Elizabeth Moon knows what it's like to win on the big stage.
The 14-year-old from Forrest City won the 2011 U.S. Kids World Championship in Pinehurst, N.C., when she was 11. That victory was one reason she said she didn't feel pressured Thursday during the Arkansas State Golf Association Junior Match Play Championship.
ASGA Junior Match Play Championships
At Eagle Hill Golf and Athletic Club, Little Rock
Thursday’s results
BOYS
Quarterfinals
Connor Neil def. Peyton Wilhoit 4 and 3
Ian Bellisario def. Luke Long 5 and 4
Fisher Vollendorf def. Bradley White 3 and 2
Ryan Spurlock def. Trent Jones 1-up
Semifinals
Neil def. Bellisario 5 and 4
Vollendorf def. Spurlock 6 and 5
Final
Vollendorf def. Neil 4 and 3
GIRLS
Semifinals
Elizabeth Moon def. Taylor Loeb 5 and 3
Casey Ott def. Maria Emma Edwards 6 and 5
Finals
Moon def. Ott 1-up
Moon, who will be a freshman in the fall at Wynne, broke an all-square match on the 16th hole and then made a 3-foot birdie putt on the 18th to defeat defending champion Casey Ott of Conway 1-up at Eagle Hill Golf and Athletic Club in Little Rock. The victory also clinched the ASGA Junior Girls Player of the Year title for Moon, who also won the state junior stroke play championship in June at Shadow Valley Country Club in Rogers.
In the boys division, Fisher Vollendorf of Fayetteville was 4-up after seven holes before defeating Connor Neil of Springdale 4 and 3 for the championship.
Moon started Thursday morning by finishing off a 5-and-3 victory over Taylor Loeb in the semifinals. She fell a hole behind Ott, 14, after the fourth but won the fifth, sixth and eighth holes to go 2-up. Ott stuck her approach close to win the ninth, then squared the match again with a birdie on No. 11. Moon's par on the 12th put her in front again until the 15th, when Ott's par left them even a final time.
Both players drove into a bunker on the par-3 16th. Ott hit her blast thin across the green and knocked her third shot back into the original bunker from her tee shot. Moon got out safely and made par to go 1-up. After bogeys on 17, both ended up left off the tee on the 395-yard, par-5 18th and just short of the green with their second shots.
Ott chipped close and had her birdie putt conceded, while Moon got to within 3 feet with her chip. Her birdie attempt found the center of the cup to clinch the match.
"All I was thinking was just rolling it in, just like my caddie told me," Moon said of her final putt. "I kept thinking from this morning, just hit greens in regulation -- get it on in two, get it on in three, depending on if it was a par 4 or a par 5 -- then two-putt. It worked out pretty well."
Ott, who used Loeb's services as a caddie in the championship, said she was too inconsistent in the final but that Moon had plenty to do with that.
"I couldn't get anything rolling throughout the day," said Ott, who will be a freshman at Conway Junior High School in the fall. "She makes a lot of pars, at worst a bogey, so you really have to make birdies if you are going to win any holes on her and that's what I was trying to do. When you force yourself to make birdies, it's a lot of pressure."
Vollendorf, 15, started his 35-hole day by defeating Bradley White 3 and 2 in the quarterfinals. Ryan Spurlock, who clinched the player of the year title with his semifinal finish, lost 6 and 5 to Vollendorf early in the afternoon, while Neil was knocking off defending champion Peyton Wilhoit 4 and 3.
Vollendorf, who is home-schooled, breezed through the second and third holes, made a long birdie putt to win the par-3 sixth and then won the seventh to go 4-up. The lead grew to 5-up after he won the 10th. His only blemish was on the par-4 13th, where his drive went into a hazard and led to a bogey.
"He didn't play near as well as he can," Vollendorf said. "I know Connor is a lot better than that. I made a lot of putts and he didn't get them to go."
A 2014 graduate of Springdale Har-Ber, Neil said Vollendorf was just too tough.
"We were both hitting good iron shots," Neil said. "There on No. 6, I thought he wasn't going to make his putt and he just drained a bomb on me. Then he went 4-up.
"He wasn't going to stop. He really played well and beat me pretty good."
Sports on 07/25/2014