Recent UNC Wilmington graduate and East Bend native Mallory Fobes, hopeful of a pro playing career, won the second Carolinas Women’s Mid-Amateur last week at Longleaf Golf Club in Southern Pines.
Fobes (pictured) shot 71 and 77 to finish at 4-over-par 148, beating Courtney Stiles of Pinehurst with a birdie in the first hole of a playoff.
The tournament was Fobes’ first competing as a mid-amateur. Yes, a 23-year-old recent college graduate is now the CGA’s MID-AMATEUR champion.
“It feels so good,” Fobes said. “This being my first mid-amateur event and being the youngest in the field, I know there are some really good players out here, so it felt good to come out with a win.”
Fobes hit a booming drive on the playoff hole, leaving her only a chip to the green to set up the birdie.
“I thought, ‘I’ve been hitting my driver on this hole every time,’ so I decided to hit driver again,’” Fobes told Carolinas Golf Association staff.
Stiles, who graduated from N.C. State in 2004 and played on the Futures Tour for two seasons, is the executive director of First Tee of the Sandhills.
So how and why does a 23-year-old (she played five years in college due to a Covid-19 extension) win a mid-am tournament?
Under advice from the USGA, the CGA changed the eligibility requirements, reducing the minimum age to 22 for players who have completed their college careers. The USGA still requires U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur contestants to be at least 25 to be eligible.
Chris Wolff, the CGA’s senior tournament manager, said lowering the age requirement is intended to encourage former college players to continue their amateur careers. Many young college graduates, working full-time, found it difficult to compete with current college players. So many quit playing competitively, often not returning at 25 for Mid-Amateur play.
Fobes, who started a GoFundMe page to raise money for LPGA Tour qualifying tournament expenses, failed to advance at the First Stage of LPGA Tour Qualifying in August in Rancho, Mirage, California, after shooting 77 in the opening round. Fobes was among several contestants who competed while maintaining their amateur status.
After the tournament, Fobes announced on Instagram that she planned to play on a winter tour in a warm climate.
HAARLOW TOPS CPGA SENIOR STANDINGS
Greensboro’s Chris Haarlow has clinched the Carolinas PGA Senior Player of the Year Award. Haarlow, director and instructor at Precision Golf School, was consistently strong in the CPGA Seniors’ five-tournament schedule, placing in the top 10 of each.
He began with a victory in the season-opening one-day event at Cedarbrook Country Club in Charlotte, and capped the season last month with a second-place finish to Burke Cromer of Prosperity, S.C., in a playoff at the South Carolina Senior Open at Wild Dunes Links on Isle of Palms, S.C.
