Jennie Lee & USA Win Copa de las Americas

By Mary Kate Brennan, USGA

AURORA, ONTARIO, CANADA-- The United States of America, including Duke's Jennie Lee, won the Copa de las Americas, an international team golf competition played every two years for countries in the Western Hemisphere, on Saturday.

With a score of 1,180, the USA defeated second place Mexico by 37 strokes. The Canadian team, which had won the past two Copas, came in third with a score of 1,219. USA captain Loren Singletary said, “Our players played consistently well and that’s why we won. The women really put it away on the second day, and if not the third, but the men had to scratch and crawl for every stroke, everyday.”

Three competitions of 72 holes ? 18 holes for four days ? overall (both men’s and women’s totals) was conducted by The Royal Canadian Golf Association in conjunction with the USGA and The R&A at Beacon Hall Golf Club. This year, 10 countries participated in the competition ? 15 in the men’s competition and 10 in the women’s. The USA not only won the overall competition, but both the men’s and women’s cups as well.

Lee and Stacy Lewis, both of whom built a tremendous lead on the women’s side going into the final day of competition, continued their dominance. Lee, a Duke All-American and 2006 Curtis Cupper from Henderson, Nev., individually won the women’s competition with a total score of 298. She shot her best round on Saturday, a 70. She described their rounds as consistent.

“We just went and played another round of golf today” she said. “I putted a lot better today.”

Lewis, an All-American at Arkansas from The Woodlands, Tex., placed second, two strokes behind Lee. She shot 76 in her final round.

“I played pretty consistently all week,” said Lewis. “I finally birdied the 13th hole today, which I had bogeyed on all the other days.”

Webb Simpson, a 2007 Palmer Cup and Wake Forest University team member from Raleigh, N.C., and Jonathan Moore of Vancouver, Wash., a 2006 U.S. Open competitor who plays for Oklahoma State, edged out Argentina to win the men’s cup for the USA with a total score of 582. Argentina recorded a score of 586 while Mexico came in third, six strokes further behind.

“I played better today than any other day,” said Simpson, who shot 292 and ended the Copa tied for third with Andres Felipe Echavarria of Colombia.

Simpson shot 71 Saturday. Moore registered a 70 for a total of 290. He placed second, nine strokes behind Canada’s Alan Wagner.

“I knew the girls would absolutely dominate, so (Simpson and I) wanted to see if we could come back and beat the Argentineans,” said Moore. “The wind finally stopped and by the last day, you know the course, and we really took advantage of that.”

In general, the players were most excited about being a part of the USA’s first victory.

“Standing on the first tee when they call out your name and your country was the most exciting part of the tournament,” said Lewis.

“It was fun to see how other countries are developing golf.”

Said Moore: “It was a great experience. It was neat to play with people from different countries and see what golf is like there.”

Singletary, the USA team captain in 2005, was proud to represent the USA.

“There’s nothing like winning,” he said. “Not only are (Lee, Lewis, Simpson and Webb) good golfers, they are quality people.”

The following are final-round scores at the 2007 Copa de las Americas :

Overall Team Results ? Round 4

1 USA 287 -1 +28
2 Mexico 288 E +65
3 Canada 293 +5 +67
4 Argentina 311 +23 +75
5 Colombia 307 +19 +96
6 Puerto Rico 307 +19 +135
7 Peru 325 +37 +140
8 Trinidad and Tobago 325 +37 +148
9 Guatemala 342 +54 +212
10 Dominican Republic 348 +60 +267

Men's Team Results ? Round 4

1 USA - Men 141 -3 +6
2 Argentina - Men 148 +4 +10
3 Mexico - Men 143 -1 +16
4 Canada - Men 144 E +21
5 Colombia - Men 149 +5 +35
6 Puerto Rico - Men 149 +5 +41
7 El Salvador - Men 155 +11 +50
8 Ecuador - Men 150 +6 +51
9 Guatemala - Men 166 +22 +53
10 Trinidad and Tobago - Men 156 +12 +58
11 Peru - Men 159 +15 +63
12 Dominican Republic - Men 155 +11 +65
13 Uruguay - Men 160 +16 +72
14 Costa Rica - Men 160 +16 +96
15 Venezuela - Men 171 +27 +100

Women's Team Results ? Round 4

1 USA - Women 146 +2 +22
2 Canada - Women 149 +5 +46
3 Mexico - Women 145 +1 +49
4 Colombia - Women 158 +14 +61
5 Argentina - Women 163 +19 +65
6 Peru - Women 166 +22 +77
7 Trinidad and Tobago - Women 169 +25 +90
8 Puerto Rico - Women 158 +14 +94
9 Guatemala - Women 176 +32 +159
10 Dominican Republic - Women 193 +49 +202

Individual Men Results - Round 4

1 Alan Wagner Argentina 35 36 71 -1 -7
2 Jonathan Moore USA 33 37 70 -2 +2
T3 Andres Felipe Echavarria Botero Colombia 34 38 72 E +4
T3 Webb Simpson USA 35 36 71 -1 +4
5 Julian Valenciana Mexico 36 35 71 -1 +5
6 Graham Hill Canada 35 37 72 E +6
7 Yoshio Yamamoto Mexico 37 35 72 E +11
8 Rafael Campos Puerto Rico 39 37 76 +4 +13
9 Jos? Toledo Guatemala 38 41 79 +7 +14
10 Keven Fortin-Simard Canada 38 34 72 E +15
11 Luciano Dodda Argentina 35 42 77 +5 +17
12 Herbert Day El Salvador 40 37 77 +5 +23
13 Rafael Claux Peru 38 43 81 +9 +24
14 Juan Antonio Serrano Ecuador 36 37 73 +1 +25
15 Juan Felipe Aegerter Ecuador 39 38 77 +5 +26
T16 Pablo Carrere Uruguay 39 38 77 +5 +27
T16 Carlos Benjamin Arias Dominican Republic 37 38 75 +3 +27
T16 Robert Moore El Salvador 40 38 78 +6 +27
T19 Ben Martin Trinidad & Tobago 39 39 78 +6 +28
T19 Alfred Colon Puerto Rico 33 40 73 +1 +28
21 Carlos Baynes Trinidad & Tobago 38 40 78 +6 +30
22 Marcelo Rozo Rengifo Colombia 41 36 77 +5 +31
23 Francisco Santoni Dominican Republic 43 37 80 +8 +38
T24 Philip Reiser Peru 42 36 78 +6 +39
T24 Sebastian Fernandez Guatemala 44 43 87 +15 +39
26 Pablo Faget Uruguay 44 39 83 +11 +45
27 Manuel Jimenez Costa Rica 42 40 82 +10 +46
28 Pascual Andr?s Cicenia Venezuela 46 37 83 +11 +48
29 Antonio Bruna Jr. Costa Rica 38 40 78 +6 +50
30 Daniele Vittorio Cabriles Impera Venezuela 45 43 88 +16 +52

Individual Women Results - Round 4

1 Jennie Lee USA 35 35 70 -2 +10
2 Stacy Lewis USA 37 39 76 +4 +12
T3 Paola Moreno Perez Colombia 41 34 75 +3 +20
T3 Stephanie Sherlock Canada 37 42 79 +7 +20
5 Liliana Alvarez Mexico 37 33 70 -2 +23
T6 Diana Cantu Mexico 36 39 75 +3 +26
T6 Laura Matthews Canada 35 35 70 -2 +26
8 Kiara Hayashida Peru 42 37 79 +7 +28
9 Victoria Tanco Argentina 41 41 82 +10 +32
10 Agostina Parmigiani Argentina 38 43 81 +9 +33
11 Kyle Roig Puerto Rico 37 40 77 +5 +39
12 Maria Jos? Uribe Duran Colombia 46 37 83 +11 +41
13 Monifa Sealy Trinidad & Tobago 42 40 82 +10 +42
14 Martine de Gannes Trinidad & Tobago 49 38 87 +15 +48
15 Maria Salinas Peru 44 43 87 +15 +49
16 Patricia Garcia Puerto Rico 39 42 81 +9 +55
17 Anne Mette Brunn Dominican Republic 43 43 86 +14 +66
18 Mariana Rodas Guatemala 45 47 92 +20 +75
19 Maria Jos? Camey Guatemala 41 43 84 +12 +84
20 Alba Garcia Dominican Republic 56 51 107 +35 +136

Jennie Lee & USA Win Copa de las Americas

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