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Liz Janangelo Wins In Professional Debut At Connecticut Open
5/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
By BRUCE BERLET, The Hartford Courant
GREENWICH, CT-- For weeks, Liz Janangelo hemmed and hawed about where to make her professional debut.
Would it be a Futures Tour event that hopefully sent her on the way to the ultimate goal, the LPGA Tour? Or would it shooting for a record fourth straight Connecticut Women's Open title?
Janangelo finally decided “home is where the heart is,” and the four-time Duke All-American from West Hartford got the desired result Wednesday with a second 2-under-par 70 for a four-stroke victory over former LPGA Tour player Tish Certo at Greenwich Country Club.
“This one definitely feels very, very special because there's no better thing for me than to stay close to my roots and make my pro debut with the Connecticut State Golf Association,” Janangelo said. “The people have been just terrific to me since I was 13, and that has really helped me with my pro career. I don't think people realize that it takes a team, like my family, The Hartford and Octagon [her agency], to make the long journey successful. I can't put into words how much it means to start my pro career at home with the support of everyone.”
Janangelo demonstrated just how much her first pro victory meant when she donated 10 percent of her $5,000 check to the CSGA Widdy Neale Scholarship Fund and the First Tee of Connecticut.
“I knew what I had to do, make birdies,” Janangelo said. “It's not about winning. You're playing against the course, and I just wanted to shoot as low as I could _ within reason. There are some things I have worked on, like my lag putts. I just have to get a little crisper because it's a different game [in the pros].”
Janangelo started the day tied with Certo and Bobbi Salmon, who bogeyed the first three holes in an 80 that dropped her into a tie for seventh at 150. Certo, of Willow Ridge CC in Harrison, N.Y., matched Janangelo's three opening pars and birdie, then hit her approach into a bunker at No. 5 and missed a 6-foot par putt to fall behind to stay.
Certo's undoing came at No. 6, where she lagged a 35-foot putt to 14 inches and then missed a rushed tap-in.
“That was a mental boo-boo,” Certo said. “I just never steadied myself, and that was the turn of the tides because then I couldn't even get a sand wedge close.”
Certo hooked a drive into the water at No. 8, leading to a double-bogey 6. Janangelo made a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 9 to open a five-stroke lead, then each birdied No. 10. Janangelo made her first bogey at No. 13 after a drive into the trees, then Certo got within three with a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 16. After each bogeyed No. 17, Janangelo capped her first pro win with a chip to 2 feet for a closing birdie 4.
“I'm pretty happy with the way I played, but she's just too good,” Certo said.
But not THAT good.
“I have to play extremely well if I want to get in the top five [on the Futures Tour] and qualify for the LPGA,” Janangelo said. “That's the goal right now, and I know my abilities and what I can do when I'm playing my best, so I'm going to stay confident and work as hard as I can. May the balls go in the fairway and the putts drop.”
Futures Tour player Lynn Valentine of East Lyme, a University of Hartford graduate, shot a 75 to finish third for a second straight year at 146.
“I hit the ball better today but just couldn't putt,” said Valentine, who had three birdies, including a 40-foot bunker shot at No. 14, but three-putted for three of her six bogeys. “Shooting under par was there, but I tried to force a few things, and you can't do that. You have to go with it, and I just didn't go with it.”
The low amateur was Jeehan Lee of Yale (73_150).
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