2023 Richmond Women's City Amateur

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June 7, 2023

‘Older and Wiser’ Kitusky Leads Advance into Thursday’s City Amateur Semifinals

 

Kitusky, 62, earned a spot in the semifinal round of match play by surviving Wednesday’s round-of-eight roller-coaster ride against 16-year-old Grace Anne Haggerty, the youngest player in the field of 77. Kitusky captured a 3-and-1 victory by winning the last three holes on a warm, hazy afternoon. She will face another teenager, 19-year-old qualifying medalist Fei Rosebro, Thursday morning. The two are not strangers. They played together during Monday’s qualifying round.

 

“I’m ecstatic to have made it this far,” Kitusky said. “I’ll be honest: I came in with no expectations. “I think everyone expected the young kids to win – which is as it should be. All I really wanted to do was qualify for the championship flight. My goal every day has been to simply come out here and have fun.”

Such wasn’t always the case. Kitusky, a Dominion Club member who won the 2012 City Amateur championship at Jefferson-Lakeside (now The Lakeside Club), was once an intense competitor who never hesitated to push herself – physically or emotionally.

 

“Things change,” Kitusky said. “I’m older and wiser and I don’t get as hung up anymore” on the perceived importance of competitive golf. “I’ve seen too many things happen to family and friends and people I care about – things that tend to make you see golf in a different perspective.”

 

What Kitusky experienced Wednesday afternoon was some respects an ordeal. She led 4-up after six holes but then lost three in a row. Haggerty, a rising junior at Saint Catherine’s, pulled even with a solid par on the par-5 14th. The match was up for grabs at that point. Kitusky, who struggled for much of the day on The Lakeside Club’s slower-than-expected greens, did the grabbing. She won No. 15 with a tricky 12-foot par putt. She won No. 16 with a par created by a 35-foot putt that traveled from the fringe to the edge of the cup. She then closed out the match at the uphill 17th with a magnificent approach shot – a choked-down 7-iron from 117 yards – that died 16 inches from the flag.

 

Experience helped Kitusky maintain her equilibrium when her once-formidable lead disappeared.

 

“I said, ‘Hey – this is only the front 9,’” she said. “There was still a lot of golf left to be played. “I said, ‘Let’s just keep plugging along.’ Really, what else could I do?”

 

Kitusky is playing this week with an unwelcome companion: a tender left wrist that will require medical attention once the tournament concludes. She tapes the wrist and wears a copper-infused glove on her left hand. She said she took prescription-strength Ibuprofen, acquired in preparation for upcoming oral surgery, before today’s round.

“I figured, ‘Maybe it’ll help me make it through another day,’” she said.

 

Joining Kitusky in the semifinals will be Fei, a 4-and-3 winner over Joy Cimburke; 2022 finalist Liza Lewis, a 5-and-4 winner over Maria Humphrey and Helen Im, who defeated Brittany Woo on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Fei’s day’s work included an eagle on the 408-yard, par-5 14th hole.

 

Im, a Stonehenge member who won last year’s championship flight consolation title, said she, like Kitusky, arrived with minimal expectations. She said she was “shocked” to find herself awaiting a semifinal date with Lewis.

“I signed up very late,” she said. “In fact, I wasn’t even going to sign up at all.” She changed her mind, she said, when she received an e-mail from RWGA officials “telling us that they really needed more people to play this year.”