Top 4th and 5th Stories of 2021
All Top 10 Stories of 2021 By: Tom Lang
No. 5
Valentina Rossi of MSU Reached USGA Women’s Amateur Semifinals
Accomplishment came back-to-back following MSU teammate doing the same
Valentina Rossi of Argentina, pulled off an incredible feat by reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur the summer of 2021, making her the second consecutive Spartan to reach that national plateau. The fact two Spartans went back-to-back adds to this being ranked the No. 5 story in Michigan this year.
The summer prior in 2020, Valery Plata, of Colombia, was the first MSU woman ever to do so. Not many colleges in America can say they’ve had a golfer reach the final four of the nation’s top woman’s amateur tournament in consecutive years.
Plata provided a lot of wisdom for Rossi about the national amateur, which the latter transferred into stellar play with incredible putting and an infectious smile radiating across the TV screen all week, even after a few misses.
"Valery being in the semifinals last year (2020) gave me a feeling that I could do it, too," Rossi said during tournament week this summer. "It was great to practice with her the first day we were out here. We talked a lot while we were here, and it helped me.”
Rossi finished the 2021 two-round stroke play portion of the event tied for 12th place. Plata tied for 29th, also advancing to match play. But it was Rossi’s turn to reach the final four, where she succumbed to Yu-Chiang Hou of Arizona by a score of 2 down. Along the way, Rossi beat players from Stanford, Michigan, Mississippi State and University of Texas San Antonio.
“The U.S. Amateur was very important way to end my summer,” Rossi said at the time. “More than 1,000 girls tried for the U.S. Amateur. So, this tournament is really hard. To be exempt for the next two years is really important, and Valery is exempt for next year too.”
Results like these can only help MSU’s recruiting and national prominence as a top school in the northern climate of the U.S., something head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll is trying to infuse into current players a well.
“As much as we’ve watched (this team) play and we know what they’re capable of, at any one time, all these kids are capable of doing what the two of them have done,” the head coach said. “I think now it’s just more ammunition for the other players to say, ‘oh my gosh, Valery did this,’ that’s one thing. Then ‘oh my gosh, Valentina did it. Okay, it’s my turn.’”
Just recently on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Plata won the inaugural 54-hole Women’s Amateur Latin America Championship by two strokes, helped along by a birdie on 12 and eagle on the 13th holes. The victory earns Plata exemptions into two of the LPGA’s five majors in women's golf next year: the AIG Women´s Open and The Amundi Evian Championship. Teammate Rossi finished third in the event with players from 16 countries.
No. 4
National Runner Up for Michigan’s Jerry Gunthorpe
Jerry Gunthorpe never trailed the entire final round of the U.S. Senior Amateur played at Country Club of Detroit – until the very last stroke.
The Lansing Everett grad, Ovid resident and Owosso County Club member reached the finals of the USGA national championship for golfers aged 55 and above by earning a No. 9 seed in stroke play at 3-under par, before winning five rounds of matches for the right to take on eventual champion Gene Elliott of West Des Monies, Iowa – who won the 18th hole to win the match 1-up.
It was the only time all day Elliott led the match. Both players won four holes apiece until Elliott got the fifth win on the par 4 18th hole.
“Maybe a little nerves there, where I couldn't get the putter to release,” Gunthorpe said of his two missed par putts on 17 and 18, his only two bogeys of the match.
Gunthorpe won the second hole and from then on was either 1-up or tied with Elliott. The match was 1-up at the turn before the two players exchanged numerous wins back and forth. Gunthorpe was 1-up after 16 holes, but Elliott took the final two holes for his first ever national championship.
Elliott has played in 36 USGA events, compared to just a few for Gunthorpe. Elliott has been one of the most accomplished amateur golfers in the post-World War II era not to have won a national championship, until 2021.
Gunthorpe chose the career route of running his business, Gunthorpe Plumbing and Heating in East Lansing, after playing golf at Lansing Community College and meeting his wife there. His biggest win prior is the Horton Smith Invitational at the Detroit Golf Club in 2004. He also got through the first phase of the PGA Tour Champions qualifying school in 2012 to prove to himself he could do it, but never wanted the grind of pro Tour golf.
“I really haven’t tried too many USGA events,” Gunthorpe said. “I (spent my time) raising my kids, playing golf with them, did all that stuff. This was secondary to me, the competition side.
“I’m okay with that and I’m enjoying what I’m doing.”
As runner up in the national finals, Gunthorpe received a silver medal, an exemption into the next three U.S. Senior Amateur Championships, an exemption into the 2022 U.S. Senior Open Championship, an exemption into the 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship (at Sankaty Head Golf Club in Siasconset, Mass.) and an exemption into the 2022 U.S. Amateur Championship (at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.)
“I'll never forget this week for sure,” he said in early September. “It's the highlight of my career. I've played a lot of tournaments. Nothing that is of this grandeur thus far, and I guess that alone is a pretty good thing to look back on.
“We’re going to see what is all possible and my first focus will be the U.S. Senior Open. I look forward to preparing for that, hopefully getting good practice rounds in and seeing how I do in that competition.”
Last winter Gunthorpe traveled south and played in three Golfweek senior tournaments and plans to do the same again this winter as well as take advantage of a few national invites as U.S. Senior Am runner-up.
