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Final Recap

EAST PROVIDENCE _ Susie Cavanagh made her first victory ever over Nicole Scola a memorable one. It brought her a state championship.
       Cavanagh, a Pilgrim High grad who now plays ice hockey at the University of Connecticut, scored her biggest victory yet on the golf course on Friday when she rallied past Scola, 3 and 1, at Agawam Hunt in the title match of the R.I. Golf Association Women’s Amateur Championship.
      After falling 1-down on the 13th, Cavanagh won each of the last four holes, including a near hole-in-one on the par-3 16th. After both players struggled at times, Cavanagh won it by finishing par-birdie-birdie-par in the last four holes.
         The two college stars have long since established themselves as two of the best women players in the state, but Scola had controlled all their previous head-to-head meetings.
          ``We’ve had plenty of battles,’’ Cavanagh said. ``She’s definitely won some good ones in the past, but I knew if I played well down the stretch I could get it.’’     
         ``It feels great to finally get it done,’’ she added.
       While Scola had won each of the last two RIGA championships as well as the Interscholastic League crown, Cavanagh progressed from reaching the round of 16, to the quarterfinals and last year to losing to Scola in the title match. A powerful player, Cavanagh’s game is still very much a work in progress. Scola is seeing it firsthand
      ``We’ve always had really great competition between the two of us and I’ve been fortunate to play well when we did that,’’ Scola said. `` But her game has changed in a very god way, especially her short game.
       ``Her drives always have been very long. That’s something difficult to keep up with but, I was always better finesse-wise. Now that’s she really strengthened her short game, her chipping and putting especially, it makes her a much  more well rounded player and even better competition, as you could see out there,’’ Scola offered.
      The two staged a back and forth match in the final, in part because neither played as well as she had earlier in the week. Scola appeared to catch a good break at the seventh. She was 2-down and put her approach in the bunker that guards the left side of the green. It was buried. But it also was very near a two-by-four piece of wood that helps fortify the bunker. She looked to have to either hit backwards or take an unplayable.
     However, because of the wood, she asked for a ruling. Bob Ward, the RIGA’s executive director, told her rules allowed her a drop away from the wood. Instead of potentially losing the hole, Scola got up-and-down and won it.
    Twice she pulled even with wins at 8 and then 11 (where Cavanagh four-putted). When Scola won 13 with a par she was ahead for the first time.
     Facing a deficit, Cavanagh responded with her best golf of the day, winning 14 with a par, then the par-5 15th with a bird to go back ahead. The biggest shot of the week came next.
     With the honor on the 145-yard 16th, Cavanagh consulted with her caddie, Tom Acciardo before deciding on a seven iron. As she stepped up to the tee, a strong wind came up.
    ``The wind was helping at first, so I had a seven iron. Then all of a sudden I’m about to hit it and the wind’s in our face,’’ she related. ``I thought there’s no way I can get a seven iron there so I hit I six.  I trusted my swing and I got it there.’’
    The shot drove through the wind dead at the hole. It landed softly and came to rest one foot from the cup, so close she did not even had to putt it. Now 2-up, she won 17 with a routine par. Scola, knowing she needed to win to stay alive, chipped past the hole, missed her par putt and conceded Cavanagh’s putt for the 3-and-1 final.
      ``It wasn’t great golf until I turned it on at the end,’’ the new champion said. ``Both of us just really battled all day.’’
       Cavanagh, who is spending the summer working at Agawam, will play in the New England Women’s Amateur next week in New Hampshire, but be back playing hockey for UConn in the fall. She loves hockey too much to give it up for golf.
      ``I’ll be at the rink in the fall for sure,’’ she said. ``But with Rhode Island summers, why not play golf?’’

Semifinal Recap

EAST PROVIDENCE _ It will be the two-time defending champion against the medalist for the title in the R.I. Golf Association Women’s Amateur Championship.
       Nicole Scola, the reigning champ, and Susie Cavanagh, the medalist, earned spots in the final with strong performances in Thursday’s semis at Agawam Hunt.
       Scola took control by winning four straight holes in the middle of the match and went on to a 4-and-3 triumph over fellow college star Kelsey Hayward. Cavanagh had a much tougher battle. She had to win the last two holes to squeeze past former champion Lisa Griffin McGill, 1 up.
      The results set up a repeat of last year’s final when Scola edged Cavanagh in a contest that went down to the final hole.
       The two collegians have grown up together in golf
        ``I’ve played Susie all through high school. She’s great. We’ve always had fun,’’ said Scola, now a member of the Quinnipiac golf team. ``We’ve known each other since the RIWGA clinics we went to as kids.’’
       ``We used to play junior stuff together, play dates, clinics, stuff like that,’’ said Cavanagh, now an ice hockey stat at UConn. ``So, yeah, it goes back. ‘’
      If the match is anything like the one Cavanagh survived in the semis, it will be a good one. The Cavanagh-McGill battle was the best of the tournament thus far. McGill shot 75, with only 31 putts, including four straight one-putts late in the match, but lost because Cavanagh shot 76, despite two doubles, with 33 putts. The two were never more than one hole apart and each player had a 1-up lead three different times.
     ``It was back and forth it was a dogfight all the way around. It was awesome,’’ Cavanagh said. ``That’s the kind of thing you want at the end. It’s not much fun to clobber a player. You want it to be competitive.’’
     The long hitting Cavanagh had the advantage off the tee but the steady McGill almost never makes mistakes. Surprisingly, it was on a par-5, the 15th, where McGill took her last lead. Cavanagh decided to play safe in the dogleg leg and hit iron off the tee rather than drive. She drove through the fairway, had tree problems and lost the hole to go 1-down.
   On the par-3 16th, Cavanagh hit the green while McGill was in the right bunker.
    ``She made a great sandy there,’’ Cavanagh said. McGill blasted to six feet and made the par putt to keep her lead.
     Cavanagh pull even with a par at 17 after a great drive. The match was decided on the 18th green. Cavanagh’s approach on the par-4 was on the back of the green, about 40 feet from the cup. McGill was off the green but closer to the hole, at about 35 feet.
    Cavanagh putted first and left the downhill putt about six feet short. McGill then chipped too strongly. It ended up about seven feet past the hole. She missed her par putt, then Cavanagh made hers to win the match.
       Scola earned her return to the title match for the third year in a row with an efficient performance. Hayward, who plays golf for Sacred Heart, had finished second in qualifying while Scola was third. Scola won the first hole with a par and then the two halved five straight holes, four with pars.
      ``On the front nine there were a couple holes I should have capitalized on.  I thought I should have been 2 or 3-up but I made some mistakes,’’ she said. ``But then I started getting into a groove and on a roll and I got my confidence back.’’
     She won four holes in a row as she went par-par-birdie-par. Scola put it away on 12 when she hit a six-iron second shot on the par-5 from 160 yards within 12 feet and made the putt for eagle.
   Hayward stayed alive by winning both 13 and 14 with pars, but both parred 15, giving Scola the 4-and-3 decision.

Quarterfinal Recap