A good partnership in golf is considered one in which the players “ham and egg it” very well. In other words, when one is struggling, the other picks up the slack and plays well.
Christie Austin and Tori Glenn certainly did that on occasion over the weekend, but they ham and egg it on a bigger scale. Austin is 57 years old and has a daughter, Julie, close to the age of Glenn, who is 19. And before Sunday, Austin had won about a dozen CWGA championships, while Glenn was still looking for her first.
But whatever the case, the two hit upon a good enough complementary formula that they claimed the championship flight title Sunday at the 48th annual CWGA Brassie at the Gold Course at Hyland Hills in Westminster.
“It’s so much fun to win a state championship,” noted Austin, a former USGA Executive Committee member from Cherry Hills Country Club. “This just sort of fell into place, which is great because we were really looking forward to (playing in the tournament together). We played a practice round and everything. We made a big effort here,” she added with a laugh.
Austin won the Brassie — which features a four-ball stroke-play format — for the fourth time on Sunday. But on the previous two occasions (2001 and ’10), her partner was Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Janet Moore. Moore couldn’t play this time around, so Austin thought of Glenn, the University of Colorado golfer with whom she was paired in the Colorado Cup matches early last month. (The pair are pictured, with Austin at right.)
“I’m really happy she invited me; it was fun,” said Glenn, the 2014 CWGA Match Play runner-up who has been playing golf for just a little more than three years.
Austin and Glenn shot a 1-under-par 72 Sunday, giving them a 5-under 141 total and a four-stroke victory. But that margin gives a false impression of how close the final round was. Going into the last hole — the short par-3 16th in their case — Austin and Glenn led two-time champions D’Ann Kimbrel and Stacey Arnold of Willis Case Golf Course by just one.
But on a hole measuring less than 110 yards, Kimbrel hit her tee shot into the water short of the green and Arnold’s ball barely stayed out of the lake. That led to them taking a best-ball double-bogey 5 on the relatively easy hole. Meanwhile, after nine consecutive pars for the Austin/Glenn team, Austin closed out the round by draining a 30-foot birdie putt, accounting for a three-stroke swing on the hole. (At top, Austin gets a high-five from Glenn.)
“It’s just disappointing how we finished,” said Arnold, who won the Brassie with Kimbrel in 2009 and ’12. “D’Ann and I are both working Joes so we don’t get out (for golf) very much. It’s disappointing to finish that way but it was fun to play with those guys (Austin and Glenn). They played good, and for Christie to finish with a 2 — she had been so close with so many putts — that was nice for them.”
Arnold and Kimbrel, the director of maintenance at the Riverdale golf courses in Brighton, closed with a 73 to place second at 145. (At left, Arnold, standing, discusses something with Kimbrel.)
Deb Hughes of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, who defeated Austin in the final of the 2014 CWGA Senior Match Play, and Sue Davis of Saddle Rock Golf Course were one of four championship flight teams to shoot a 76 on Sunday, and they finished in third place at 150.
“Stacey and D’Ann got close — it was a one-stroke difference — but we just kept grinding,” Austin said. “It was a day when neither one of us (Glenn or Austin) felt real comfortable on the course. We didn’t hit it especially pure. But we were just kind of steady and got up and down a few times. It was a grinding kind of day I’d say.”
As Glenn noted, the winning pair played much better in Saturday’s first round, shooting a 69. That round included a stretch in which Glenn went eagle-birdie-birdie, with the eagle coming on the same hole Austin birdied. Glenn also chipped in for a birdie during that run. Austin and Glenn later added back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.
“Yesterday was so much better,” said Glenn, who plays out of the Ridge at Castle Pines North. “We’d make birdies on top of each other. It was a good day. Today (Sunday), Christie covered my butt.” (At left, Glenn and Austin confer about a shot.)
Whatever the case, Glenn was happy to claim her first CWGA championship title.
“It feels good,” said Glenn, who finished fourth as a Valor Christian senior at the 2013 4A state high school tournament. “I was second in the Match Play and I’ve always been kind of close in the CWGA events this summer, but I never came out on top. So this is good.”
For scores from the championship flight and the seven other flights, CLICK HERE.
