Estero golfer Gianna Clemente bettered last year’s championship score by four strokes, but it wasn’t good enough to repeat at the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur golf tournament.
The high school sophomore finished second over the weekend at five under par, four shots behind Ohio State sophomore Kary Hollenbaugh.
“I can’t say I expected nine under to win, but Kary was playing really well,” Clemente said.
Clemente shot a 69-76-68-71 over the Oceanside Country Club course in Ormand Beach.
The golf tournament, known as the Sally, is the oldest women’s amateur tournament in the country.
Clemente was tied for the lead after the opening round, but the second-day 76 forced her to play catch up the rest of the week.
“The conditions were pretty tough,” Clemente said. “it was very difficult to stay in the fairways.”
Her 76 included a hole-in-one on the par 3 16th hole. It was her third hole-in-one and they’ve all come during tournaments.
“It was really cool,” Clemente said. “I love the entire membership and course at Oceanside, so that was pretty cool to get a hole-in-one there.”
Clemente had seven birdies, including five in a row, and three bogeys during her third round 68 on the par 72 course.
Players had little warm up time for the final round because of rain and lightning. The lack of warm up didn’t hurt Hollenbaugh, who had four birdies on the front nine to take an insurmountable lead.
“It was a positive week,” said Patrick Clemente, Gianna’s dad and caddy. “Two of the four days were difficult conditions.”
Clemente won’t compete again until mid-February at the Fortinet Girls Invitational at Stanford in California.
In between, she will practice with the Curtis Cup team. Clemente was one of 12 women amateurs to compete for six spots on the team that will play against women from Ireland and Great Britain later this year.
Clemente is the second youngest golfer to be invited to try out for the team.
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