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Sports

Pearson Claims Women's Open with Final-Round 68

Wheaton resident Jenna Pearson fired third-round 68 at Mistwood Golf Course in Romeoville to win her second Open championship.

Jenna Pearson had impeccable timing in authoring the low round of the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open on Friday afternoon.

The Wheaton native, who had an outstanding prep career at Wheaton Warrenville South before playing four years at the University of South Carolina, shot a 4-under par 68 at Mistwood Golf Course in Romeoville to overcome a five-shot deficit in claiming the second state title of her career.

Second-round leader Kris Yoo, a junior at Wisconsin, saw her four-shot lead evaporate  on the eighth hole with a quadruple-bogey nine.

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Pearson, 25, playing two groups behind Yoo and Allison Finney, seized her opportunity.

“When I made the turn (going to the back nine) I was in third place,” Pearson said.

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“I knew in the back of my mind that we let everybody back in the tournament,” said Finney, who trailed Yoo by a stoke entering the final round.

Pearson had three birdies on her opening 11 holes get back to level par for the tournament.

The 2006 champion had her lone blemish on the par-4 12th hole, and Pearson maintained her momentum with consecutive pars, including back-to-back up-and-downs on Nos. 15 and 16.

Pearson certainly saved her defining moments of the 54-hole tournament for the final two holes.

The 17th hole was playing at 152 yards, and its tucked pin in the  back left was at the base of an intimidating bow.

“There was a front ridge and side ridge that funneled right to the hole,” Pearson said. “I knew if I had  enough club, it was going to be an easy birdie.”

Sure enough, Pearson struck a never-off-line 6-iron that finished five feet from the cup.

With her subsequent conversion, Pearson was the lone player in the field at even par. University of Illinois sophomore Ember Schuldt was her closest pursuer at plus-one.

“I was able to par out,” Schuldt said of her closing stretch. “I wish I would have able to birdie or two.” Schuldt was in the clubhouse as the leader at one-over par 217 when Pearson arrived at the 18th hole.

Pearson had her seemingly perfect drive bound right into the rough of the par-5 closing hole. “I had a 190 (yards) in (over a water hazard),” Pearson said.

Linda Pearson, Jenna’s mother, was serving as her caddie. The normally aggressive younger Pearson pondered going for the green in two.

“(My mom said), ‘I’m not letting you pull that 3-wood,’” Pearson said.

“I would have had to hit a (left-to-right) cut to get it around the tree.”
Instead of bring the hazard into play, Pearson punched out to an ideal distance--60 yards.

Pearson, who plays on both the Futures Tour and Canadian Ladies Tour, sealed the victory by hitting her approach to within a foot. “It was definitely the kind of birdie putt I like,” Pearson said. Pearson was the lone player in the 31-player final cut to in finish red numbers with her cumulative 215 total.

Schuldt earned low-amateur status with her 217 runner-up showing; Finney was third alone with her 2-over 218 finish.

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