ANDOVER, Massachusetts – The final Mass Golf Women’s Tournament of the year got underway Tuesday with the opening 27 holes of the Mildred Prunaret Cup at Andover Country Club.
There are 24 two-person teams divided into four flights of six, and each twosome played three nine-hole, better-ball matches Tuesday. The teams will play two more matches Wednesday against the remaining teams in their flights. Teams receive one point for winning each hole, a half-point for halving a hole and one point for winning the match. Score is determined by the best net ball of each team.
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Despite scoring 4 points in their first match, Cheryl Krueger (Orchards GC) & Barb Hecimovich (Beverly G&TC) ended the day on top of the “A” flight with 21 points, the most of any team in the field. Krueger won the event with Carol Clarey in 2004 and 2007, while Hecimovich won it in with Joanne Catlin in 2017.
Sally DeGan & Valerie Casella, of Granite Links GC, won all three of their matches to lead the “B” Flight with 19.5 points, matching defending champions Fran Vandermeer & Kris Herman, of Taconic GC, who led the “C” Flight.
Jane Tryder (Mount Hood GC) & Alice McElhinney (Sagamore Springs GC) scored 18 to lead the “D” Flight and are fourth overall in points.
Hecimovich & Krueger lost to Mary Hunt & Ann Dawson, of Gannon GC, in the first match, 6-4, but they rallied with 9 points in their second match and 8 more in the third. Still, Hecimovich & Krueger have a 3.5-point lead over Hunt & Dawson and Kris Henderson (Bedrock GC) & Elizabeth Derwin (Norwood CC). Henderson & Derwin will tee off on the 11th tee with the “A” Flight leaders at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the first of two remaining nine-hole matches.
DeGan & Casella had their strongest start in their first match by defeating Chris Coughlin (Green Hill GC) & Pat Decaire (Hopedale Country Club), 7-3. They added 6 and 6.5 points to finish at 19.5 for the day. Vandermeer & Herman tallied the same scores of 6, 6.5 and 7.
Tryder & McElhinney only scored three points in their second match but got 8 and 7 in their first and third matches, respectively.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
This four-ball match-play tournament originated in 1953 and was renamed in 1981 in honor of Mildred Gardinor Prunaret of Brae Burn Country Club. Mrs. Prunaret, the Captain of the 1960 U.S. Curtis Cup Team has many accomplishments, including 1949-50 Senior Women’s Golf Association Champion. By appointment of her Royal Highness, the Queen of England, Mrs. Prunaret also received many honorary memberships.
