Photo: Thomas Toohey Brown
[su_spacer size=”40″] “It was just a tough match,” Tardy said. “We never conceded any holes. Nothing was conceded except for putts, short putts. I think we both played really well, and we were both exhausted.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Tardy, a native of Norcross, Ga., defeated Anna Redding 4-and-2 in her semifinal matchup on Friday morning and then bested Bethany Wu in the title match in 20 holes. Tardy is the first representative of the Georgia women’s golf program to win the prestigious amateur event, which lists Babe Zaharias and Louise Suggs among its past champions.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “I’m really good friends with (Wu), and I played a round with her, I think the second day, so I knew how she was hitting it and that she wasn’t going to let up anytime soon,” Tardy said. “It was going to be a good match from the get-go, and it was.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] The championship match was back and forth on the front side. Wu, the top-ranked junior in the Golfweek Sagarin Performance Index who will be a freshman at UCLA this fall, grabbed an edge at No. 1 before Tardy claimed No. 2 and No. 3 to go 1-up. Wu captured No. 4 and No. 5 to regain the the lead. Tardy took No. 8 to return to match to all-square before the turn.
[su_spacer size=”40″] After halving the next three holes, Wu won No. 13 and then No. 16 to go 2-up with two holes remaining. Tardy won No. 17 and No. 18 to bring the match back to all-square. After both golfers parred their 19th hole, Tardy parred and Wu bogeyed the 20th hole.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “I love playing her and just wanted to make pars,” Tardy said. I think I made nine pars on the back nine. She stuck it close and made some birdies coming in and that’s how I got two down, but I stuck to my game plan.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Tardy never trailed in her semifinal match with Redding, an incoming freshman at Virginia. Tardy won holes No. 2 and No. 5 to build a 2-up edge. Redding secured No. 7 to pull within 1-up. After the duo halved the next five holes, Tardy won No. 13 and No. 15 to go 3-up with three holes to play. She birdied No. 16 to win that hole and gain a more decisive 4-and-2 final margin of victory.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Tardy entered the 16-golfer match play bracket as the No. 7 seed after three rounds of stroke play qualifying and upset three higher seeds en route to the championship. She defeated 10th-seeded Alexander Rossi and second-seeded Lori Beth Adams, the 2014 North & South runner-up, on Thursday. Tardy dispatched third-seeded Redding and fourth-seeded Wu on Friday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In other news, rising seniors Manuela Carbajo Ré and Amira Alexander continued play in the Pan Am Games at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario. Carbajo Ré and Alexander shot 76 and 77, respectively, on Friday. Halfway through the 72-hole event, Carabjo Ré is tied for eighth at 6-over 150, and Alexander is tied for 14th at 12-over 156.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the Pan Am Games’ mixed team competition, Carbajo Ré and Argentina are in fifth place at 142. The United States, which features Georgia men’s golfer Lee McCoy, moved atop the team leaderboard at 136. Alexander is the only representative of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the field and therefore not taking part in the mixed team event.