Friends face off in Women’s State Am
- Updated: June 23, 2016
Gregoria defeats BFF Mayfield, then falls in second round; Dyar, Thompson also split two matches
By East Alabama Sports Today
JASPER – Jordan Gregoria called it the hardest thing she ever had to do on the golf course. She had to play her best friend in a serious match.
Gregoria faced off against former Alexandria and soon-to-be Snead State teammate Morgan Mayfield in an opening-round match of their flight in the 84th Alabama Women’s Amateur at Musgrove Country Club Thursday.
Gregoria won the match 5 and 4, but then lost her second-round match in the Championship First Flight to Ashley Crane of Pike Road, 5 and 4. Mayfield lost her consolation match to former White Plains golfer Raegan Thompson, 5 and 4.
Both friends called the experience of playing each other “weird,” moreso since they were playing match play for the first time in their careers. Playing a stranger it’s easy to call out your opponent on a rules infraction or make them putt an otherwise gimme; it’s a little more off-putting when you’re playing a friend.
“It was probably the most terrible thing I’ve had to do,” Gregoria said. “We had never played match play before and when we found out how it was we thought it’d be fun — until we found out we were playing each other. It was weird. It was odd. It felt like we were set up.”
The BFFs rode in same cart together, hit virtually every shot tee to green next to each other and, after the day’s matches concluded, retired to one of Mayfield’s relatives on Smith Lake for a night of relaxation.
They plan to move to Snead in mid-August and play their first tournament again as teammates in September. Gregoria went to Jacksonville State last year, Mayfield to Gadsden State.
“Last night we were sitting there talking about what if we get to play together and we were like it’s not going to happen,” Mayfield said. “Then this morning we found out we were and once we found out how match play actually was, it was awkward. Normally when we play together we never had to be serious and today we had to be serious; it was weird. I wanted her to win and she wanted me to win; it just can’t happen like that.”
Gregoria, the flight’s sixth seed, took a big lead early in the match, winning each of the first three holes, but Mayfield won the last three holes on the front to square the match at the turn. Gregoria then won the first five holes on the back – all 4s to all 5s – to win the match.
“I was excited when we were even,” Gregoria said. “I was excited because now we were square. I think at one point on the last nine when I was up two or three holes I said, ‘Morgan, win this hole so we can keep playing.’”
Two other Calhoun County women played in the Championship First Flight.
Two-time county girls champion Layne Dyar, a JSU signee, defeated Stephenie Fowler of Tuscaloosa 3 and 1, then lost to recent UAB grad Holly Robinson 2 and 1.
Raegan Thompson, Dyar’s teammate on White Plains’ first girls state championship team in 2015, lost her first match to Crane, 2 up, then defeated Mayfield. She will play Nancy Schlich of Auburn Friday in the flight consolation semifinals.
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