Don’t be fooled by Sadaly Campbell’s demeanor between golf shots.
“She’s an angel,” said Chloe Schiavone, Campbell’s playing partner in the final round of the First Coast Women’s Amateur.
But even Schiavone, a veteran of two college blue-blood programs and a two-time Florida Times-Union First Coast high school Player of the Year at Bolles, admitted that when Campbell is over the ball, she turns bulldog.
“My gosh, she finished,” Schiavone said of trying to chase down Campbell on the back nine of the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club on July 22. “She hammered it down, and I respect that. When she did make mistakes, she jumped right back.”
Campbell, a Fernandina Beach High graduate, fended off Schiavone when the two were tied twice on the back nine and made two clutch up-and-down pars on the final two holes to beat Schiavone by two shots at 1-over-par 217.
Campbell (73) is a rising sophomore at Florida Southeastern, where she was first-team All-Sun Conference. Schiavone (74) played at Notre Dame and Virginia and is now a golf influencer.
Stella Moritz of Ponte Vedra Beach (71, the low round on a windless and brutally hot day) finished solo third at 4-over after coming within one shot of the lead with birdies at Nos. 7 and 9. Brianna Castaldi of the University of North Florida (74) was 6-over and defending champion Nancy Cox of Ponte Vedra (79) dropped into a tie for fifth with Bradyn Smith of UNF (74) at 7-over after she entered the day tied with Campbell for the lead.
Campbell delivers another title to Nassau County
Campbell, the Times-Union First Coast Player of the Year in 2024 after becoming the first player from Nassau County to win a girls high school state title, is the first player from Nassau to win the First Coast Women’s Amateur since Christian Steffen — Campbell’s coach, who won in 1999 at the Ponce de Leon Course in St. Augustine.
“Good company,” Campbell said, gesturing to Steffen after the round.
Campbell said playing with Schiavone for the first time in the second round relaxed her for the run at the championship in the third round.
“She one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met … so fun to play with,” Campbell said. “I really enjoyed it.”
But when it came time to execute, Campbell left personalities in the golf cart.
Campbell’s birdie at No. 14 the key shot
Take, for example, Campbell’s response to a birdie-bogey swing at No. 11, when Schiavone took a daring line over a bunker to a pin cut on the left, leaving her a 6-foot putt that she rolled in. Campbell three-putted for bogey and the two were tied.
Campbell made workmanlike pars on the next two holes with two-putts from long distance, while Schiavone bogeyed the 13th, giving the lead back to Campbell.
Then came the par-5 14th, the turning point of the match.
Schiavone pounded a 3-wood from 212 yards out to within 10 feet of the hole. Campbell was short of the green and then caught her pitch thin, with the ball shooting 25 feet past the hole and halfway up a slope.
With the threat of a three-putt looming, Campbell deftly rolled in her birdie putt. Schiavone converted her eagle and the two were tied again, but Campbell dodged a huge bullet. Instead of a one-shot swing, it could easily have been two and perhaps three.
“If that ball didn’t hit the hole, it might have rolled off the green,” she said.
Schiavone said experience tells her to anticipate an opponent will do the extraordinary.
“When it ends up being a two-player race at that point, you always have to expect them to play well,” she said.
Campbell’s short game shined on final two holes
Campbell continued to play steady while Schiavone fell out of the tie with bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16, due to chip shots that came up short of the hole, leading to missed par-putt attempts.
Campbell then showed her resolve on the last two holes. She misclubbed and hit her tee shot at the par-3 17th hole into the front bunker, but hit a nifty sand shot to within 2 feet for par, putting aside the memory of making bogey the day before from that bunker.
Schiavone left a 20-foot birdie attempt in the heart, just a roll or two away.
Both players hit the fairway on the 18th hole. Campbell missed her second shot long and left, and Schiavone scraped hers onto the front of the green, leaving a 60-foot birdie attempt.
Schiavone, needing to be aggressive for the birdie-bogey swing that was her only hope of a playoff, sent her birdie attempt 8 feet past the hole. Campbell, pitching to a downslope, left the ball just inside of Schiavone.
Schiavone made her par putt, but Campbell, requiring only a two-putt at that point, converted her par on a putt slightly left-to-right, with the ball sliding into the hole on the right side.
U.S. Senior Amateur champion wins
Dawn Woodard of Greenville, S.C., the reigning U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, shot 74 and rolled to a nine-shot victory over Wendi Christensen (75) in the Senior Division at 3-over 219. Therese Quinn of Jacksonville (77), Mary Jane Hiestand (81) and Kim Keyer-Scott (75) tied for third.
Jeri Roche, a Jacksonville Golf and Country Club member, won the Super Senior Division (158) by two shots over Kim Bruce of Fleming Island
Deb Caruso, also playing on her home course (159 for 36 holes), won the Super Senior Field Divison by six shots over Helen Short of Ponte Vedra Beach.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sadaly Campbell ‘hammered down’ First Coast Women’s Amateur title
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
