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  • Katie Burnett waves to spectators after sinking a putt Wednesday. Record-Eagleg/Keith King

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June 28, 2012

Record-setting debut for Burnett

She wins Michigan Women's Open by 10 strokes

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com

THOMPSONVILLE — While Katie Burnett is just beginning what looks to be a promising professional golf career, it'll be hard to top the dominance of her first pro start.

Burnett left Crystal Mountain Resort's Mountain Ridge course on Wednesday with the Michigan Women's Open title, a $5,500 check and at 11-under par, she set the all-time scoring record for the event.

Not to mention, she had already tied the women's course record on Monday at 6-under.

"It's pretty awesome," Burnett said. "I can't describe it yet, I don't know if it's hit me yet. But it gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum going into next week. I think I need it going in the U.S. Open."

Burnett, a Georgia native and recent South Carolina grad, entered the tournament as a tune-up for next week's U.S. Women's Open at Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin. She had a month off prior to the Michigan Women's Open.

"That's kind of what the whole tournament was for me," Burnett said. "Obviously I wanted to come up here and play well and win this event, but the majority of coming up here was to prepare myself and get ready for tournament play. After the practice round, I called my mom and said 'this is going to be a good tournament, because this is a good golf course.'"

Play began in the final round Wednesday with Burnett up six shots on Grosse Ile's Laura Bavaird. Burnett, though, birdied three of her first six holes to put it away. She finished 3-under for her final round.

"We kind of knew that we were all playing for second," Bavaird said. "She was pretty untouchable this tournament. (I was) very impressed. She's going to do great next week at the (U.S. Women's) Open. She's a great player, very consistent and very steady."

"I was maybe a little nervous on the first tee, but as soon as I hit my drive, it was probably one of the best drives I hit of the tournament," Burnett said. "It completely went away."

Bavaird finished 1-over for the day and 1-under for the tournament to hold on to second place — 10 shots back of Burnett.

"Second place is great," Bavaird said. "Coming into this tournament I was playing awful. I'm very pleased with it. I almost made a lot of putts. That could have been a little better, but it was a good finish."

After playing the majority of her round at even par, Bavaird dropped a shot on the 17th. That made things tighter in the race for second place.

"I started to get nervous," Bavaird said. "I saw Laura Kueny coming up the ranks. I battled her in high school and I know what she's capable of. There were a couple of good scores that were starting to make me nervous."

Kueny, the defending champion, shot the low round on Wednesday at 4-under. She finished at 1-over for the tournament after bouncing back from a 7-over first round

"It was a disappointing first round, but I had two solid rounds and moved up the leaderboard," Kueny said. "That was my goal after the first day when I was out of contention. I was playing for top five."

Kueny finished tied for fourth with Olivia Jordan-Higgins from the United Kingdom. It appeared the two would be tied for third, but Ashley Tait made a birdie on No. 18 to move into third place by herself.

Tait was the runner-up to Kueny last year.

While Burnett hails from Georgia, she has family on her dad's side from Central Lake. And now, she has a professional win under her belt.

"It's still golf," Burnett said of the difference between amateur and pro competition. "You've still got to tee off, get up-and-down, make a bunch of putts. It's the same game, you just get a check at the end."

That check should go a long ways.

"It helps a lot," Burnett said. "I don't have any sponsors yet, because I just got out of college and moved back home. It's been kind of a whirlwind getting a manager, agent, that kind of thing. But (the winner's check) is going to help out a lot."

DeWitt grad and current Michigan State golfer Liz Nagel was the low amateur at 5-over par. She shot even on Wednesday to finish in seventh place.

Traverse City's Hillary Urban, the lone local golfer in the field, shot 9-over on Wednesday to finish tied for 47th.

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