Tag: Sarah Burnham

College golf notebook: Vanderbilt, Oklahoma duel at Frederica Cup, Oakland women win in coach’s debut

It has been a busy first week of college golf.

If the first week of college golf is any indication, we’re in for a doozy of a season.

Rose Zhang and Stanford dominated in the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach. Teammates at Holy Cross recorded albatrosses on the same hole in the same group. In an inaugural event, the Frederica Cup, multiple team scoring records were set and even an NCAA record was broken.

Nevertheless, college teams are back in action across the country for the fall season with plenty of big tournaments slated for the remainder of the calendar year, as well.

Golfweek takes a loop around the country to update you on all the latest news in the college game.

Men

Haskins Award: Preseason watch list for 2022-23 season

Vanderbilt had a season-opening win to remember.

In the Frederica Cup at Frederica Golf Club in St. Simons Island in Georgia, which counted the five best scores from six golfers (as opposed to the normal four-count-five scoring format), top-ranked Vanderbilt blistered the field to the tune of 69 under to record a victory at the inaugural event, winning by three shots against No. 9 Oklahoma. William Moll won the individual title at 19 under, beating teammate Cole Sherwood by one stroke.

There was a weather delay with three holes to play, and the teams were tied at 67 under. Then Vanderbilt pulled away once play began again.

Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg, the 2022 Ben Hogan Award winner, finished in third at 17 under, and Oklahoma freshman Jase Summy shot 15 under, along with teammate Drew Goodman and Mississippi State’s Ford Clegg.

Meanwhile, Wright State picked up right back where it left off last season. The Raiders won the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational, the second straight season Wright State has won the event. Mikkel Mathiesen won the individual title after a playoff.

At the Fighting Irish Classic, Florida came away with the victory but mid major Georgia Southern finished only a stroke behind the Gators. Ben Carr, who finished runner-up at the 2022 U.S. Amateur, finished in solo fourth at 8 under. Teammate Mason Williams was a shot better at 9 under in third.

Colorado’s Dylan McDermott captured the title in a playoff, finishing at 10 under and tied with North Carolina’s David Ford.

Missouri won both the team and individual titles at the Tiger Turning Stone Intercollegiate. The Tigers defended their title from last year with the 11-stroke victory over runner-up, Stetson, and Jack Lundin finished at 13 under to win the individual crown.

Women

ANNIKA Award: Preseason watch list for 2022-23 season

Sarah Burnham got off to a great start in her head coaching career at Oakland.

In her first tournament as coach, Oakland captured the A-Ga-Ming Invitational in Kewadin, Michigan. Oakland won by three strokes over host Central Michigan. Freshman Bridget Boczar tied for first at 4 over but lost in a playoff to Eastern Michigan’s Alyssa DiMarcantonio. Paige Scott finished tied for third at 5 over for Oakland.

Western Kentucky freshman Sydney Hackett earned her first collegiate win in her first start for the Hilltoppers at the USA Intercollegiate at Magnolia Grove Crossing Golf Course in Mobile, Alabama. The freshman fired a school-record 10-under 206 for her 54-hole total, including a final-round 4-under 68, to claim the championship.

It is the first time a Lady Topper has taken home an individual championship since Megan Clarke won the Little Rock Golf Classic in Fall 2018.

Arkansas State won the event at 14 under par, beating South Alabama by five strokes.

On Monday, the ANNIKA Intercollegiate gets underway in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, right outside of St. Paul. The 54-hole event features some of the top women’s college golf teams in the country, including Wake Forest, Oregon and defending champion South Carolina.

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Trying to keep her card, American Sarah Burnham posts career-best round at LPGA NW Arkansas Championship

Burnham sits a single stroke behind leaders A Lim Kim, Katherine Kirk and Eun-Hee Ji.

Sarah Burnham knows the clock is ticking. The former Michigan State star sits 132nd in the Race to the CME Globe points standings and needs to climb quickly to avoid dusting off her Q-school syllabus at season’s end.

If Friday’s opening round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship is any indication, though, Burnham isn’t going down without a fight.

The two-time Big Ten Player of the Year put together the best round of her LPGA career just when she needed it most, finishing with a 64 at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas. With two rounds to play, she sits a single stroke behind A Lim Kim, Katherine Kirk and Eun-Hee Ji.

Knowing there are just a handful of tournaments remaining on the LPGA 2021 schedule, and with missed cuts in her last three events, Burnham’s parents made the trip to see their daughter — the first time they’d done so since seeing her post a previous best 66 at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.

“I kind of want to make sure their time is worthwhile out here. Because they don’t come a lot, but when they do I want them to enjoy themselves and I don’t want to play bad necessarily,” Burnham told LPGA.com. “But you can’t always control that. Maybe they are my lucky charm.”

There’s plenty of work to be done, however.

Kim got hot down the stretch on Friday, going even through the first six holes, but then posting five straight birdies. She also closed with an eagle.

Meanwhile, Kirk did it with a hot front, posting four birdies on the opening seven holes.

Others who opened with impressive rounds include Nasa Hataoka (65), Pajaree Anannarukarn (66), Ariya Jutanugarn (66). Americans Jennifer Kupcho and Stacy Lewis each opened with rounds of 67, as did local favorite Brooke Matthews, an amateur from Arkansas.

For Burnham, though, she can’t worry about the field and instead needs to focus on her own game.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” said Burnham. “It does weigh on me a little bit, but whether I have to go back to Q-School or not, just see how these next four weeks go.”

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Nurse Sarah Hoffman returns to pro golf for Symetra Tour restart

Sarah Hoffman, a Symetra Tour player, returned to her job on the course after working as a nurse during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sarah Hoffman has traded her scrubs for clubs as the Symetra Tour restarts its season this week in her native Michigan. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and golf stopped, Hoffman returned to her career as a nurse at Michigan Medicine.

Now, the 30-year-old Grand Valley State grad is one of 144 players teeing it up this week at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan.

“Sometimes it felt like higher praise than what I necessarily deserved,” said Hoffman of the attention she received for going back to work in the medical field, “but I felt like I was just doing what I could do.”

The Symetra Tour hosted one event in March before the season was shut down due to the spread of coronavirus. There are eight events remaining on the schedule. The top five money leaders at the end of the season, down from 10 due to COVID-19, will earn an LPGA card for 2021. This week’s 54-hole event has a purse of $175,000 and a winner’s check of $26,250.

There are 30 Symetra Tour rookies in the field including former Florida standout Sierra Brooks. Several LPGA players are gearing up for next week’s event in Toledo by playing in Michigan.

Hoffman tees off at the Symetra Tour’s season-opening event in Winter Haven, Florida (courtesy Symetra)

Former Michigan State player Sarah Burnham has won four times during the COVID-19 break, with her first coming in late March on the Cactus Tour in Arizona, where tour owner Mike Brown presented her with a roll of toilet tissue in addition to her trophy and check. Burnham won again on that tour in April and then picked up another title on the Eggland’s Best Tour in Florida with a career-low round of 63.

Burnham, 24, then matched that 63 at the Michigan PGA Women’s Open in early July, ultimately lapping the field by 10 shots.

“It was great to boost my confidence a little bit,” said Burnham, who is still looking for her first win on the Symetra and LPGA.

Other notables in the field include former Alabama player Janie Jackson, who won the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic by eight strokes in March. Alexa Pano, a 15-year-old amateur, played in last year’s Firekeepers event on a sponsor exemption and qualified for this week via a runner-up finish on the Women’s All Pro Tour.

Alexa Pano watches her tee shot at the 11th hole during the third round of the 44th Girls Junior PGA Championship at Keney Park Golf Course in Hartford, Connecticut. (Darren Carroll/PGA of America)

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Sarah Burnham leaves Cactus Tour with rare trifecta: trophy, check & toilet tissue

Sarah Burnham won this week’s Cactus Tour event– a women’s professional tour that is playing golf in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

There aren’t many trophies being handed out these days. Even fewer paychecks. Sarah Burnham managed to snag both at this week’s Cactus Tour event, closing with an even-par 72 on Friday at Sundance Golf Club in Buckeye, Arizona, to win by four at 4-over 220.

A trio of players, including two amateurs, finished second at 224. Burnham, a former Michigan State standout in her second year on the LPGA, moved from Minnesota to Phoenix over the winter and happens to live in the neighborhood of the only women’s tour competing in the country due to a global pandemic.

“I’m lucky I’m able to play,” said Burnham.

There were 16 players in the field this week. Burnham, playing in her second Cactus Tour start, took home a $2,800 paycheck. She had boyfriend Jackson Renicker on the bag for the first time. Players went out in twos to keep in line with social distancing practices. Rakes were removed from the bunkers.

Burnham likes to pull the flagstick during competition, but under the new coronavirus precautions, had to adjust to leaving them in. Pool noodles were cut down and placed inside the cup. The sound of the ball hitting the noodle wasn’t nearly as satisfying, she said, but a necessary safeguard.

Sarah Burnham and her boyfriend/caddie Jackson Renicker on the Cactus Tour (Sarah Burnham)

“One of the girls I played with today, she swore her ball was in the hole but the noodle (kept) it out,” she said.

Given all that’s going on in the world right now though, who can complain?

And in even more unusual twist, players were given a 15th club this week to use out of the exceptionally rocky desert so that their own clubs weren’t damaged. Burnham didn’t end up using the extra club but appreciated the gesture.

“I don’t know if I’ll play next week,” she said. “I think I’ll just take the week off from competition, see what happens with the tour. I think Arizona might be considering a lock down.”

Mike Brown, a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy who’s determined to give players an opportunity to compete, has owned the Cactus Tour for the past decade. He plans to keep hosting events as long as golf courses are open.

In an effort to keep things light, Brown also presented Burnham with a roll of toilet tissue as part of her winnings.

A true sign of the times.

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