Bluffton golfer wins 2021 South Carolina Women’s Amateur
Sophia Burnett, a rising sophomore at Furman, added to her trophy collection Thursday, winning the South Carolina Women’s Amateur at Columbia Country Club.
Burnett, a Bluffton resident who plays out of Colleton River Plantation, withstood three late bogeys in the final round and posted a three-day total of 2-over-par 218.
She edged Emma Schimpf of Daniel Island, who will play at the College of Charleston in the fall, and Mary Kathryn Talledo, a Furman signee from Spartanburg, by one stroke.
Sydney Roberts of Chesnee, a rising high school senior, took fourth, and defending champion Anna Morgan (Spartanburg/Furman) closed fast to finish fifth.
Burnett opened with a pair of even-par rounds of 72, took a one-stroke lead into the final round and birdies on Nos. 12 and 13 put her in command. A pair of bogeys after a long weather delay cut her advantage to two strokes, but she needed only to bogey the last to win the title.
Schimpf finished with the tournament’s best round, a 4-under 68, to zoom into contention, and Morgan posed a final 69.
Burnett had finished second in the 2019 State Women’s Amateur at Dataw Island and tied for eighth at Columbia CC a year ago. Schimpf placed third in 2020.
Kerry Rutan, who plays out of Yeamans Hall in Hanahan, won the State Division, and Jeanie Atkinson (Columbia/The Woodlands) captured the Super Senior title.
Chip shots. Todd White (Roebuck) and Ray Franz (Mount Pleasant) secured berths in the 2021 U.S. Senior Open in Qualifying at Greenville’s Green Valley CC. White, a former State Amateur champion who played on the 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team, took medalist honors with a 7-under-par 65. ... The Greenville duo of Charles Warren and Brent Delahoussaye needed 19 holes to edge Michael Sims (Lexington) and Jay McAllister (Myrtle Beach) for the SCGA’s Four-Ball championship at Clinton’s Musgrove Mill GC. .... Former Clemson All-American Bryson Nimmer joins a pair of 2021 college stars making their professional debuts, John Pak (Florida State) and Davis Thompson (Georgia), in receiving sponsors’ exemptions to compete in the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. For ticket and parking information for the PGA Tour tourney, set Thursday-Sunday at Congaree GC in Jasper County, go online to www.palmettochampionship.com.
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