Katie Miller (left) and Amber Marsh Elliott study the No. 9 (par 5, 503 yards) green.

*Scorecards

Marsh Elliott, Miller top U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Qualifier

  LITITZ, Pa. — Katie Miller originally tabbed former University of North Carolina teammate and fellow alum Sydney Crane as her teammate for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. Professional obligations, however, prevented a partnership, so Miller turned to Crane’s aunt, Amber Marsh Elliott.

  She made the right choice. Miller and Marsh Elliot carded a 5-under-par 66 to earn medalist honors in a qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia at Bent Creek Country Club (par 71, 5,863 yards) Monday. The team of Connie Isler and Shelley Sanders secured the second qualifying spot with a 1-under-par 70.

  The inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship will take place May 9-13, 2015 at Bandon Dunes Resort in Bandon, Ore.

  “Sydney was kind of busy with her career and traveling,” Miller, 29, of Jeannette, Pa., said. “She admitted to me that she hadn’t touched a golf club in a really long time, so I decided to strategically keep it in the family without putting everyone at war.”

  “Oddly enough, she told her that she should try to partner with me. Sydney was in full support,” Marsh Elliott, 45, of Greensboro, N.C., added.

  Crane’s suggestion held credence, family biases aside. Marsh Elliot won the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2003. Miller, too, brought national championship experience to Monday’s collective effort. She advanced to the Round of 16 in this year’s Mid-Amateur and competed in a pair of U.S. Women’s Amateurs (2006-07).

  “We just kind of helped each other out at the right time today,” Miller said. “On a couple of our birdies, the other person was already in the hole for par. That was kind of nice, freeing each other up a little bit.”

  “For me, I got in trouble quite a bit on the back and Katie was real steady in making pars. We partnered well,” Marsh Elliot, a breast cancer survivor, said.

  Back-to-back birdies foreshadowed the duo’s Bandon bound status. Miller split the No. 1 (par 4, 387 yards) fairway with a booming drive and drilled a 9-iron 117 yards to 15 feet. Marsh Elliot followed suit, stopping a 24-degree hybrid at seven feet on the par 3, 169-yard No. 2. Both players dropped mid-range birdie putts on No. 7 (par 4, 383 yards) following respective wedge shots from 50 yards. A bogey on No. 4 (par 4, 370 yards) marked the team’s lone blemish heading out.

  Both Marsh Elliot and Miller cite a par on No. 10 (par 4, 368 yards) as a round saver. With Marsh Elliot out of the hole after sending her approach into the hazard, Miller executed a 15-footer for 4.

  “It’s a par on the scorecard, but it’s OK,” Miller, the 2007 Pennsylvania State Women’s Golf Association Amateur Champion, said. “For every good round you have, you always have one of those holes where you say, ‘Phew. I got out of it.’”

  Her playing partner’s thanks came in the form of a birdie on the next hole (par 4, 342 yards). Marsh Elliot hit a wedge 95 yards to three feet. Miller stopped a 20-degree hybrid at 10 feet for a 2 on the par 3, 191-yard 15th hole. To cap the their medalist performance, Marsh Elliot sent an 8-iron 125 yards to five feet for a fist-bumping, hug-inducing birdie on No. 18 (par 5, 483 yards).

  “I’m thrilled,” Marsh Elliott, a Sedgefield Country Club member, said. “Bandon Dunes is a place I’ve always wanted to visit.”

  “It’s special to play in any USGA event,” Miller, who plays out of Ligonier Country Club, added.

  Marsh Elliot, a former assistant golf coach at UNC, recruited Miller, but left prior to her arrival to start a family. The two stayed in touch and remained friends. Now Marsh Elliot and Miller will share news of their U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball status with Crane.

  “Maybe she’ll come out and caddie for us,” Marsh Elliot said. “She’ll be our biggest fan.”   Isler, 30, and Sanders, 44, will join Marsh Elliot and Miller at Bandon Dunes. The two met at Army Navy Country Club three years ago and became friends.

  “Connie’s been my mentor for awhile because she inspired me to try and qualify for the Mid-Amateur,” Sanders, of Fairfax, Va., said. “She qualified, I didn’t. But we said, ‘Hey, let’s try the new event.’”

  “We hammed and egged it pretty well today,” Isler, of Arlington, Va., added.

  A pair of back nine birdies courtesy of Isler facilitated a subpar finish. She snarled a 7-iron 132 yards to 10 feet on No. 11. Isler, who works for IBM, nearly jarred a 58-degree wedge from 50 yards on the par 4, 227-yard 17th hole. Lengthy two-putt pars on Nos. 14 (par 4, 389 yards) and 16 (par 4, 384 yards) from Sanders, an active duty officer in the U.S. Army, also proved critical.

  The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball will consist of 64 two-player teams, each playing their own ball throughout the round. Each team’s score will be determined using their better-ball score for each hole. After 36 holes of stroke-play competition, the field will be reduced to the low 32 teams for the match-play portion of the championship.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
  Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 150 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.