Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280073
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was Verell who declined to ask Bolling to play in the Virginias-Carolinas golf team matches.
``This is for Ruth Ann,'' Bolling said Thursday after capturing her fifth Roanoke Valley Women's Golf Association city-county championship in eight years.
Bolling had a 4-over-par 77 at Roanoke Country Club for a 54-hole total of 226 and a six-shot bulge over Kathy Hull.
Valeta Pittman, one shot behind to start the day, didn't make a par until the eighth hole and needed a comeback on the back nine to finish third at 236. Marilyn Bussey and Brenda King-Harvey tied for fourth at 238. (Scores in Scoreboard. B7)
Bolling's wire-to-wire victory capped an impressive summer in which she finished first in the Lywood Ladies' Invitational, first in the RVWGA, second in the Roanoke Valley Hall of Fame and fourth in the Virginias Women's Stroke-Play championship.
Nevertheless, for the first time in three years, Bolling did not receive an invitation to the team matches. Over the past two years, she and her teammates had combined to win 12 of 18 points.
Bolling voiced her objections in a letter to Verell, captain of the Virginias team. Verell responded in a letter, then tried to approach Bolling last week at the Virginia Women's Amateur in Hot Spring, an overture that Bolling did not receive warmly.
``She said that one of the other women [who was chosen] had played well at Farmington,'' said Bolling, referring to an invitational tournament in Charlottesville. ``I thought the team should be picked on the basis of who had supported the state association.''
The only Roanoke-area players to make the team were Audrey Najjum, the reigning State Seniors champion, and 19-year-old Lee Shirley.
``I thought it was a slap in the face of me and Sara Cole,'' Bolling said.
Nobody who played in the team matches finished ahead of Bolling in the recent stroke-play championship.
``If you're asked to play in the team matches, you're being told you're one of the 12 best players in Virginia,'' Hull said. ``Heck, yeah, it's an honor. Dot was absolutely right to speak up. She had a point to make and she made it.''
Bolling had nothing to prove to her rivals Thursday, although there was some hope that the fast greens at Roanoke Country Club might keep the rest of the field within sight. Hull cut the deficit to three shots after 11 holes, but could come no closer.
``She left the door open a few times,'' Hull said, ``but I didn't take advantage of it.''
By the time Pittman birdied the 10th hole, she was hopelessly out of the running.
``I wasn't that conscious of being nervous,'' said Pittman, who had never been so close to enter the final round, ``but I wasn't thinking that well. It was painful.''
Bolling became the second five-time winner of the event, joining Liz Waynick.
``Five championships in eight years!'' Pittman said to Hull. ``We've got to do something about that.''
by CNB