Clarey, Dufault look to repeat in
Four-Ball
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 24, 2005
EXETER -- If Carol Clarey and Karen Dufault
expect to repeat as Rhode Island women's Four-Ball champions today, they'll
need to play through some stiff competition.
Clarey and Dufault yesterday
advanced to today's semifinals, but just barely. Dufault, who shot a 76 on her
own ball, made the only par of the group on the par-3 17th hole to clinch a
1-up win over the team of Amanda Sabitoni and Carol Beaudette. The defending
champs had blown a 3-up lead with eight holes to play but came through on the
final hole of the match.
"We play well together,
very low key," Clarey said of her team. "We just go out and do the
job. But (today) could be a long day."
This morning's semifinals at
Exeter Country Club will be followed by a championship match this afternoon.
Last year's title match lasted 26 holes.
Clarey and Dufault will face a
difficult hurdle in the morning round when they square off against the team of
Kibbe Reilly and Jennifer Hendrick. Reilly has shined in several state events
of late. Hendrick literally knows every inch of the Exeter course. Her parents
own the course, she grew up next door and she's now the club's Director of Golf.
Yesterday, Reilly and Hendrick
wore down the team of Kay Bullock and Cissy Grady to win, 3 and 2. The pair
combined for five team birdies and lost just one hole (No. 13) on the back
nine. Reilly ended the match with a nice 12-foot birdie putt on the uphill 16th
hole.
"Jen and I just met this
year and we matched up really well. We've never played together as a team but
it turns out we're very compatible players," said Reilly.
Asked about her potential
home-court advantage, Hendrick smiled and said, "I don't see it as an
advantage. It's more pressure playing here, I think."
The other half of the
championship bracket is formidable as well. Another first-time pairing, Valerie
Blinn and Felicia Revens, raced out to a quick 3-up lead and went on to easily
dispatch the team of Marilyn Picerilli and Cheryl LaFontaine, 5 and 4. Blinn
birdied both the 13th and 14th holes to sew up that match. Both Blinn and
Revens can overpower foes with long tee shots.
"Valerie asked me a few
months ago to play this event and she's great to play with," said Revens.
"Today, I played really well on the front and she played really well on
the back."
Blinn and Revens will face the
team of Roberta Hunt and Donna Warner, the team that lost last year's 26-hole
finale. They survived perhaps the day's best match, edging Brenda Nardolillo
and Marisa White, 1-up. Hunt and Warner looked in control after eight holes
with a 3-up lead, but White caught fire and sparked her team to three
consecutive wins on holes 9, 10 and 11. Warner made par for a win at the 13th
hole and then three players birdied the par-5 14th hole. White hit her tee shot
under a tree on the 15th hole but miraculously slapped a driver through a gap
that sent the ball bouncing onto the green and 12 feet from the pin. She then sunk
the birdie putt to tie the match.
That sent both teams to their
final hole of the match, the 17th, all square. Nardolillo's tee shot settled
into a greenside bunker and White, who said she wasn't comfortable hitting a
4-iron but did so anyways, caught the same trap. When neither player could get
up-and-down for par, the door opened for Hunt to drain an easy 3-footer for par
and the win.