Players’, in 1982 and 1987.

Fermoyle enjoyed a career as a sportswriter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch before retiring in 2006. Two years later he began a second career covering the golf beat exclusively for the MGA and its website, mngolf.org, where he ranks individual prep golfers and teams, provides coverage on local amateur and professional tournaments and keeps tabs on how Minnesotans are faring on the various professional tours.

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