Monday, June 29, 1998
Spooner’s Super
Amy Spooner—with help from her akamai caddy
By Bill Kwon
—makes all the right moves to top Natalie Wong
and win the U.S. Public Links title
Star-BulletinKAPALUA, Maui -- You can't beat a little local knowledge.
Just ask Florida State's Amy Spooner, who beat Yale graduate Natalie Wong, 2 and 1, in the final of the 22nd U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship yesterday at the Kapalua Bay Course.
Spooner had a little inside information about the par-71 Bay Course -- her caddy was Herb Nishijima, senior superintendent for Kapalua's three golf courses.
"He knows every blade of grass on this golf course," said Spooner, 21, who will be a senior at Florida State this fall. "I know I couldn't have made it this far without him."
Nishijima volunteered because he saw that Spooner was carrying her own bag for three practice rounds. "You're crazy to do that," he told her.
"Why? You wanna caddy?" she replied.
It proved to be a winning combination, although Wong, a 5-foot-1 giant-killer, nearly pulled off the biggest victory of her amateur career with a putter that she got as a graduation gift from her father last month.
Wong used it to sink long putts on her final three holes to eliminate Stacy Prammanasudh, 1-up, on the 19th hole in their semifinal match yesterday morning. That included a 12-foot birdie on the 18th that forced the extra hole.
The day before, Wong drained an 18-footer, also downhill at the par-5 18th, to pull even and eventually oust Waikoloa's Elisha Au, 1-up, on the 22nd hole.
Yesterday afternoon, though, her putts didn't drop. If anything, Spooner outdueled her on the greens.
But it was a chip-in at the par-4 ninth hole that probably was the turning point of the match even though they had the back nine to go, said Spooner, who lost in the semifinals last year in Pennsylvania.
She knocked her approach shot out of bounds and was on the fringe in four.
On the back fringe in two, Wong pitched to within three feet.
Spooner chipped in for a bogey to halve the hole when Wong's putt lipped out.
Instead of being even at the turn, Wong found herself still down one.
"I know she was probably freaked out," Spooner said.
Wong didn't think it was a big deal. "I thought I was still going to win the hole. I didn't expect to miss that putt."
Holes 11 and 13 proved pivotal as well. At the par-4 11th, Wong's drive found a ditch that cuts across the fairway 220 yards out. That led to a double-bogey 6 and 2-up advantage for Spooner.
At 13, both were on in regulation two with Spooner 20 feet away and Wong looking at a birdie from eight feet. But Spooner sank her putt for a birdie -- her only one in four match-play victories -- which Wong couldn't cover.
Wong found herself three down and running out of holes. "By then, I was trying to play as many holes as I could," she said.
Wong got one back at 15 with her only birdie, but a half at the par-3 17th closed out the match. She never got the chance to play 18 again.
So ended a summer of fun, said Wong, who goes to work for a Boston environmental research group next month. "I'm not planning to quit golf. I'm just not going to go pro," she said.
As for Spooner, who called up Nishijima to help her hold the winner's trophy, one of the perks for winning the publinx is an exemption to the U.S. Women's Amateur in Ann Arbor, Mich., in August.
Maybe she can ask the superintendent there if he'd like to caddy.
