Lang Ousts Creekmore, Advances to Semi-Final Round

By Mark Mulvoy

Rye, N.Y. - Diane Lang took a 1-up lead when Carolyn Creekmore four-putted the 14th green and then hung tough to the end and eliminated the defending champion with a 1-up victory in quarterfinal-round play of the USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championship at The Apawamis Club.

 
With the victory, Lang, a long hitter from Weston, Florida, who had tied for second place with 152 in the 36-hole stroke play qualifying competition last weekend, moved into the semifinals against Annette Gaiotti, a summer resident of Marston Mills, Mass., who rallied to oust Reggie Parker of Hobe Sound, Fl., with a birdie at the 18th hole.

In the other half of the draw, Carol Semple Thompson, the four-time winner of this Championship from Sewickley, Pa., took advantage of the putting misadventures of Marianne Towersey of Pebble Beach, Calif., to win by a margin of 3-and-2. 

Annette Gaiotti plays her way into the semi-finals. (Robert Walker/USGA)

Her semi-final opponent will be Cecilia Mourgue D’Algue, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, who is now a French citizen and a resident of Paris.  Mourgue D’Algue, a five-time European Senior Ladies champion and the 2005 women's senior champion of France, Spain and Portugal, has owned the 18th green at Apawamis and this morning made a birdie there to send her match with Robin Donnelley of Lake Forest, Ill., into sudden death.  Mourgue then made a clutch up-and-down par at the 19th hole to win 1-up when Donnelley three-putted that green.

Creekmore, who lives in Dallas, Texas, offered no excuses after her loss to Lang. 

"Diane played better than I did," said Creekmore, who just shook her head when asked about her four putts at the 14th hole that gave Lang, who had three-putted that hole, a 1-up lead.

Lang extended her lead to 2-up with a perfect par at the difficult, 388-yard, par-four 15th, and then seemed ready to close out the defending champion when she placed her tee shot on the 150-yard 16th hole safely on the green while Creekmore left her tee shot deep into the fringe to the left of the green.  Lang rolled her putt to within inches of the cup for a conceded par, and then Creekmore delicately rolled her ball through the fringe and onto the green, the ball trickling downhill and stopping 18 inches above the cup.  She made the putt for a half.

Creekmore then cut Lang's margin to 1-up with a par five at the 17th hole, where Lang three putted.

There was plenty of drama at the 18th.  Lang had short-clubbed herself on four 100 to 120-yard approaches to the tricky Apawamis greens, but this time she was right-on as she lofted her approach shot to the elevated green at the 310-yard finishing hole and the ball stopped hole-high in the fringe, leaving her with a curling, 20-foot downhill putt.  Creekmore then hit her approach just past the hole and was left with a downhill 12-foot putt for her birdie.  Lang rolled her putt two feet past the cup.  Creekmore, with a chance to force extra holes, failed to play enough right-to-left break and the ball trickled to a stop inches from the cup.  Lang then stroked her two-footer into the middle of the cup and raised her hands in triumph.

"Clearly, the turning point was at the 14th hole when Carolyn four putted," Lang said, "but then I three putted the 17th and reopened the door for her.”

Her next opponent, Annette Gaiottti, tied for 46th place in the qualifying rounds, but has played strongly in match play.  Against the veteran Parker, Gaiotti fell 1-down when Parker made a remarkable up-and-down at the par-four 14th.  They halved the 15th, and then Parker saved a half at the 16th with a brilliant recovery from the greenside pot-bunker followed by a downhill, sliding 15 foot putt for her par.

But Parker lost the 17th when her second putt lipped-out and they went to the 19th all square.  Gaiotti then won the match at the 18th, holing her putt for birdie after Parker's try to birdie just slid past the edge of the cup.

For her part, Carol Semple Thompson played her normal steady if unspectacular game and took advantage of Towersey's putting problems; Towersey three putted several greens and missed a number of short putts for wins or halves.

Her semi-final round opponent, Mourgue D’Algue, has been the great escape artist of the championship.  In her morning match on Tuesday, Mourgue D’Algue was all square with Allison Reifers of Dublin, Ohio, at the 18th and then faced an uphill, sharply-breaking 20-foot putt for birdie while Reifers was looking at a two-footer for her birdie.

 
Mourgue D’Algue, a patient player, calmly stroked her putt into the dead center of the cup, prompting a healthy ovation from the spectators.  Reifers said later that her two-footer suddenly looked to be 20 feet, but she drilled her putt into the cup for a matching birdie.  Mourgue D’Algue then won on the 19th hole when she two-putted for par while Reifers three-putted for bogey.

This morning, Mourgue D’Algue again birdied the 18th hole, this time forcing sudden death, and again won the playoff hole when her opponent three putted.

Mark Mulvoy is the former managing editor of Sports Illustrated and a member of the USGA Communication Committee.