AmateurGolf.com's Players of the Month: February 2022
28 Feb 2022
by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com
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College golf ramped up its spring schedule and if the month of February was any indication, the Road to Grayhawk for the NCAA Championships in June is going to be a wild ride. Collegians continued to rewrite their school's record books, braved trying weather conditions to reach the winner's circle and delivered inspirational victories.
Meanwhile, a mid-am and a senior both came seemingly out of nowhere to break through for their first major victories, while a Hall-of-Famer put her name on a trophy for the seventh time.
Here are the players that caught our eye over the past month.
AmateurGolf.com's Players of the Month for Febuary, 2022
PALMER JACKSON
The Notre Dame junior withstood harsh conditions on the Georgia coast to win the biggest springtime amateur major, the Jones Cup on the Ocean Course at Sea Island, Ga. With temperatures in the low-to-mid 40s and strong winds blowing 25 mph throughout the final round, Jackson completed a
wire-to-wire victory and finished at 5-under 211 for a three-shot win. Jackson then led Notre Dame to a third-place finish at its first spring tournament, the Watersound Invitational, finishing tied for 4th individually.
AMARI AVERY
Playing in just her second collegiate stroke play events since arriving at USC a month ago as a spring enrollee, the highly-touted freshman from Riverside, Calif., finished 6th at the Lamkin San Diego Invitational, and then
won the Icon Invitational at the Golf Club of Houston. Avery's 15-under score tied a USC record for 54-hole event while the Trojans romped to a 15-stroke win over Illinois with a 39-under performance.
EUGENIO CHACARRA AND
CAROLINA CHACARRA
Eugenio, an Oklahoma State senior, nailed down his
first win as a collegian by shooting a course-record 10-under 62 in the final round of the Amer Ari Invitational at Hapuna Golf Course in Hawaii to lead Oklahoma State to the team championship. Just a few days later, his sister, Carolina, followed suit by
picking up her maiden victory to lead Wake Forest to the team title at the UCF Challenge. Amazingly, Carolina also shot a 10-under 62 in her final round but might have one-upped her brother, as her winning total of 24-under was the lowest 54-hole score in relation to par in Wake Forest history and tied for the second-lowest score in NCAA history.
LOGAN BLONDELL
As the title of the tournament suggests, it's a selective group of players that make up the field at the Gasparilla Invitational, the first major mid-amateur tournament of the year. However, there were a few spots are left open for Monday qualifiers. Logan Blondell showed up on Monday hoping for a spot; he earned one despite shooting a 73 in cool conditions. It would be his worst round of the week as the Lakeland, Fla. native would proceed to fashion rounds of 65-68-67 to win the tournament with a 10-under score of 200,
breaking the tournament record by two strokes.
BOB BAILEY
Much like Blondell, Bailey seemingly came out of nowhere to win his first major title. The Yorktown, Va. resident had never finished higher than 4th in his previous two seasons playing national-level senior golf. But Bailey took control of the Society of Seniors (SOS) Spring Classic at the Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Fla. and withstood a furious charge by former U.S. Senior Amateur runner-up Matthew Sughrue for a
one-shot win.
MEGHAN STASI
In a tournament won by such legends as Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs, Betsy Rawls, Alice Dye, and Carol Semple Thompson, one name appears on the Women's International Four-Ball trophy more than any other. Meghan Stasi teamed with Ina Kim-Schaad to win
her 7th title in the historic women's four-ball championship (her 3rd with Kim-Schaad). The pair went into a playoff, and on the first extra hole the Florida Golf Hall-of-Famer stuffed her approach to 6 feet and rolled in the putt for her record-extending win.
Related: AmateurGolf.com's Players of the Month: January 2022