Photo courtesy of Oregon Golf Association
Nate Stember,
Ellie Slama and
Lara Tennant took home titles Saturday in the final day of play at the 112th Oregon Amateur Championship and 38th Oregon Senior Women’s Championship Saturday at Bandon Trails Golf Course.
The title was Stember’s first, Slama’s third in four years and the fifth consecutive win in the senior women’s event for Tennant.
Stember, from Portland who recently completed his first year at the University of Oregon, defeated
Mateo Fuenmayor, 4 and 2, in a tight match that played through the 33rd hole of competition. Stember trailed Fuenmayor on holes 4 and 5, but ultimately led most of the way including by as much as 3 up through hole No. 14.
Fuenmayor, who plays collegiately at Oregon State, battled back to even the match on hole No. 19 and again on hole No. 31, but Stember won three consecutive to seal the title 3 up with two holes to play.
Slama, from Salem who recently concluded an outstanding collegiate career at Oregon State, has appeared in the last four Oregon Am finals registering wins in 2018, 2019 and again this year. She never trailed in Saturday’s title match, winning 7 and 5 over Mary Scott Wolfe and ending the match with a birdie on the 31st hole.
Slama jumped out to a 3 up lead through the first three holes, but Wolfe took holes Nos. 5 and 6 to pull within one. The players halved five of the nine holes while playing Nos. 10 through 18, with Slama closing the first 18 holes with a four-hole advantage.
She won six of the next 12 holes to finish the match up seven strokes with five to play – including the aforementioned birdie on the final hole.
Tennant, who has won two U.S. Senior Women's Amateur titles and a British Senior Amateur championship, has dominated the senior women’s ranks since returning to competition in 2017. Her five career senior women’s titles are second only to Joan Edwards-Powell who won six (1997, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2008, 2009). But Tennant stands alone as no other player has won five consecutive titles.
She defeated Ginny Burkey, 4 and 3, in a rematch of last year’s final played at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
Burkey held the early advantage, 1 up through four holes, before Tennant won seven of the next 11 to cement the win on Hole No. 15 up four with three to play.
Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com contributed to this report
ABOUT THE
Oregon Amateur
Entries are open to male amateur
golfers with USGA Handicap indexes of 5.0 or
less for men, and 15.0 or less for women, who are
members in good standing of an OGA
member
club. For men, the low 64 finishers from the first two
rounds of
stroke play will advance to
single elimination match play. For women, the low
32
finishers from the first two rounds of
stroke play will advance to
single elimination match play.
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