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By Ed Letsinger
Most people heading out for
vacation would be home packing and taking care of last minute
details but Carling Coffing got ready for her trip by taking care of
business out on the golf course.
Playing in the 91st
annual Women’s Metropolitan Amateur Championship for the first time
ever, the 20-year-old Ohio State University junior defeated Kim
Keyer-Scott, 2 and 1 in the championship flight finals at Summit
Hills Country Club in Crestview Hills, Ky.
“We’re leaving on a cruise
tomorrow and now I can just relax and hang out in my bathing suit
with my new Met trophy,” said a smiling Coffing afterwards.
Coffing, who had a successful high
school career at Middletown High School that included a state title
her sophomore year, has been a mainstay on the tournament circuit
for the past several years but had never made a Met appearance
primarily because of scheduling conflicts.
“As a junior (golfer) there are so
many tournaments to choose from, and for a while there I was just
concentrating on playing in ones where I knew college coaches would
be,” she explains.
All that exposure eventually
landed her at OSU, where this year she finished second at the Big
Ten Championship.
Coffing’s week started out strong
on Monday during the 18-hole qualifier where she fired a 2-over-par
73 to share medalist honors with Keyer-Scott to earn a No. 2 seed.
In the opening round of match play, she defeated Laura Schild 6 and
5 before getting a scare in the quarterfinals against University of
Cincinnati’s Allison Mayborg. Two down at the turn, Coffing grinded
out a 1-up win before coming back strong against Lynn Thompson in
the semifinals with a convincing 6 and 4 victory to earn a spot in
the championship match against Keyer-Scott.
Keyer-Scott, the top seed and
former Northern Kentucky University All-American whose name has
frequented the top of the leader board at many local tournaments for
several years running, is still in pursuit of her first Met title
after advancing to the title match for the second time in the past
three years.
“I want to win every tournament I
play in,” said Keyer-Scott, when asked if the elusive Met title
bothers her. “I just didn’t play well today. My swing was a little
loose and golf was work for me today and that’s not usually the way
it is.”
After a back-and-forth front side
by both players marred by a few shaky shots and a good dose of
scrambling, Coffing made the turn 2-up and after losing a hole on
the par-3 tenth, appeared to take control of the match by winning
holes 11, 12 and 13 to go 4-up. A steady par at 11 with Keyer-Scott
scrambling and conceding the hole was followed by another tenuous
par at No. 12. After sticking her second shot to about 25 feet on
the 391-yard par-5, a tough pin position on an uphill slop led to a
shaky three-putt as Coffing’s ball twice rolled back below the
hole. But Keyer-Scott had found the water on her second shot and
missed her chance at par with an approach that left her with a tough
putt. Another par at 13 had Coffing thinking the end was near.
“I think I got a little
over-confident at that point and started thinking about when we were
going to be done rather than focusing on golf…but she also made some
good shots.”
Keyer-Scott, who admitted that her
chances of winning at that point were slim – “I was thinking more
about a respectable score” – hung in and gained momentum back by
rolling in about a 25-foot clutch birdie putt on 14 and got another
hole back with a solid par on 16 to cut Coffing’s lead to 2-up.
Both were on the green in two on
17 but Coffing, who was facing a long, tough uphill putt, sailed her
ball well past the hole but luckily it rolled back to about three
feet. Stepping back three times before lining up over the ball, she
drained a slippery, 3-foot knee-knocker to win the title.
“I was just a little bit too
excited when I hit that (first) putt and I didn’t think it would
roll back that much,” said Coffing. “I guess the golf Gods were
with me on that hole.”
It was a good week for Coffing,
who had her Mom, Leona, on the bag all week. She attributed most of
her success to a solid short game and the win should help down the
road when college golf season begins.
“It’s always nice to win a
tournament and honestly, it’s been a while since I have won one,”
said Coffing. “This will give me a little confidence and now I just
want to work on my game to get prepared for OSU.” |
