Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993 TAG: 9307310198
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS LENGTH: Medium
Two holes down with five remaining, Patrick had to play the Cascades' final five holes in 2 under par to eke out a 1-up victory over Bolling.
Patrick sealed her second Women's State Am crown - she also won in 1983 - by sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 18th.
It marked the second year in a row that a Roanoke area player has lost in the final. Sara Cole fell 2 and 1 to Richmond's Jane Mack in 1992.
Nevertheless, Bolling said she felt like anything but a loser. Before this year, she had qualified for the State Am championship flight once, losing in the first round.
"To think, I took this game up only 13 years ago so I could play with my husband, [Jay]," said Bolling, 47.
"I really feel like I won something . . . I don't know what. Sure, I would have liked to have won, but I'm happy anyway.
"Hey, I gave it my best shot. I played well. I took her all the way to No. 18. I really thought she would kill me."
It didn't take Patrick long to discover that playing Bolling is like dealing with a pesky gnat.
"Dot's very competitive," Patrick said. "She just won't go away."
With the match tied through 10 holes, Bolling went 2-up, winning No. 11 with a par and No. 13 with a birdie, making a 20-footer after a 185-yard approach shot.
Momentum on her side, Bolling cut a sand wedge to within a foot of the hole in three at the par-5 14th, and it appeared she might go 3-up with four to play. But Patrick responded, dropping a 10-foot birdie putt.
"If I hadn't made that one, I don't know if I could have come back from 3-down," Patrick said. "That was the big putt. It kept me in there."
Patrick, a 42-year-old Henrico County school teacher, aced the rest of the test.
She drilled a 3-wood into a stiff wind at the 202-yard 15th, hitting the green and making par. Bolling, who was 20 yards short despite hitting a driver, chipped eight feet short and missed her par putt, narrowing her lead to 1-up.
Both players reached the green at the par-5 16th in three. Bolling putted first, charging her 20-footer five feet by the hole. After Patrick's 15-footer hit the left lip and spun out, Bolling missed coming back, tying the match.
"I just knew Anne was going to make her birdie putt, so I didn't want to leave it short," Bolling said. "I hit it too hard and it got away. If I made any mistake today, that was it."
Patrick then hit two great shots to the long par-4 17th, two-putted, and went 1-up when Bolling was short in two and made bogey.
Down for the first time since the first hole, Bolling didn't quit. She went down firing, lacing her tee shot at the 18th inside of Patrick to about eight feet.
But Bolling never got a chance to putt. With no signs of wavering, Patrick struck her putt into the hole dead-center.
"When you're 2-down, you've either got to do it or you're gone," said Patrick, who lived in Salem until 1976 and learned the game at Hidden Valley, the same club where Bolling is the reigning women's champion.
"From [Nos.] 15 through 18, that's about as good as I can play," Patrick said. "I hit a great shot at 15, three good shots to 16, two more to 17 and another at 18. I can't do much better than that.
"Hand it to Dot. She gave it a real run. She has improved so much the last three or four years. We're going to be hearing a lot more about her, I guarantee it."
Not anytime soon, though, Bolling said.
"I've played 145 holes the last week and I'm tired," she said. "I'm done for a while. Right now, all I'm looking for is about 10 beers."
In the 36th Virginia Seniors Amateur played at The Homestead, Kay Schiefelbein of Alexandria became the first player in tournament history to win three consecutive titles, clipping Charlottesville's Robbye King-Youel 3 and 2.
by CNB