Wrigley tops field again

It was shortly after walking off the ninth green at Esmeralda Golf Course on Thursday that Beth Wrigley recalled an old saying she once heard about playing tournament golf:

“Sometimes you don’t need to play your best. You just need to play better than everyone else.”

It turned out to be a comforting thought.

Wrigley certainly needed some comfort at that point of her final round in the 60th Spokane Area Women’s Golf Association’s championship tournament.

The part-time registered nurse and women’s golf coach at Whitworth University had just scuffed it around Esmeralda’s relatively simple 329-yard, par-4 ninth in seven messy strokes, giving a couple of her closest contenders a sliver of hope that the three-time defending champion – who opened play in the third day of the 54-hole tournament with a 10-stroke lead – might be coming back to the rest of the field.

But Wrigley, despite seeming a little rattled by her ninth-hole meltdown and making bogies on the first three holes of the back nine, played her final six holes 1 under par and cruised to a comfortable 12-stroke victory that put her name alongside those of Connie Guthrie and Lisette Carter as the only golfers to win Spokane’s most prestigious women’s golf event four years in a row.

“I definitely had some rough patches out there,” Wrigley said, after posting a final-round score of 8-over-par 80 that gave her a 54-hole total of 237 in the three rounds played over Spokane Country Club, Sun Dance Golf Course and Esmeralda. “I was a little worried after that front nine, but I was happy with the way I was able to recover.”

Still, no one in the 116-player field did much damage to Wrigley’s commanding lead. Susan Hedequist, playing out of Spokane Country Club, started the final round in second place – 10 strokes behind Wrigley – and kept her spot by closing with an 82 that gave her a 54-hole total of 249 that was good enough to earn her the top net score overall.

Chewelah’s Denise Smith, who was 12 strokes behind Wrigley and tied for third heading into final-round play, closed with an 83 and finished alone in third at 252.

Smith, after making the turn in 40 and watching Wrigley, who plays out of Indian Canyon Golf Course, make her seven on the ninth hole, said she momentarily felt like she might make the title chase a bit more interesting.

“But I messed up a couple of little putts that would have really helped, and after that I was playing for second,” she said.

Wrigley, after birdying the par-4 13th by rolling in a 16-foot putt from above the hole, made routine two-putt pars on the final five holes to continue her SAWGA dominance.

When asked if she planned to defend her title next year in an effort to become the first player to win the title five consecutive years, she said, “Sure. I’ll keep coming back until they kick me out.

“But I know that eventually, somebody younger and better will show up.”