Adriana Eaton, Olivia Williams Set for RI Women’s Am Title Match
Adriana Eaton and Olivia Williams will square off in the Rhode Island Women’s Amateur final on Saturday morning at Kirkbrae Country Club.
Eaton is coming off an emotional win over sister Kylie to advance to the title match, while Williams beat Brooke Brennan in the other semi-final.
“It feels good. I came into the tournament hoping to obviously make it to the finals. Just play my best and today I think I was even par, which got it done,” said the younger Eaton after the round.
The fact that the semi-final win came over her sister made it special, but, as she says, “not ideal.”’
“It’s definitely not ideal. Like playing my sister, I would not want, especially in the semi, maybe in the finals. But that is just how Rhode Island Golf is going to go and how the future is going to go for us, so we better get used to it at a younger age,” said Eaton.
Saturday’s match with Williams will be a rematch of last week’s Junior-Amateur semi-final.
“It’s a rematch from the Junior-Am, we both didn’t play our best in the Junior-Am, so I think, just keeping it so I don’t fall so far behind,” said Eaton after the round.
Williams beat Eaton in the semi-finals of last week’s Junior-Amateur and then went on to win the tournament.
Eaton will hope to flip that result on Saturday at her home course, Kirkbrae.
“I think it is definitely an advantage. I haven’t played here that much this summer, but I think through this week I have gotten a feel for the greens, and I think just getting another round under my belt is good.”
Saturday’s final will tee off at 7:30 a.m.
Battle of Eatons
The sisters traded one-up leads on the front side, with Kylie getting it started with a birdie on the first hole after nearly driving the green.
Adriana then bounced back by winning the next two holes to take her first one-up lead.
Kylie tied it on the sixth hole with a 15 foot birdie putt, Adriana took the lead on eight, before Kylie tied it on nine.
Kylie took a one-up lead on the tenth hole, birding the dog-leg left par-4 for the second straight day.
“I told myself going into today, whether I’m up or I’m down, just stay calm. Because going one-down and then getting all frazzled isn’t going to help. After ten, she hit that amazing shot and then made the putt. I couldn’t do anything about that after it was done, so just bouncing back from it,” said Eaton.
Adriana won the next three holes to go two up through 13.
She proceeds to par the 11th hole and birdie the 12th hole and par the 13th.
Both players halved the 14th hole, but Adriana went three-up on 15.
She closed it out on 17.
Williams Advances
Brooke Brennan won the third hole with a par to go one-up.
She would maintain the one-up lead until Williams tied up the match on the eighth hole and won the ninth hole to take the lead heading into the back nine.
The defending Junior-Amateur Champ won the tenth hole to go two up, before Brennan got one back on the 11th.
Williams would take the 12th hole, but Brennan would again get one back on the 14th.
Williams own 15 and 16 to close out the match.