BANDON, Ore. – There was a moment of indecision after Hannah O’Sullivan and Robynn Ree made the turn at Pacific Dunes on Monday afternoon. This team had won every hole on the front nine. Approaching the 10th, O’Sullivan and Ree discussed whether they should play the 11th.
The consensus was that a 10-and-8 margin “sounds cooler” than getting to play an extra hole, even if it is Pacific Dunes. O’Sullivan stuck her approach to a couple of feet, won the 10th with birdie and ended the match against Lynn Thompson and Janie Klare with the biggest margin of victory in a U.S. Golf Association championship since 1955.
If you’re wondering what young players dream of, it’s exactly this. At least, Hannah O’Sullivan does. She closed a match with five holes to play at the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior but has always wondered what it would be like to win every hole to achieve a perfect 10 and 8.
So, for her 17th birthday – the first time she’s played competitive golf on her birthday – O’Sullivan got her wish, with help from Ree. The girls made five birdies all day, doubling up only one time. They won the other six holes with par.
“We were making all of our par putts,” Ree said.
Ree’s and Sullivan’s personalities couldn’t be much different. Ree is as vivacious as O’Sullivan is calm. The yin and yang nature of the partnership could be behind the success. Ree and O’Sullivan missed several birdie opportunities coming in on Sunday to fall one shot short of medaling, and both shook their heads over the loss. Ree was so fired up in the moment that she stood on the 18th tee in the final round firing punches, albeit playfully, at her dad’s chest.
Ree and her dad travel to most of her tournaments together, especially now that brothers Ryann and Lawrence are out of the house. Ryan plays for San Diego State and Lawrence plays for Loyola-Marymount.
On the course, O’Sullivan is the one to calm down Ree when she gets frustrated. They’ll be future teammates at USC. As for Ree, “I can help bring her spirits back up.”
While Ree kept her dad on the bag, O’Sullivan decided to make a change for match play. She started the week with a local caddie, but hired her mom Sarah on Monday morning. Sarah looped for her daughter earlier this year when Hannah won the Symetra Tour’s Gateway Classic to replace Cristie Kerr as the tour’s youngest winner.
For Sarah, caddie duties hardly ended when the bib came off. There was birthday cake to be bought after the round so the O’Sullivans could celebrate Hannah’s 17th. Her only specifications were that it be “anything but chocolate.”
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Marissa Mar has checked every box of adolescence. She punctuated four years as a student-athlete at Stanford with a trip across Europe that included stops everywhere from the Amalfi Coast to Rome to London (during Wimbledon). After that summer vacation, Mar settled in as a business development analyst at Yahoo, a dream job, and took up life as an amateur golfer.
Mar and former Stanford teammate Lila Barton met Cheyenne Knight and Emily Campbell in match play on Monday in what amounted to a look into the past. Knight and Campbell are teenage Texans bound for Alabama and Texas A&M, respectively. The graduates knocked them out of the tournament late in the afternoon, 3 and 2.
“Everyone just seems so young compared to us, even though I’m only 23,” Mar said of her opponents. “In a sense, I was jealous.”
After Stanford, Barton and Mar agreed that golf would remain just a hobby. The future was too uncertain, otherwise. Said Mar, “I like to enjoy it and not make it whether or not I eat tonight.”
This also keeps alive Barton’s dream of winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She’s always been a lover of amateur golf, which made the decision to remain amateur that much easier.
Now, Barton and Mar are at a golf mecca on the ultimate buddy trip that happens to fold in a USGA championship.
“It was on my bucket list,” Barton said.
The long-hitting Yin, a veteran of three LPGA majors (including the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open) doesn’t always hit the fairway, which is where partner Muni He comes in. He, who has committed to play college golf at USC, brings steadiness. That combination got this team past Tara Fleming and Alicia Kapheim on Monday by a 4-and-3 margin.
“I’m a pretty consistent iron player,” said He, a student at Torrey Pines High School.
Muni by birth, He often goes by Lily. As she explains, it’s short for lily pad, which is a symbol of peace and love. Yin refers to her partner by the nickname.
“My goal is to get it close to the hole and her goal is to go for it,” He said.
A winning combination so far.
“I think we played really well as a team today because the first four holes I was spraying my driver everywhere for some reason,” said Li. “Then I guess my game showed up.”
Scavo birdied the fourth hole while Li added birdies on Nos. 6 and 9.
While Li isn’t working with anyone formally for instruction, she counts both Johnny Miller and Mickey Wright as mentors.
“Johnny put a lot of new shots in my bag,” said Li. “Whenever our schedules are OK, he takes me out for some playing lessons.”
Dow, McDougald strike perfect partnership in Four-Ball and in life
