Carol Semple Thompson

Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., captured her third straight championship with a 1-up victory over Anne Carr of Renton, Wash., at the 40th USGA Senior Women’s Amateur at Allegheny Country Club.

It is the sixth USGA championship for Semple Thompson, which ties her with Hollis Stacy and Glenna Collett Vare. She now stands three behind all-time record holder Bobby Jones, who holds nine. In addition to the 1999 and 2000 Senior Women’s Amateurs, Semple Thompson won the 1973 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 1990 and 1997 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs. The 1990 Mid-Amateur title was also won at Allegheny, her home course.

“I can’t imagine that I actually won another national championship,” Semple Thompson said. “I played all right, but I didn’t play my best golf. Anne was good to me on the last couple of holes.”

It was the closest match of the championship for Semple Thompson, who hadn’t played the course’s final two holes in match play prior to the final. The match was all square after 16 holes, and neither player had been more than one hole up to that point.

“A lot of my matches were relatively easy this week, so when I wasn’t just barging ahead on Anne, I started to get a little bit frustrated, even though I was telling myself that I had to stay patient,” said Semple Thompson. “I couldn’t be thinking about the future, I had to stay in the present and had to keep thinking about each hole as it came.”

The turning point came at the par-4, 393-yard 17th hole. Carr’s tee shot found the left rough,

and her approach shot entered

the rough surrounding the left bunker. After chipping onto the green, she two-putted for bogey. Semple Thompson hit the green

in two, and was able to two-putt from the back of the green for par to win the hole and go one up.

Carr, playing in her first Senior Women’s Amateur, decided to

go for it on the par-5, 417-yard 18th hole.

“I was trying to put my third shot in the hole on 18,” Carr said. “I put so much pressure on myself and just before I hit it, I said, ‘don’t chunk it’.”

But that’s exactly what happened, and the shot landed well short of the green. Her fourth shot landed high above the hole on the green. When Semple Thompson chipped from just short of the green to within two feet, the hole was conceded as halved and Semple Thompson had won her sixth national championship.

“She is so tough and so good,” Carr said. “You have to be playing great golf to beat this woman and I just wasn’t.”

In her semifinal match, Semple Thompson won the first three holes against Elizabeth Haines of Gladwyne, Pa., then won four straight holes starting at the par-5, 412-yard 9th hole to take control en route to a 6 and 4 victory.

After a shaky start in the weekend’s stroke play qualifying, Semple Thompson cruised through match play.

Carr advanced to the final when she sank a long putt on the par-5, 417-yard 18th hole to earn a 2-up victory over Karen Ferree of Hilton Head, S.C., wife of Senior PGA Tour player Jim Ferree. She eliminated medalist Marianne Towersey of Newport Beach, Calif., to reach the semfinals.

In an afternoon of golf overshadowed by the tragic events in the United States, Towersey held on to earn a 1-up victory over 1999 runner-up Cecilia Mourgue-D’Algue of France, while Semple Thompson took an early lead and cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over 1995 champion Jean Smith of Boise, Idaho.

Karen Ferree of Hilton Head, S.C., wife of Senior PGA Tour player Jim Ferree, moved on to the quarterfinals, as did Taffy Brower of Boynton Beach, Fla., who in the morning’s second round knocked out 1992 champion Rosemary Thompson of Albuquerque, N.M.

On the morning of September 11th, the players had just started the second round of match play when tragedy struck the United States in New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., 80 miles from Allegheny C.C. After USGA officials conferred with the players, the decision was made to continue play.

Semple Thompson said the decision to play was the right one.

“The USGA had a discussion with all eight players as to how we felt about playing, and I think the prevailing opinion was that there wasn’t a thing we could do about what was going on in New York or Washington, and we probably should try to get back to some sort of normalcy, if there is going to be such a thing in our lives again,” Semple Thompson said.