Adriana Eaton Wins Rhode Island Girls Junior Amateur
Adriana Eaton added to her remarkable junior career on Friday morning by winning the Rhode Island Junior Amateur at Pawtucket Country Club.
Eaton beat Claire McTaggart 4&3 to claim her first RI Junior Am title.
“It feels great. It was a great match out there. Claire played really good, she made basically every putt so she forced me to play my best and yea, I’m really happy right now,” said Eaton after the round.
With this victory, Eaton adds to her already impressive junior resume.
She won three High School State Championships in four years, back-to-back World Series of Junior Golf titles and numerous other Challenge Cup Championships.
“I kind of just live in the moment. I’ll appreciate this win for a little bit and then I have the Northern Junior early next week and so I’ll focus on that, but it is definitely nice,” added Eaton when asked about all she has accomplished.
Eaton still has some junior events left, such as the Northern Junior, as she mentioned, but for the most part, her Rhode Island Junior career is over.
“I was thinking last night and again today that this is probably my last RIGA Junior event. I have a few more junior events to finish off my summer but I’m happy I was able to finish off with a win,” said Eaton.
At the end of the summer, Eaton will take a gap year to work on her game at IMG Academy in Florida before heading to school.
McTaggart is off to Providence College this fall where she will be a member of the Women’s golf team.
Championship Match
The match started off as a back and forth affair, with McTaggart winning the first hole, Eaton tying the match on the second hole, McTaggart going back up one on the third hole and then Eaton tying the match again on the fourth hole.
“Yea, I think I started off a little bit slow. I mean nobody likes to start with a three-putt on the first hole to lose, but I was able to get it back with a birdie on the second hole, she drained a long putt o the third hole. So we kind of just went back and forth and then we had a lot of pars,” said Eaton.
The match would be tied through nine holes, before Eaton seemingly flipped a switch on the back nine.
“On the back I was just saying ‘on the front I didn’t have many birdies so I was like hopefully they will come. I think I had two, I finished hole 15 with a birdie so it was nice that birdies and pars started to come,” said Eaton.
Eaton won the 10th hole, and 11th hole to take a two up lead.
After halving the 12th hole, Eaton won the 13th hole to go three-up and then close it out with a birdie on the par-3 15th hole after sticking her tee shot just a few feet from the pin.