2019 Yearbook.indd

| 63 Wednesday, cut into the lead on the par-4 13th when she made a gritty up-and-down and Tennant three-putted. Leading 2 up, Tennant got a crucial break on the next hole. With both players on the plateau green of the par-4 14th in two, Tennant hit the flagstick with her putt from 45 feet away, with the ball stopping a few inches from the hole. Had it not hit the stick, it would have rolled several feet past. “I think that was the critical shot,” said Tennant. “The ball didn’t go in, but it gave me a two-putt on a very, very long putt. I had been quite a distance away on each of the two previous holes and three-putted them, so I needed a two-putt in there. You have to get some of those breaks in order to win. “Sometimes you just say what can you do?” said Wooster. “It’s tough, but you’ve got to expect that stuff to happen.” Both players made two-putt pars on the par-5 15th, andwhenWoostermissed another fairway to the right on No. 16, she needed to aim away from the flagstick on her approach. Tennant made a comfortable par after a crisp iron shot, and when Wooster’s 8-foot try for an up-and-down missed, the match was over. “When your swing is a little bit off, you just have to learn to play by your gut,” said Wooster, who finished 40th in last year’s inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. “My putting kept me in it. I had only one or two three-putts the whole week. And having said that, I didn’t really hole anything, either. Didn’t hole any 10-, 15-footers, so that was disappointing.” Credit: USGA/Ron Driscoll The hole-by-hole tally of the final match between Tennant and Wooster An early morning look up the 18th at Cedar Rapids Country Club (photo courtesy Vaughn Halyard)