Netter Wins 17th Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur

Monroe’s Cathy Netter Wins 17th Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur

  MOUNT PLEASANT – Monroe’s Cathy Netter never led and had to rally from a three-down deficit through nine holes to top Lewiston’s Lori Schlicher on the final hole of the title match in the 17th Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur Championship Thursday.

  “I just tried to stay consistent, tried to just play my game and you know, it worked out in the end,” she said after the 1-up win and accepting the Jean Murray Trophy at Mount Pleasant Country Club.

  “She made a few really key putts on the front nine, and I didn’t, and then I was fortunate to take a couple of holes early on the back nine and that helped me get some momentum going, and I think that really helped.”

  Schlicher started the back nine losing hole 10 with a three-putt, then lost No. 12 with the help of an errant tee shot that was lost on the bank of the Chippewa River. At No. 15 her approach shot from the right rough hit a tree limb, then hit a river bank rock and splashed in the river.

   “I haven’t hit my driver well for a while so I’ve been hitting that little seven wood, which is pretty decent, but you have to hit it and not try to steer it,” Schlicher said. “And I think I might have steered it into bad spots.”

  Netter, 61 and a GAM tournament winner for the first time since winning the 2002 GAM Mid-Amateur Championship, missed a par putt at No. 16 to fall one-down with two holes to play, but made a birdie on the par 3 No. 17 with a tee shot to four feet to tie the match for the second time.

  Schlicher, 59 and playing in her first Michigan Women’s Senior Amateur, hit her tee shot left on No. 18 and found her ball stymied behind a tree. She punched out to the fairway sideways, then hit her next shot on the green and missed her par putt. She conceded Netter’s birdie putt and the match was over.

  “She plays pretty steady, she doesn’t miss many fairways,” Schlicher said of Netter. “I might have been a little tired. I don’t play 36 holes often, and I think I need to play in more competition.”

  Schlicher, who played college golf at the University of Missouri and has embarked on playing more golf as a grandmother, beat the recent GAM Women’s Senior Champion Terry Delcamp of Grand Blanc 5 and 4 in a morning semifinal match to earn her spot in the finals.

   Netter turned back Detroit’s Joanne Adams, the stroke play round medalist and top seed, 1-up in the other semifinal.

  Last weekend Netter volunteered to work sunup to sundown at the Solheim Cup at Inverness Club in Toledo, where she grew up playing and developed into a collegiate golfer for Michigan State University. She was afraid she would be too tired to play a stroke play seeding round and three matches over two days.

  “Maybe I should play golf when I’m tired more often,” she said and laughed. “I played well both days, and in my morning match to get here. We had a great match this morning. We both missed some putts this afternoon, but the course was set up really well for us and the greens were in really good shape.”

  Netter said she played little competitive golf for several years while working as a special education administrator for the Monroe Public Schools, but since retiring a few years ago has worked back into tournaments.

  “I’m a full-time grandma now,” she said. “I have five. They don’t live super close to me, but I see them quite a bit and they will be really impressed with Wawa’s trophy – that’s what they call me.”

via Greg Johnson