Medalist Moore Advances To Second Round

Sunriver, Ore. – Medalist Patty Moore, 57, of Charlotte, N.C., advanced to the second round of match play Monday with a 6-and-5 victory over Fran Gacos, 52, of Flemington, N.J., at the 2007 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur at Sunriver Resort’s 5,975-yard Meadows Course.

Moore, a three-time winner of the North and South Senior Amateur, never trailed in her match and was 4 up through nine holes.

Beatriz Arenas, of Guatemala, gestures for a made putt during her first-round victory. (Robert Walker/USGA)

"I played about the same as I did on (Sunday),” said Moore, who was a quarterfinalist in 2006. “Fran got in the rough a few too many times. That made it a little easier for me.”

Moore, who will represent North Carolina in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship later this month, was relieved to get the win.

"Don’t think I wasn’t thinking about the medalist kiss of death type of thing,” said Moore, a .three-time Carolinas Golf Association Player of the Year. “I didn’t want to go out in the first round. It was in the back of my mind.”

She meets Reggie Parker, of Hobe Sound, Fla., in the second round. Her confidence level, from good play this summer, is growing.

"I’ve had some good success in this tournament and you draw from that,” Moore said. “I just recently won the North and South Senior and I am drawing from that.”

Toni Wiesner, 60, of Fort Worth, Texas, who shot the best round of stroke play, a 2-under 69, was also a 6 and 5 winner, over Patricia Robinson, of Polar Bluff, Mo.

In a match of note, 1999 Senior Women’s Amateur runner-up Cecilia Mourgue D’Algue,of France, defeated 1988 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Martha Lang, of Birmingham, Ala., 2 and 1. Mourgue D’Algue has reached the semifinals three times.

Five past champions, Carolyn Creekmore, of Dallas, Texas, Carol Semple Thompson, of Sewickley, Pa., Diane Lang, of Weston, Fla., the 2005 and 2006 winner, 73-year-old Marlene Stewart Streit, of Canada, and Nancy Fitzgerald, of Carmel, Ind., had later matches.

Beatriz Arenas, 59, of Guatemala, in her first match in this format, also won, as did 2006 runner-up Anna Schultz, of Rockwall, Texas.

Story written by Pete Kowalski, USGA Media Relations. E-mail him with questions or comments at pkowalski@usga.org