Women?s Am Field Cut to Final Four
Having the right caddie can be the key to a golfer winning an important match. Ashley Bauer (Grand Blanc) had her mom on her bag for match play Thursday at the GAM Michigan Women?s Amateur at Walnut Hills Country Club and defeated Julie Massa (Holt) 5&4.
?My mom was my caddie today,? said Bauer. ?She isn?t a great golfer but she carries the bag and always has a lot of positive words and that helps me a lot.?
When Bauer three-putted on the 8th hole, her caddie didn?t offer any advice on reading the greens. She just reminded her daughter it was one hole.
?It makes it easier to stay relaxed,? said Bauer. ?I hit the ball solid today and got pretty close to the pin on a lot of greens. My mom helped me to stay focused on the positive.?
Shasta Averyhardt (Flint) also got a little advice from her caddie Willie Mack III. When she was down in her match against Jennifer Domagalski (Okemos), Mack read her the riot act.
?He told me I better get my act together or I was going home,? said Averyhardt. ?I told him before we started to get mad at me today and to keep pushing me.?
Averyhardt came from behind to defeat Domagalski 3&1.
Stephany Fleet (DeWitt) defeated Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll (Haslett) 3&2 despite having a rough start in her morning round against Andrea Ratigan (Ann Arbor). Fleet started her match-play round with Ratigan by three putting on three of the first four holes.
?I started out a little shaky,? said Fleet, ?but even after that it was still all squared so I just kept telling myself to hit the ball closer to the pin.?
Her little pep talk to herself must have worked as she was consistent through the rest of the day,
?I just concentrated on fairways and greens,? said Fleet. ?I don?t usually get nervous anyway in tournament play but I think I am even less nervous in match play because you know one hole is not going to kill your whole round.?
After going extra holes in her first two rounds of match play, Laura Bavaird (Grosse Ile) won her third match against Shanna Page (Jackson) 4&2.
?Finally I felt like my putting started working for me and I straightened out a nasty little pull that was affecting me yesterday,? said Bavaird.
Bavaird and Averyhardt are close friends off the links and it was Bavaird who defeated Averyhardt at Egypt Valley last year to win the 2007 Michigan Women?s Am.
?After stroke play when I saw we both made the cut I texted Shasta and told her that we need to do it again,? said Bavaird. ?I told her ?It?s you and me in the finals again.? It would be great if that happened.?
Bavaird tees off against Bauer in Friday morning?s semi final at 8:15 a.m.. Bauer and Averyhardt are also good friends.
?No matter who wins that match, I will be playing against a friend if I win my match,? said Averyhardt.
Averyhardt goes up against Fleet at 8 a.m.
For more information contact Susan Smiley at 586-556-0198. Match play results for agate will follow.
