Lara Tennant and Bryan Hoops enjoyed a double success for the United States of America at The R&A Women’s Senior Amateur and Senior Amateur championships at Frilford Heath, while Ireland had strong representation in the top 10 with Deirdre Smith finishing solo fourth and Jody Fanagan finishing tied for ninth.
Smith began the day five off the lead after carding a best-of-the-day 73 in round three, and a level-par 74 in the final round saw her move up two places to solo fourth.
But she couldn’t get any closer to Tennant who won her second Women’s Senior Amateur title when she outlasted England’s Emma Brown in a thrilling encounter in Oxfordshire as fellow American Hoops won the men’s Senior Amateur on his second appearance.
Tennant, who is ranked 357th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), returned a closing two-under-par 72 over Frilford’s Red Course for a two-over-par 296 total to defeat Brown by five shots. Brown’s fellow 2002 Curtis Cup team-mate Kerry Smith placed third, six shots adrift of Tennant.
“It feels great,” Tennant said. “This is my fourth time playing in this event and I’ve won twice and finished second so I’m more than happy.”
Hoops finished 11th at Walton Heath last year on his debut in the Senior Amateur. He closed with a six-under-par 66 to finish on ten-under-par 278, six shots better than England’s John Kemp and Richard Heath of Australia.
“This is the best win of my career,” said Tempe, Arizona native Hoops. “I’ve won tournaments in the United States and internationally but to win a national championship like this is my best.”
Tennant, who won the 2019 Women’s Senior Amateur at Royal St David’s, was three shots adrift of Brown after nine holes of the final round. However, the three-time US Senior Women’s champion played the inward nine in one-under-par 36 to Brown’s 44 to get her hands on the trophy again.
“I wanted to shoot two-under today and I did that,” added Tennant, who won three straight US Women’s Senior Amateur Championships between 2018 and 2021. “I did a good job of just focussing on my own game. I knew I was behind Emma but not by how much. I just stuck to my game plan and tried to do my best on each shot.”
The 59-year-old won thanks to the way she played the 15th and 16th holes compared to Brown. Tennant found a fairway bunker off the tee on the 15th and couldn’t advance the ball to the green. However, she got up and down from 100 yards to save par. Then her approach shot to the 16th hit the flag and ended up two-and-a-half feet away.
“After I hit it in the bunker I said to myself ‘I’m going to make par’. I had a 25-foot putt but I saw the break, hit a good putt and luckily it went in the hole. That was definitely a turning point to keep moving forward. So was the 16th because it was a hard shot out of the rough. I knew it was going to be hard to stop the ball, so for it to hit the flag and end up close was a big break.”
Brown, meanwhile, dropped seven shots over the last five holes, including double bogeys at the 14th and 16th holes.
“There wasn’t anything I did that was too drastically wrong, but little misses rack up and that’s what happened,” said Brown, who now has two second-place finishes to go with a pair of third-place performances. “But look, it’s another silver medal and I am more than happy. Congratulations to Lara. She played great and fully deserves the trophy.”
While the women’s event came down to Tennant and Brown, Hoops ran away with the men’s trophy. His closing 66 was the second lowest score of the week behind Kemp’s 65 in round two.
Hoops, 57, who at 308th on the WAGR table is the world’s highest-ranked senior, said, “I played so well all week. I missed a little two-foot putt on 18 yesterday and that was the only three-putt I had, so I didn’t have a lot of stress over the four days.
“It is tough to adapt to playing over here with the conditions, the weather and the grasses so this validates the travelling, working hard and winning in the United States.
“To put my name on this trophy with names like Mike McCoy, Gene Elliott, Paul Simson and other great players I know from the US makes me very proud. I will treasure this win for a long time.”
Jody Fanagan and Karl Bornemann began the final round four shots arrear, but with Hoops going low, Fanagan could only manage a two-over 74 to finish the week tied for ninth on +2 while Bornemann had a round to forget and carded a 12-over 84 to slip down to T36.
Shane Kenneally ended the week tied for 47th, with Declan O’Neill solo 50th and Tony Cleary one place lower in solo 51st.
Laura Webb finished tied for 15th on the women’s leaderboard, with Deirdre Walsh taking solo 22nd and Maria O’Reilly completing the Irish in T26.
Women’s Leaderboard
Men’s Leaderboard
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