Creekmore, Herman, Pictor, Puckett Advance To Senior Women's Amateur Semis

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

Hot Springs, Va. – The last two former USA Curtis Cup players fell in the quarterfinals of the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur at the 5,515-yard, par-70 Cascades course at The Homestead, as Noreen Mohler and Pat Cornett lost their morning matches.

Mohler’s defeat was something of an upset. She lost, 2 down, to Brenda Pictor of Marietta, Ga., the last lifelong amateur in the semifinal field. Pat Cornett of Mill Valley, Calif., fell to the 2004 champion, Carolyn Creekmore of Dallas, Texas, 3 and 2.

Also advancing to the afternoon semifinals was Sherry Herman of Farmingdale, N.J., who defeated Dana Harrity of North Hampton, N.H., 3 and 2, despite birdies by Harrity on the last three holes of the match.

Robyn Puckett of Irvine, Calif., defeated Kim Eaton of Greeley, Colo., 1 up, in the other quarterfinal match. The match was all square after the 14th hole and wasn’t decided until Puckett’s winning par at the par-3 18th hole.

Going into the match against Moher, a former professional who was a member of the 1978 USA Curtis Cup team, Pictor had never won anything bigger than her state women’s amateur championship. Pictor held a 2-up lead at the 195-yard, par-3 15th when Mohler hit her tee shot to within 15 feet of the hole. Pictor’s tee shot went far left behind some evergreens and she fired her second shot through the limbs but short of the green. Forced to chip, Pictor hit her third some 20 feet past the hole and conceded Mohler’s birdie.

Pictor carried her 1-up lead to the 18th tee. Both players hit their shots to the back of the green, but watched the balls trundle down the slope and back toward the hole. Mohler’s ball settled some 15 feet away. Pictor’s ball backed up to within 4 feet. Mohler narrowly missed her curling putt for a birdie. Pictor then hit a speedy, delicate putt into the center of the hole for a birdie and 2-up victory.

The Creekmore-Cornett contest was predictably close.  Creekmore grabbed a 1-up advantage at the first hole, but Cornett had a slim one-hole lead through nine.

The turning point, Creekmore said, came at the par-4 10th. The Texan made her 9-footer for a birdie and Cornett missed a 4-footer to halve the hole and the match returned to all square.

After Creekmore safely hit the green of the par-3 15th, and made a par, Cornett bogeyed from a greenside bunker and Creekmore was dormie 3.

Spectators thought thepar-5  16th hole would never end. After matching tee shots, Cornett hit her second into a gnarly lie in the rough. Creekmore’s ball settled just 10 feet beyond, but in a bunker.

Cornett slashed at the thick rough and her ball scooted across the pond fronting the green, landing in heavy fringe. Creekmore powered her bunker shot over the green, down a steep slope.

With both players lying three, Cornett seemed to barely nudge her chip onto the green, but it rolled and rolled, finally stopping 10 feet past. Creekmore popped her ball up. It hit the green and rolled to the bottom, leaving her a 65-foot putt.

Creekmore then hit her first putt about 9 feet past. But when Cornett missed, and Creekmore made, the hole was halved with bogey-6s and Creekmore had won, 3 and 2.

“She putted great,” said Cornett. “She made a lot of save putts, while I didn’t make many.”

Creekmore agreed. “I putted like a near-genius,” she said.

As Cornett and her husband/caddie Mike Iker strolled up the hill to the clubhouse, Creekmore played the remaining holes in preparation for her afternoon semifinal match against Pictor.

The other semifinal pits Herman against Puckett, the 2007 Senior Women’s Amateur runner-up.

The semifinal winners will meet in Thursday’s scheduled 18-hole final.

The Senior Women’s Amateur is one of 13 national championships conducted by the United States Golf Association, of which ten are strictly for amateurs.

Rhonda Glenn is a manager of communications for the USGA. E-mail her with questions or comments at rglenn@usga.org.