No denying Caffrey is back

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 28, 2007

BY PAUL KENYON

Journal Sports Writer

Ally Caffrey tees off on the 13th hole of the finals of the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association Amateur golf championship at Cranston Country Club yesterday en route to taking the title match.

the providence journal / Bill Murphy Bill Murphy

CRANSTON — The questions can stop now. No one has to ask Ally Caffrey any more whether she has fallen away from the golf scene.

The only place Caffrey has gone is straight to the top of the Rhode Island women’s golf world.

The 21-year-old URI senior, who has not played as much competitive golf in the last two years as she did as a teenager, capped the best week of her career when she beat Amanda Sabitoni, 4 and 3, yesterday in the title match of the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association Amateur at Cranston Country Club.

Caffrey played beautifully as she birdied four of the first eight holes to a five-hole lead, then fought off Sabitoni from there.

Winning her first state title was satisfying on its own. Doing it at a time when she has put academics over golf made it feel that much nicer.

“It’s very satisfying. I’m thrilled,” the new champion said. “I had a blast with Katherine [defending champion Katherine Murphy, whom she beat in the semifinals] and I had a blast with Amanda. I felt really good today. I’m thrilled, absolutely.”

Caffrey began her college life at the University of Richmond where she was a regular on the Spiders’ women’s team. But she transferred to URI, which does not have a women’s team, because of a desire to become a veterinarian. She is majoring in animal science at URI which means, as she jokes, “I spend time with the cows instead of being out playing golf.”

Because she has not been as visible as she was through high school and the start of college, the Wannamoisett member has some who know her ask why she seems to have disappeared.

“I get it all the time, whether I’m at Dick’s [a sporting goods store where she works] or at the restaurant [where she also is working this summer],” she said. “I never gave up on it. I never wanted to. I just frankly didn’t have the time. … It’s something that I enjoy.”

Caffrey competed in the New England Women’s Amateur earlier this month, her first event in a while, and then spent two weeks working to get ready for the OSWGA event. A friend told her, “go prove to them that you’re still around.”

She did exactly that and did it impressively. After both players parred the opening hole, the 10th (play began on the back nine) Sabitoni stuck her approach on the par-4 11th within 5 feet. Caffrey responded by hitting it inside her. Sabitoni narrowly missed her birdie, and Caffrey made hers.

Sabitoni had short par putts hit the hole and spin out on each of the next two holes to fall 3-down. Sabitoni did drain a 10-footer for bird on the fifth hole (14th on the course) to win that one, but Caffrey responded with three straight birdies. The first was huge.

At the par-3 15th, Sabitoni ripped her iron 6 feet past the hole. Caffrey hit it on the green, but 30 feet away, on the edge of a ridge that dominates the green.

“I didn’t think I was going to make that putt,” she admitted. But she did.

“My ball mark was right near the hole and all of a sudden I had to make my putt just to tie,” Sabitoni said. Her down-hill putt slid past. Caffrey made a 20-footer for another bird on 16 then capped it by getting home in two on the par-5 17th. There she credited her caddy, her boyfriend Justin McShane, for helping her. Caffrey had 190 yards, uphill and into a crosswind.

“I wanted to hit 5-wood. He wanted me to hit 3-wood,” she said. Caffrey felt it would be better to be short than long because of the steep hill behind that green. But she decided to trust her caddy and ripped a 3-wood than landed over the bunker that guards the green and rolled 20 feet past the hole.

“I hit it better than I thought I would,” she said. It led to another birdie, her fourth, and a five-hole lead.

“She played great,” Sabitoni said. “I thought she was going to break the course record.”

Even with a three-putt bogey on the 18th, Caffrey recorded a 33 for the first nine. Sabitoni won the 18th with a par and then the par-5 first hole with a bird when she reached in two. After nine straight holes won by one or the other, the two finally halved the second (11th) with pars. When Sabitoni three-putted from 60 feet to lose the fourth, Caffrey was on her way to the title.

Caffrey spoke about how Troy Pare, her teacher at Wannamoisett, had worked with her in the week leading up to the tournament and then every day after finishing play when she drove back to her home near the course at Wannamoisett. She not only got back in the competitive spirit, she excelled.

Caffrey and Sabitoni both plan to be in the field when the Rhode Island Women’s Golf Association holds its championship next month at Alpine. That is Sabitoni’s home course, which could be good news for her. The OSWGA event, though, belonged to Caffrey. She not only won, she had her first career ace in the quarterfinals.

``It was my week,” is the way she summed it up.

Three-time tourney champion Valerie Blinn, relegated for the first division when she shot 83 in qualifying, swept past Beth Ellinwood, the OSWGA Senior champion, 7 and 6; Kyong Kim edged Luanne Googins, 2 and 1, in the second division; and Stephanie Rego topped Patricia Dickson, also 2 and 1, in the third division