Reilly,
Murphy lead state amateur charge
BY ROBERT LEE
Journal Sports Writer
CRANSTON — Medalist
Kibbe Reilly and defending tournament champion
Katherine Murphy continued their strong play in the first round of match play
yesterday at the Rhode Island Women’s Amateur Championship at Cranston Country
Club.
Reilly, who fired a personal best
even-par 71 in the opening round of the four-day tournament to earn the top
seed, easily defeated upset-minded Maureen Ford, 6 and 5, to advance to today’s
semifinals.
Murphy, the second seed who won the R.I.
Interscholastic League state title in 2005 and 2006 while playing for
Reilly will be challenged today by former
La Salle star Amanda Sabitoni, who is entering her
senior year at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Sabitoni
upset former Bay View star, fourth-seeded Robyn English, 4 and 3.
“She’s an excellent college player and a
great golfer,” Reilly said of Sabitoni. “I enjoy
watching her play and I’m just going to have to stay on my game because I am
sure I will not be as long off the tee as her. But I’m not really sure if
that’s going to matter. It’s about getting the ball in the hole. I am going to
need to putt well and I am going to need to get in position to putt well.”
“It should be a great match,” Sabitoni said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Murphy, now at Penn State, will face the
2002 R.I. Interscholastic League state champion and former University of
Richmond star Ally Caffrey (Bay View), who earned a 5
and 4 triumph over Samantha Morrell, this year’s R.I. Interscholastic League
state champion out of North Kingstown.
“We went to high school at the same time
but we never played head-to-head against each other,” Caffrey
said of Murphy. “She’s always been a good friend of mine ... so it should be a
lot of fun.”
Reilly, 51, came out strong in her match
against Ford. She birdied the first hole and never looked back, winning holes
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11.
“It was a real solid match,” Reilly said.
“I’m very happy with the way I played.”
Her biggest putt of the match came on the
11th hole when she sank an 18-foot putt for birdie to win the hole.
Overall, she had two birdies and two
bogeys, and only lost one hole.
“I played pretty steady golf,” Reilly
said. “It felt good.”
Murphy and Dickson battled back and forth
through the first four holes with Dickson winning holes one and four and Murphy
winning holes two and five.
Murphy birdied holes 5, 7 and 9 to go
3-up by the turn. After winning the 11th hole to go 4-up, she was never in
danger of losing. Murphy birdied five holes in all yesterday.
“Sara and I were going back-and-forth,”
said Murphy, who gave a lot of credit for her impressive performance to her
dad, Bob, who caddied for her. “It was a great match.”
Sabitoni’s and English’s match was a close one
early on. Sabitoni won the first two holes by
shooting par to go 2-up before English rallied and evened the score by winning
the third and seventh hole.
Sabitoni, who was even par at the turn, went back
up by one by winning the eighth hole before birdying the 10th hole and winning
the 11th hole to go 3-up.
English never recovered.
“All-in-all I played really well,” Sabitoni said. “I’m pretty confident with my game right now.
I just have to get used to the greens, hit them a little harder and figure out
the breaks a little bit more. I think tomorrow will be good.”
Caffrey won holes 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 13
in her match against Morrell, who won holes 4, 5 and 9. Caffrey
hit her first career hole-in-one on the par-3, eighth hole.
“When I got up there I just tried to hit
it in the same place I hit it the day before,” Caffrey
said. “I didn’t care where on the green it went as long as it got on the green
somewhere. I was actually aiming toward the right side and the wind kind of
brought it across. It hit on an angle. It bounced to the right a little bit and
then kind of stopped and rolled in. It was pretty cool because I got to see
it.”