Dick, East team win junior battle

By DAVE THEALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000

June Countryside High School graduate Amanda Dick helped the East team win last week's Canon Cup.

The annual three-day event is a major junior match against 10 of the best girls and boys from the West. The competition, staged by the American Junior Golf Association, was at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan., and consisted of a Ryder Cup format.

Dick, 18, won her final singles match Thursday by a 3 and 2 margin over Kate Waggoner of Littleton, Colo., contributing to the East's 27-23 victory.

On the second day in a foursome match with Tampa's Mallory Code, 15, Dick helped defeat the West's Hwanhee Lee and Hana Kim of California, 1 up, for another vital point.

Code's older sister, Whitney, finished undefeated in four tournament matches.

Mike Barbosa of St. Petersburg was the fourth local player in the tourney.

On Day 2 he teamed with Bradenton's Chan Wongluehiet in a foursome match. They halved with Nico Bollini and Steve Conway of California to earn a half point.

Barbosa and Dick teamed up on Day 1 in a foursome, losing 2 and 1 against Waggoner and Brian O'Flaherty of California.

In the tournament's format, foursome matches involved each team member teeing off on alternate holes and alternating shots until they holed out.

"We should have won that match," said Dick, who will enroll at the University of Florida on Saturday. "But we really didn't play that well, and they were very lucky.

"Mike has a good short game and is a good putter," she said.

Dick said the tournament will remain memorable -- from the bag pipes during the opening ceremonies to the final day when her East team finally won.

The teams played in uniforms, having been given three sets, complete with red shirts for the East and blue for the West.

"The whole tournament was great," Dick said. "The course played long for girls at 5,941 yards for a par-70 course. I was able to play my game, hitting the fairways and the greens in regulation.

"In my match teamed with Mallory, we complemented each other because she has a great short game and can get up and down from anywhere.

"We were 3 up after the first five holes but slowly saw that erode by the 15th, when they evened the match," Dick said. "But we won 16 and halved the last two to win the match. Our games are pretty compatible."

Dick said she and her singles opponent, Waggoner, were up and down all day until Dick won 15 and 16 with pars to go 3 up with two to play.

As she prepares for the rigors of competing for a place on the Gators team, Dick will work on her length off the tee and putting.

Three solid veterans return to the lineup, leaving spots for two more players.

Dick, who says she hasn't been putting that well this summer, has worked with teaching pros Earl Maurer at Countryside Country Club, Matt Mitchell of Countryside Learning Center and John Falcone at Dunedin Country Club.

Ron Dick, Amanda's father, led her to the sport at age 5 but never pushed her. She enjoyed it then, but didn't take lessons until she was 12. She said she's never been obsessed with the game.

Dick played four years on the Countryside High soccer team -- while maintaining a 3.60 grade-point average -- and for the Clearwater Lightning club in the off-season.

"Amanda just needs some fine tuning," her father said. "She learns techniques quickly. And she's not going to burn out.

"I sometimes wonder about some of these young phenoms and whether they can maintain the momentum they've built up," he said.

Other juniors: Pinellas Park's Brittany Lincicome, 14, won the girls' 16-18 age division of a Greater Tampa Junior Golf Association match at East Lake Woodlands on Friday.

She shot a 3-over 75 to beat Megan Riley of Largo by 8 strokes.

Mike McDonald of Odessa won the boys' 16-18 division with a 78.

Lincicome entered the Tampa event with a big AJGA win at the Westin Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead course. She put together rounds of 73-74-72 for a 219 and three-stroke margin over Nikki Hadd of Crestview.

Women's state championship: Mary Ann Petrillo of Tierra Verde teamed with Jackie Currier of Plant City, winning the low net honors at the sixth Florida Women's Golf Association Four-Ball Championship.

They shot 65-61-126 at Mission Inn at Howey-In-The-Hills.

Sisi Hedges of Mulberry and Tammy Bowman-Wilmot of Orlando won overall with a 36-hole total of 136 -- one stroke better than Terrell Italiano of Tampa and Suzy Strock of Jacksonville Beach.

County golf association: At the CGA's first Match Play Championship, Tom Parsley of St. Petersburg defeated John Lisenbee of Seminole, 3 and 2, at Seminole Lake.

They were playing in the 10-and-under handicap division.

The 11-and-over finals, scheduled for Aug. 24, will be between Steve Lippincott of St. Petersburg and Jack Clark of Belleair.

The CGA has arranged a match at the Innisbrook's Lost Oaks course on Aug. 31. To sign up, call the CGA, 577-4515.

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