South Salem's Kyra Cox WINS Second Connecticut Women’s Amateur Title

It wasn’t an easy day for Kyra Cox but when she brushed in her par putt on the 18th green at Race Brook Country Club all she could do was smile. For the second time in her career, she had won the Connecticut Women’s Amateur and for the first time ever her mom was on hand to watch her win a golf tournament.

“It means a lot to win this a second time especially after the year that we had last year to come back and be able to do it again it feels really good,” said Cox who shot a final round 6-over 77 to finish 3-over for the tournament.

Cox (EClub of Connecticut) began the final round of the 56th Connecticut Women’s Amateur 3-under-par and ahead by three shots, extended the advantage to five, and then held on to win by two strokes over Kaitlyn Lee (+5).

Despite trailing by a sizeable margin for much of the day Lee hung tough until the very end. Playing with Cox in the final group the rising junior at Yale birdied the par-5 10th and then ran off a series of pars to stay within shouting distance.

As Lee was surging Cox was faltering bogeying the 10th and 11th holes and as a result tightening the gap eventually to two strokes. The difference remained two strokes with Cox at 1-over and Lee at 3-over when the horn sounded stopping play for a thunderstorm with five holes remaining.  

When play resumed an hour later Lee continued her pursuit of Cox pulling within one shot following a bogey by the rising Furman senior on the 16th hole. For the first time all day it felt like it was game on.

Results

“Today was tough. I didn’t play very good golf,” Cox said. “Off the tee I was a lot better yesterday and especially on this course you have to stay in the fairway and to not have that today made me lose some strokes but I tried to just stay calm and stay positive and keep a good head on my shoulders.”

Playing first on the par-4 17th Lee pushed her drive right into the rough and behind a row of trees. Cox, who struggled to find the fairway throughout the day, followed with a drive down the middle of the fairway.

Lee, who tied for fifth at the Connecticut Women’s Open in June, was forced to punch out into the middle of the fairway thus opening the door for Cox who took advantage hitting her approach shot to 20-feet. Moments later Cox walked off the green with a par and Lee a bogey moving the difference back to two shots heading to the final hole.

“I am pretty happy with how I played,” Lee said. “Today I left every putt short and didn’t really give myself a chance for birdie. I had a lot of those opportunities but I didn’t really take advantage of them but other than that I am really happy with my game right now and I am excited to see how it goes for the rest of the summer.”

Cox did miss the fairway on the par-4 18th and left her second shot in the right greenside bunker however a stellar third shot resulted in a short par putt and a second victory in the Connecticut Women’s Amateur.

Tracy Lee (EClub of Connecticut) was third at 7-over, Mia Grzywinski (CC of Farmington) was fourth at 9-over while Liz Garfield (Tashua Knolls Golf Club) and Charlotte Wagner (Country Club of Fairfield) shared fifth at 11-over.

Other division winners included Wagner in the Junior Division, Cox in the Mid-Amateur Division, Jen Holland (Lyman Orchards GC) in the Senior Division, and Jo Rasmussen (Great River GC) in the Super Senior Division.

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Submitted by Katonah, NY

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