Magic At 18 Continues For Coe In Quarterfinal Victory

By David Shefter, USGA

Devens, Mass. – USGA officials cleverly moved up the tee markers on the 517-yard, par-5 18th hole at Red Tail Golf Club for Friday morning’s quarterfinal matches at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.

For most of the competitors, the downhill, dogleg-right hole had been a three-shot hole due to the large pond that protects the right portion of the green.  On Friday, though, the hole measured 475 yards to the middle of the green.

Late Thursday, Joanna Coe, needing a win to force extra holes in her third-round match with Leanne Bowditch, went for the green in two and registered a clutch birdie, then won the match a hole later.

Some 18 hours later, Coe found herself in a similar position against Sydnee Michaels, only this time the match was all square.

Joanna Coe made decisive winning par from a greenside bunker at the par-5 18th hole to secure a spot in the WAPL semifinals. (John Mummert/USGA)

Even with only some 200 yards to the green, Michaels elected to lay up due because of a severe downhill lie. Coe’s ball, resting some 20 yards down the fairway, was on a flatter plane and she was able to fly a 5-iron from 188 yards into a greenside bunker, then two-putt for a 1-up victory.

Coe’s risk had rewarded her with a spot in the semifinals against 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kimberly Kim.

“It’s been nice to me,” said the 20-year-old Coe of Red Tail’s finishing hole. “[For me] there really was no decision. I wasn’t going to lay up. I trust my bunker play. That was going to be the miss if anything.”

Michaels, coming off a heartbreaking 6-foot birdie miss on the 17th hole, thought she had hit a perfect 9-iron approach from 142 yards. The ball took a bad bounce into some greenside rough and she failed to get up and down for par.

“There’s more than one way to make a birdie,” said Michaels, adding that her tee shot stopped on such a slope that she was afraid of pull-hooking her second into deep rough or pushing the ball into the water. “I just got a terrible kick. It was a good shot. It was about an inch to being right next to the pin. But what are you going to do?”

Coe, a 20-year-old from Mays Landing, N.J., played near-flawless golf, hitting all 14 fairways and shooting the equivalent of 3-under-par 69, with the usual match-play concessions. Through her first four matches, Coe is 11 under par.

It’s arguably the best week of golf in her career, including the four rounds she posted in 2008 as a Rollins College freshman to win the NCAA Division II individual championship.

“I’ve never shot this many rounds under par in a row,” said Coe, who will be a junior at the Winter Park, Fla., school this fall. “It’s just amazing.”

Coe rallied from a two-hole deficit with birdies at 10 and 11 to square the match and then kept the momentum going by draining a 20-foot par putt after missing the green to the right with her approach.

“That pumped me up,” she said.

The two traded pars until 16 when Coe stuffed her approach to 8 feet before Michaels stuck her shot to 3 feet. Coe converted first and Michaels answered.

At 17, Michaels had a chance to take a 1-up lead, but didn’t play enough break on her downhill birdie putt.

“It wasn’t a bad putt,” said the UCLA senior from Temecula, Calif. “She made some bombs [today]. That’s match play.”

This was Michaels’ best showing at the WAPL. From here, she heads to Colombia to play an amateur event and then possibly to the North and South Women’s Amateur in Pinehurst before the U.S. Women’s Amateur in August.

Coe, meanwhile, had about a 40-minute break before facing Kim, a 6-and-5 winner over Sun Gyoung Park of Vail, Ariz.

Already the owner of one national title, Coe is two wins away from a second.

“Someone has to win it,” she said. “Why not me.”

David Shefter is a USGA Digital Media staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.