Virginia Golfer Nov / Dec 2018 | Page 21

C all 2018 a year of re-energization for Lauren Greenlief. For the second straight year, Greenlief won the VSGA Women’s Amateur Champion- ship. That victory at Farmington Country Club portended great things. Later in the summer, Greenlief made another splash on the national stage. The 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion made her sixth appearance in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, made match play for the first time and didn’t stop there. The 28-year-old Greenlief made the deepest run of any mid-amateur in the last decade, reaching the quarterfinals in Tennessee before dropping a hard-fought 2-and-1 match to Lauren Stephenson. “I think we just want to play,” she said. “We want to represent the mid-ams well and prove that after college, you can still play golf. There are a bunch of really solid mid-am players that we see at these tournaments. It’s really awesome to see many of them out here.” Greenlief has bigger goals in mind for 2019. She hopes to go even deeper in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. If she plays well enough, she could merit consideration for the U.S. Curtis Cup squad in 2020, a dream of hers for years. Everything is on the table as Greenlief continues to play excellent golf well beyond her college years. VSGA WOMEN’S GOLFER OF THE YEAR 2018 HIGHLIGHTS Lauren Greenlief » Defeated Amanda Hollandsworth to win the 93rd VSGA Women’s Amateur Championship at Farmington Country Club. HOME CLUB: International Country Club » Finished No. 1 in the VSGA Women’s Player Rankings. “We want to represent the mid-ams well and prove that after college, you can still play golf.” » Reached the quarterfinals at both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championships. » Teamed with Shabril Derco to win the VSGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship, Greenlief’s third straight win in the event. » Qualified for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship (with Katie Miller), with her side posting an 8-under 64 at the Country Club of Petersburg. —Greenlief vsga.org N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 18 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R 19