Morris Captures Women’s Amateur; Turbide Wins Women’s Mid-Amateur

Clarkston, Wash. (July 16, 2010) – Rachel Morris of Carlsbad, Calif. captured the title today at the 109th PNGA Women’s Amateur Championship beating 2008 champion Cyna Rodriguez 8 and 6 in the 36-hole championship match at Clarkston Golf and Country Club in Clarkston, Wash.

Morris put on an impressive display of golf, dominating the match the entire way and never held a deficit. In the morning 18 holes she was able to build a 4 up lead by using the brilliant putting she has had all week. She made a 60-foot par putt on the par-4 12th hole to win the hole and capped off the morning round with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole in front of a large gallery.

After a lunch break, Morris won the first two holes of the afternoon round to build her lead to 6-up. Her approach shot on the par-5 2nd hole, the 20th hole of the match, landed in the cup before bouncing out to five inches for a conceded birdie. Rodriguez was able to get the margin back to five holes after a birdie on the next hole but that’s as close as it would get as Morris continued to play mistake free.

After building her lead back to 6-up, Morris would win the 29th hole of the day with a 9-foot birdie putt to go dormie and get to 7-up with seven holes to play. On the next hole Morris nearly holed out her chip and after Rodriguez missed her 10-foot par putt the hole and match were conceded to Morris. On the day Morris was a total of 4-under par through their 30 holes and made only three bogeys.

This is Morris’ first women’s amateur victory after a decorated junior career. She will be a teammate of Rodriguez when she joins the women’s golf program for the USC Trojans this fall. She comes into collegiate golf as the #3 ranked junior girl in the world.

In the 9th PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, also being held at Clarkston Golf and Country Club, Sandra Turbide of Maple Ridge, B.C. defeated Anne Carr 4 and 3 to win the title.

Turbide was playing in only her 2nd PNGA event this week with her first being the inaugural PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2002 where she was defeated by PNGA hall of fame member Joan Edwards-Powell in the quarterfinals. After having barely survived two difficult matches yesterday that went 19 holes, Turbide came out hot today making par on the first eight holes to build a 4-up lead over Carr.

Carr came back on the back nine and was able to cut the lead to only 2-up after their 13th hole but the early deficit was too much to overcome. Turbide won the 14th hole with a par and then closed out the match with a birdie on the par-4 15th hole.

This is Turbide’s first PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur title and first PNGA championship victory.