Herrick Leads Minnesota Women's State Amateur After Day One at Dellwood

By Nick Hunter
nhunter@mngolf.org


  DELLWOOD, Minn. – As the 2013 Minnesota Women’s State Amateur Championship got underway Monday at Dellwood Country Club, players found that the combination gusting winds, tight fairways and slippery greens made scoring rather difficult.

Capitalizing on her home-field advantage, Olivia Herrick carded an opening round 2-over par 75 to take the early lead.

“It’s funny for me because this is my home course; this is where I grew up playing and the first time I played golf was here,” Herrick said.

Herrick is using every bit of knowledge of Dellwood available. Her caddy, Sean Barrett, has been a long time member of the club and, between the two, they should know just about every nook and cranny of the course.

“You just feel more comfortable,” she said. “It’s a hard course—they’ve actually made it a lot easier in the last couple of years. They’ve cut down the rough around the greens; it’s a little more forgiving. It used to be really thick around the greens." 

Herrick didn’t get off to the best start as she bogeyed the opening hole before making seven straight pars. On the ninth, Herrick made another bogey to make the turn at 2-over par.

On the final nine holes Herrick would make two birdies, but they were erased by two more bogeys as she finished the back nine at even par, 2-over 75 for the day.

“It went great today; I hit the ball pretty well, but my short game was actually my strength today. I got up and down about six different times so that made a big difference,” Herrick said. “It’s nice to take advantage of the shorter par-5s that are reachable in two—I birdied both of those.”

Herrick said since going back to work, it has left little time for practice but still manages to work on her short game.

“I haven’t been able to practice as much as I used to, so when I do practice, I spend the majority of my time on my chipping and putting. I feel like it’s really shown this summer,” she said.

McKenzie Neisen is one of four players who sit just one stroke behind Herrick in a tie for second place.

Neisen, New Prague Golf Club, got off to a good start with birdies on the second and fifth holes to get to 2-under par but Neisen ran into serious trouble midway through her round.

The issues began with a bogey on the sixth hole which dropped Neisen back to 1-under par. She then made double-bogey on the par-3 seventh hole to slip to 1-over, and went to 2-over with another bogey on the eighth.

Neisen, who finished second in last year’s tournament, fell even further with another double-bogey on the par-4 10th hole to move to 4-over for the day. After a bogey on the 13th put her at 5-over, Neisen settled down to finish strong with a pair of birdies on the 14th and 17th holes to finish at 3-over par 76.

“I was happy with how I finished and came back after that rough stretch,” Neisen said. “Early on I was hitting my irons and wedges really well—I had a few shot that were pretty close. I lost a little momentum was got a little back towards the end.”

“I thought the greens were pretty tough, we had a few three-putts in our group,” Neisen said. “I liked how the greens played; they were rolling really nice, but they were tough.”

Marisa Toivonen will begin her second round in a four-way tie for first as she carded a 3-over par 76 during Monday’s opening round.

Toivonen, Red Wing Golf Club, had one of the more consistent rounds of the day as she made bogeys on the second, 10th and 11th holes along with 15 pars to finish her day at 3-over par as well.

Sam Falk sits among the group tied for second only a stroke behind Herrick.

Falk, Minnewaska Golf Club, had a fantastic start to the round with nine consecutive pars to finish the front nine at even par. She went on to make six more on the back with three bogeys to finish her day at 3-over par.

“I was a good round, I had a couple of bad holes but I played pretty well,” Falk said. “My short game was definitely on. I hit the ball well but my putting and chipping really helped. There were a lot of tight lies and rolling lies in the fairway with a lot of doglegs.”

Celia Kuenster, Somerset Country Club, got off to a terrible start as she made double-bogey on the opening hole to quickly slip to 2-over. She then made back-to-back bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes to go to 4-over par but rebounded well with back-to-back birdies at the eighth and ninth holes to make the turn at 2-over par.

Kuenster started the back nine with four consecutive pars before a birdie on the 14th put her at 1-over par for the round. At the par-3 15th hole, Kuenster would record another double-bogey as she finished her round at 3-over par 76 and sits tied for first.

Steffi Neisen, New Prague Golf Club, Minnesota Gopher Anna Laorr and Kristen Wagner, Minneapolis Golf Club, sit two strokes back of the lead at 4-over par 77. 

Second round action will begin Tuesday starting at 7:30 a.m. at Dellwood Country Club.


For complete tournament results go to: http://www.ghintpp.com/mngolf/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=616