EAST PROVIDENCE — The last seven Rhode Island Golf Association Women’s Amateur champions have been first-time winners. The last five have been high school or college players.
With what happened on Monday at Wannamoisset Country Club, both streaks could end this week.
Former champ Alexis Florio took down medalist honors, former champ Emily Brooks was right behind her and defending champ Olivia Williams and former champ Val Blinn — the “veteran” of the group — round out the top four seeds for match play, which begins on Tuesday morning.
Monday was an interesting morning of golf at Wannamoisset. Here’s what stood out during the stroke-play portion of the RI Women’s Amateur.
Florio is ready to compete
The former Cranston West All-Stater and 2020 champ is on to a new stage of her golf career.
After a successful career at Columbia and a grad season at Indiana University in 2023, Florio started her career as a paralegal in Boston.
After not competing in the Amateur last summer, Florio was very much looking forward to this opportunity as she tries to find a work-life balance that includes playing a high level of golf.
“Feeling like a competitor again is what’s fun to me,” Florio said. “Not just coming to see how it goes, but playing with the intention of still trying to compete even though my relationship with golf is a bit different these days.”
Golf used to be something she did seven days a week. Now Florio tries to play weekends, getting to the range maybe once or twice a week to keep her game sharp.
“It’s a gift, so my whole mindset is I don’t want the gift I was given and the gift I’ve worked at the past 10 years to get dusty,” Florio said. “I need to keep at it.”
Florio had a roller-coaster ride of a round on Monday morning. She opened birdie-eagle-birdie and followed with three bogeys and a double before making her first par. Florio closed the front with a birdie for a wild even-par front nine.
Things calmed down on the back, with bogeys on Nos. 10 and 17, but birdies on No. 14 and 16 kept her even and earned medalist honors.
“I know there are holes out there where you have to be defensive or just respect them,” Florio said. “It’s a long week. I just wanted to see how well I could play in the stroke play and then take inventory for match play.”
Florio will next play No. 16 Martha Clancy. Her goal is to have fun and compete, but there’s also a little more to it.
“I want to make the most of my time off [of work] and have a long week here,” Florio said. “This is my only tournament of the summer, so I want to make the most of it.”
Brooks looking to go out with a bang
In 2021, Brooks made quite an impact in her return to amateur golf, winning the State Amateur at Wanumetonomy, her home course. She followed with quarterfinal appearances each of the last two years and was more than ready to make a run for the title this year.
“I play in this just to test myself every year,” Brooks said. “Some years it’s better than others. Really, it’s just having run, taking it shot-by-shot and seeing how far I can go.”
Brooks — who, at the ripe old age of 30 is one of the tourney’s “elder stateswomen: — was on the same roller coaster Florio was on at the start. Brooks opened her round with a bogey before rattling off back-to-back birdies, but followed with another bogey. She made two more bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7, but an eagle on the par-5 ninth got her to even at the turn.
One over through five on the back, Brooks had two bogeys in the final four holes but a birdie on No. 16 helped get her to 2-over for the day and earn the No. 2 seed.
“My goal was to just get my feet wet again and get back into tournament golf and helpfully put a good round on,” Brooks said. “From here on out, it’s just survive and advance.”
Brooks opens up match play against No. 15 Nancy Mendelsohn, with a potential matchup against 2017 champ Addy Douglas in the quarterfinals. Brooks knows you can’t worry about a future matchup until you play the first, so she was clear about her intent for the rest of the week.
With a move to Nashville in her immediate future, this also may be her last chance to achieve it.
“I wouldn’t sign up for it if I didn’t want to win it,” Brooks said. “I think we’re all out here trying to win, trying to play well and anything can happen in match play. So we’ll just stay with it and see what happens.”
Blinn anything but average
After the way she played on Monday, Blinn didn’t need to say much. Her hat said it all.
In an event dominated by youth, Blinn’s name was atop the leaderboard most of the morning. Wearing a hat that read “Average Sucks,” Blinn was anything but. Her game was steady and while she couldn’t convert as many birdies as she wanted to, an eagle on No. 2 helped offset a bogey three holes earlier before a triple-bogey on No. 14 — a birdie hole — spoiled a terrific round.
“I want…
