The common saying is that anything can happen in match play golf.
That certainly was true Tuesday at the 91st Arkansas Women's Golf Association Match Play tournament on the Arlington Course at Hot Springs Country Club.
AWGA Hall of Famer Pam Spikes of Maumelle, a four-time match play champion, was upset 3 and 1 in the championship flight by Lowell's Rosetta Parks in the opening round of the tournament.
Spikes, who won the tournament in 1979 and 1990 before winning back-to-back in 2012 and 2013, was slightly off her game all day as the No. 5 seed after shooting an 86 in Tuesday morning's stroke-play qualifying.
The top four seeds and first-round byes went to Fort Smith's Tanna Richard (77), a member of the AWGA and Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame, UALR incoming sophomore Peyton Weaver of Bryant (80), Lisa Varney of Jacksonville (80) and Brenda Carr of Bentonville (81).
Parks had the morning's worst qualifying score at 99, but she bounced back in match play and held a two-hole advantage with two to play. She won the match on the par-3 17th, sending Spikes into the consolation bracket. Parks will face Carr today.
Spikes' AWGA Match Play title run ended last year when she lost in the final to Conway's Summar Roachell, who swept last year's AWGA majors. Roachell, who plays for the Arkansas women's team, is not playing in the tournament this year.
Katie Speir of Hot Springs Village, seeded ninth after shooting 89 in the qualifier, defeated No. 8 seed Tracy Duncan (88) 5 and 4, while Joan Archer, the No. 7 seed from Hot Springs Village, defeated No. 10 seed Linda Black 7 and 5.
Speir moves on to face medalist Richard at 8 a.m. today, the latter seeking her second title and first since 1980. Archer faces Weaver at 8:20 a.m., the latter runner-up in last year's Arkansas State Golf Association Women's Match Play.
Sixth seed Doris Herren defeated 11th seed Brenda Alexander 5 and 4 in an all-Benton County matchup and advances to face Varney today.
Sports on 06/10/2015