By Mike Blum
So far this summer, it hasn’t mattered much who Mariah Stackhouse has competed against, especially when she tees it up in Georgia.
The 15-year-old from Riverdale got her 2009 summer schedule off to a victorious start, winning an American Junior Golf Association tournament in Ringgold.
Three weeks later, Stackhouse defended her title in the Georgia Women’s Golf Association Championship, erasing a 5-stroke deficit heading to the final round at Macon’s Idle Hour Club.
Two weeks after that, Stackhouse collected another statewide title, winning the Yamaha Georgia Women’s Open in her first ever appearance in that event.
Stackhouse needed a playoff to make it three titles in less than six weeks, edging out Jackie Beers Syzmoniak, who played her college golf at Georgia and spent some time on the Futures Tour.
A successful professional career is likely in Stackhouse’s future, but she still has two years of high school left, as well as a college decision to make before venturing into play for pay territory.
The tournament was the first for Stackhouse with professionals in the field. Among those she defeated were LPGA Tour member Angela Jerman, current Futures Tour player Carmen Bandea, former Futures Tour players Krissie Register and Summer Sirmons, both former Georgia Women’s Open champion, and defending champion Margaret Shirley, who has two wins this year on a Florida-based mini-tour.
The tournament also included a strong group of amateurs, including college golfers Dori Carter, Lauren Darnell and Katelyn Stanier, University of Georgia-bound freshmen Kendall Wright and Emilee Burger, and veteran Laura Coble, the state’s top female amateur for a decade before ceding her crown to Stackhouse last year.
Stackhouse shot 68-71—139 at SummerGrove in Newnan, deftly handling a layout she says “has been a difficult course for me in the past.”
Thanks to her 4-under 68, Stackhouse shared the opening round lead with Wright, no small accomplishment considering she had to call a 2-stroke penalty against herself on the first hole because she had 15 clubs in the bag.
Stackhouse was trying out two putters before the round, but forgot to take one out of her bag before she teed off. She noticed the mistake while playing her first hole, the 10th at SummerGrove, and after making what would have been a birdie on the par 4, carded a bogey thanks to the penalty.
“I didn’t get upset,” said Stackhouse, displaying more composure than former Masters champion Ian Woosnam did when faced with a similar situation several years ago. “It was just two shots.
“What would have been a birdie turned out to be a bogey, and a bogey on the first hole is easy to come back from.”
That wound up being the only bogey on her card, as she recorded five birdies the rest of the way for her 68.
Wright also birdied her first hole – the 10th – but did so with 14 clubs in the bag. She played her first nine in 4-under 32, and had seven birdies in her 68, but also three bogeys in a 4-hole stretch to start her second nine.
Szymoniak and Darnell were next at 69, with Darnell rebounding after two bogeys on her first three holes. Burger, Jerman, Stanier and Carter all shot 71, with Shirley, who was looking for her third win in the tournament in the last four years, at 72.
There wasn’t much movement among the leaders in the second round, with the final pairing of Stackhouse, Wright and Szymoniak managing just two birdies each on the day.
Stackhouse briefly took a 2-stroke lead after birdies at 6 and 8, but 3-putted the difficult 9th to lead Wright by one and Szymoniak by two at the turn. Wright pulled even when she hit her tee shot on the par-3 13th to within a few feet for birdie, and Szymoniak hit it close at 10 and 14 for birdies to make it a three-way tie with four holes to play.
The lone player to make a run at the lead trio the final day was Jerman, who was playing in the tournament for the first time since 2001, when she was a member of the golf team at Georgia. Jerman, a Columbus resident, has played on the LPGA Tour since 2003, but has little status this year and has made just two starts, both after earning spots in the field in Monday qualifiers.
Jerman trailed Stackhouse by three strokes at the turn, and closed within one of the lead with birdies at 12 and 14. But after trickling in a slippery birdie putt at 14, Jerman missed from close range for birdie at both 15 and 16, almost holing her second shot at the par-4 15th. She settled for a 69 and a tie for third at 140 with Wright, who lost her share of the lead when she three-putted 15 for bogey.
Szymoniak, who shot a final round 70 with two birdies and no bogeys, and Stackhouse headed to the 9th to start the playoff, and the No. 1 handicap hole on the course claimed another victim. Szymoniak, who plays out of SummerGrove, pushed her second shot into the creek that borders the right edge of the green.
Stackhouse hit her second shot past the hole and two-putted for par, with Szymoniak making bogey after a nice chip.
“To win the Georgia Open is pretty big,” said Stackhouse. “And to win three really big tournaments and play some under par rounds says a lot about my development.”
Stackhouse posted scores in the 60s in each one of her victories, and could have had a second straight sub-70 score at SummerGrove had she had a typical day with the putter in the second round.
“If you shoot low scores, you know your game is on and all the practice has paid off. Last year I didn’t have as many under par rounds as this year.”
While Stackhouse has a bright future ahead of her as a player, Szymoniak is headed in a different direction. After a short stint as a tour player, she is getting into college coaching, and will serve as a grad assistant for the Georgia State women’s team.
I don’t want to leave the game, but I want to put my energy into something else. I’m getting into college coaching with a goal of working my way up to be a head coach at a big time school.”
Szymoniak, who has five top 10 showings in the tournament in the last six years including a pair of third place finishes, earned $1,300 for finishing as low pro, with Jerman taking home $950.
Carter, a Valdosta resident who recently completed her college career at Mississippi, was fifth at 142, getting within two shots of the lead after birdies at 13 and 14. Gainesville’s Darnell, who plays at Stetson in Deland, Fla., was sixth at 144 after a final round 75.
Shirley and Burger tied for seventh at 145, with Shirley’s hopes ending when she hit her tee shot out of bounds on the third hole and made triple bogey. Five birdies after that got her to 1-under late in the round before a double bogey at the 18th. Stanier, who lives in Newnan and plays on the golf team at UAB, was ninth at 147.
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