Snodgrass tied for Women’s Amateur lead
PARKERSBURG -Forced to keep the driver in the bag, Ritchie County High School graduate Sydney Snodgrass has revised her approach for the 91st West Virginia Women’s Amateur and is making the most of her gameplan.
With today’s final round remaining at Shepherdstown’s Cress Creek Country Club, Snodgrass and Bridgeport golfer Caroline Ramsey are locked in a dead heat and tied for first place at 6-over par 148. After shooting a 3-over 74 during Monday’s opening round, Snodgrass answered with a 74 on Tuesday and seeks to secure a second consecutive championship.
“I feel good with where I am at,” said Snodgrass, who will be a freshman this fall at UAB. “I shot a 74, but I left a lot of shots out there that could hopefully bring my score down for (today).”
Joining Snodgrass and Ramsey in today’s final pairing is Parkersburg South golfer Adeena Shears, who carded a 74 in the first round then closed out Tuesday’s round with a 78 and leaves her trailing the leaders by four strokes.
“I am in it – I do have a shot,” Shears said. “I have the potential to shoot under par. I just need to keep it straight and get it on the green. I’m definitely not taking myself out of contention.”
The third and final local individual to force a three-way tie for the lead after Monday’s action was Parkersburg High’s Lauryn Davidson, who has strung together 18-hole showings of 74 and 81 and settled into fourth place with seven strokes left to make up in the final round.
“I was a little nervous playing in the final group on Tuesday,” Davidson said. “Adeena and Sydney are great players and they were playing really good golf. I felt like I couldn’t get anything going.
“I lipped out a lot of putts. It didn’t seem like nothing was falling – like their was a magnet repelling the ball from the hole. On my last four holes, I had four lip-outs.”
Similar to her opening round, Snodgrass made three birdies on Tuesday. Sunday’s practice round was Snodgrass’ first view of the course and helped immensely in terms of course management.
“That practice round was huge,” Snodgrass said.
“A lot of times on this course, you can’t see the green so you need a target. I can’t hit driver very much and that’s definitely a disadvantage for me because I hit the ball so far.
“I’ll approach the final round just like any other 18 holes even though there is a championship riding on it. It’s still golf.”
The 67-year-old Ramsey appeared to set the pace for the final 18 holes before ending the second round with three straight bogeys.
Ramsey won the first of her four Women’s Amateur Championships in 1969.
“I really enjoyed the day,” Ramsey said. “I didn’t finish strong, but I was extremely happy with the way I played.”