July 19, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Georgetown University rising senior golfer Chelsea Curtis (Mashpee, Mass./Cape Cod Academy) advanced to the finals of the North & South Amateur Championship after posting a 5 & 4 win over Cindy LaCrosse on Saturday afternoon at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in North Carolina.

The North & South Amateur Championship will be held on Sunday, July 20. Curtis will face 19-year-old Australian Kristie Smith, who posted a 3 & 2 win over Furman's Blair Lamb.

Curtis played steady all day against LaCrosse, a recent graduate of Louisville, to win today's match 5&4.

Curtis only needed two birdies in the round - on the 5th and 13th - to foil LaCrosse's inconsistent play throughout the morning. Lacrosse began the day with bogeys on the 1st and 6th, a birdie on the 7th, bogey on the 8th and birdie on the 9th to take the match to 2-up, Curtis at the turn.

Lacrosse fell behind with back-to-back bogeys to Curtis' pars on the 10th and 11th to take the match to 4-up, Curtis.

Lacrosse would miss a five-footer for birdie on the 13th, leaving Curtis a 12-footer for birdie to go 5-up. Each would card pars on the 14th to halve the hole and close the match at 5&4.

Curtis, who was named The Boston Globe's High School Player of the Year in 2005, posted three top-five finishes this season, highlighted by a second place finish at the Princeton Invitational, and led the Hoyas with a 76.82 stroke average.

Sunday's 36-hole match begins at 7:30 am on Pinehurst No. 2. Spectators are welcome.

Pinehurst Resort has hosted the United Women's North and South Amateur Championship since its inception in 1903. One of the longest consecutive running amateur championships in the country for women, it continues to draw a strong field of career amateurs and collegians alike. Among its many champions are Morgan Pressel, Carol Semple Thompson, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Peggy Kirk Bell.