Stasi, Kim use big back 9 to secure Women's Int'l 4-Ball win

The final holes of the Women’s International Four-Ball turned out to be a battle among the giants of women’s mid-amateur golf. Three teams started the day tied for the lead, with three USGA champions among them, but Ina Kim and Meghan Stasi ended the day with the trophy.

Ultimately, it was Kim who got hot on the back nine of the Wanderer’s Club in Wellington, Fla., logging five birdies in a seven-hole stretch from Nos. 11-17. Add Stasi’s birdie at No. 10, and the Florida duo set a pace that no one else could keep up with.

Back-to-back rounds of 69 left them at 6 under, and with a two-shot cushion for the win.

Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, has won this title before but with different partners. She and Tara Connelly (who finished T-6 this week with Dawn Woodard) won in 2013 and ’14, and Stasi and Woodard won the title in 2009. In 2010, Stasi won with partner Donna Mummert.

This is Kim’s first title after re-immersing herself in the world of high-level women’s amateur golf only a few years ago. Kim, who has played the past two U.S. Women’s Amateurs, was runner-up at the 2000 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge. She played collegiately for Northwestern, then shelved her clubs to chase a career in the business world.

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Ina Kim and Meghan Stasi capture the 2019 Women's International Four-Ball title!#FSGA pic.twitter.com/mhzMsRK8qb

— Florida State Golf Association (@fsga) February 14, 2019

Katie Miller, who won this event the past two years with a different partner, and Lauren Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, had a clean 1-under 35 on the front nine, but struggled to make birdies on the back. Greenlief logged one at the 16th and the team settled for a closing 71 that left them two shots back.

Megan Buck and Shannon Johnson, the reigning U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, were third.

Two teams of notable senior players were just off the pace. Ellen Port, a seven-time USGA champion, paired with reigning U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion Lara Tennant to finish fifth. Judith Kyrinis, the 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, and Mary Jane Hiestand, runner-up at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, were T-6 another shot behind them.