The Limerick Summary: 2014 SymetraTour Championship

Winner: Marita Engzelius

Around the wider world of golf: Mi Jung Hur won the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic; Jiyai Shin won the Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic on the JLGPA (the Constructivist has details); Connie Chen won the Tenerife Open de Espana Femenino on the LET; Joost Luiten won the ISPS Handa Wales Open on the ET; Derek Fathauer won the Web.com Tour Championship; and Paul Goydos won the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship on the Champions Tour.



Whenever the PGA Tour doesn't play, I have the option of doing a Limerick Summary for one of the other events going on. (Since it's my blog I suppose I have that option every week, but you know how habits can be.) And this week I had a lot of possibilities.

Did you know that this week's Wales Open was the final time it will be played on the ET? They had a real shootout going down to the wire, with 8 or 9 guys within a shot or two of the lead most of the final round.

Stacy Lewis started the day 4 shots behind M.J. Hur at the LPGA event, shot -6... and didn't gain a single shot. Hur not only got her first LPGA win in 5 years, but set a new tournament record doing it.

And of course, we had all the drama at the Web.com Tour Championship. In case you wonder, 3 players got full exemptions to the Big Tour -- Derek Fathauer and Adam Hadwin got the ones with the PLAYERS invite, and Carlos Ortiz had already gotten the field promotion for winning 3 times last season.

But in the end I decided to give the Symetra Tour gals a little love. Their event ended in a 3-way playoff that vaulted an unexpected player into the Top10 who got Tour cards. Here's a list of the 10 lucky ladies -- and yes, I know there's only 9 in the above photo. I think #7 Yueer Cindy Feng is the missing face:

1. Marisa Steen (also won Player of the Year)
2. Min Seo Kwak
3. Jackie Stoelting
4. Sadena Parks
5. Min Lee
6. Wei-Ling Hsu
7. Yueer Cindy Feng
8. Kendall Dye
9. Demi Runas
10. Mallory Blackwelder

Demi Runas was one of the 3 in the playoff (she started the week at #15 on the money list), along with Jackie Stoelting (#7 to start) and Marita Engzelius (sitting way back at #54). Engzelius, a Norwegian player who idolizes Suzann Pettersen, eagled the first playoff hole to get her first Symetra Tour win... and a trip straight to the Final Stage of Q-School, which greatly increases her chances of getting a Tour card that way. Here's her after-round interview:



If you'd like to check out some of the things that went on after the round, you can check out Twitter's #VolvikRace page here. (That's where the photo's from, btw.) Since Gary Williams from Morning Drive was there, I assume Morning Drive plans to do some after-the-fact coverage today.

You can also check the official Symetra Tour Twitter page here. That's where you'll find the video of all 9 card winners doing a cannonball to celebrate! (It's also on their YouTube channel. The above video can link you there.)

As for Marita Engzelius herself, I have (drumroll please!) her very own Limerick Summary. She might be the only Symetra Tour player to get one while she is actually still on the Tour -- I can't remember if I've ever done another one -- and I'm sure she's the only one to get a Limerick Summary featuring Norse mythology. (She is Norwegian, after all.)

Marita Engzelius got a shock
When she won the playoff. Her golfing stock
Shot up like a rocket—
The cash in her pocket
Means she’s off to Finals, not Ragnarok!

Good luck to all the Volvik Race to the Card winners... and to Marita and her friends as they prepare for Q-School!