Dominant day at the King & Bear: Elizabeth Kondal cruises to record eight-shot victory in First Coast Women's Amateur

Elizabeth Kondal's approach shot at the par-4 12th hole at the King & Bear on Thursday might have been her toughest of the day.

She had 135 yards to a front-left hole placement, over water, with a swirling wind that alternated between dead into her face or off her left shoulder. She carries her 7-iron 140 yards but couldn't bring herself to hit a 6-iron and risk a long downhill putt.

"It was a really hard shot," said the Bartram Trail graduate and rising sophomore at Rollins College. "I committed to the club and visualized it."

The outcome might have been better than any scenario she played out in her head.

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The ball pierced the crosswind, went over the water and fell like a soft drop of rain 10 feet below the hole. Kondal drilled the putt in for her fourth birdie of the day that all but locked up the First Coast Women's Amateur championship.

Kondal went on to post a 69 and at 5-under-par 139, winning the tournament by a tournament-record eight shots over 18-hole co-leader Sarah Scott (77), a University of North Florida senior.

Kondal became the fourth Times-Union girls First Coast player of the year to win the FCWA in six years.

On a stiflingly hot day, the next-best scores in the amateur division were 73s posted by 13-year-old Sofia Rivera, who will begin attending Beachside High School in August, and Braelyn Pippin of Waxhaw, N.C., who will be a sophomore at Carson-Newman.

Rivera moved from a tie for 11th after the first round to solo third at 6-over 150 and Pippin sprinted from a tie for 20th to a tie for seventh with Madison Balaskiewicz (79), a rising Bolles junior at 10-over.

In between were rising Providence junior Emma Wells (78) and rising Daytona Seabreeze junior Amelia Cobb (76) in a tie for fifth at 8-over.

Tama Caldabaugh of Ponte Vedra Beach birdied three of her last five holes for a 70 to win the FCWA senior division for the fourth time at even-par 144, one shot over Susie Keane of Orlando. Mary Helen McElreath of Ponte Vedra (84) won the super-senior division at 15-over 159.

For a long-time St. Johns County resident who has played the King & Bear frequently — and has come to regard it as one of her favorite courses — Kondal said it was a sweet victory on a sultry summer day.

"It's crazy when I think of it," she said. "I live near here, I love this course and it feels really good to win this tournament."

And it was a bit more validation for Kondal, who has been on a roll since mid-spring at Rollins, especially in regards to her iron play.

"Those are the kind of shots I've been hitting," she said of the approach at No. 12. "I'm feeling very good about where I am right now."

Kondal began her freshman year at Rollins by finishing outside the top-15 in four of her first five starts. But beginning with a tie for third in Flagler College's World Golf Invitational at the nearby Slammer & Squire, Kondal finished 25th or better in four of her last six starts, with two top-10s.

She highlighted the season with a tie for eighth at the Sunshine State Conference tournament.

"She has a lot of goals in golf but when she came home for the winter break, one of them was to improve her irons," said Monique Gesualdi, Kondal's swing coach. "She's taking a lot of stress out of her game by hitting, 13, 14 greens every round. You're not putting a lot of pressure on your short game when you do that and she's worked very hard at it. She's very driven."

Kondal broke away from Scott early, rattling off three birdies in a row at Nos. 2, 3 and 4. She capped the run with an 18-footer at No. 4, drained her birdie at the 12th, and then played the rest of her round at 1-over, with her lone bogey of the day coming at No. 15.

Scott, from Merritt Island, bogeyed her first two holes and fell behind by five shots through four. She rallied with birdies at Nos. 4 and 5 and bounced back from a double-bogey at the 10th by making a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 12.

But she played her final six holes at 3-over and Kondal wasn't going to help her.

Caldabaugh began her round at No. 10 and was 1-over for the day and 3-over for the tournament, two shots behind Keane when she came to the par-5 fifth hole.

She hit the green in three shots and knocked in a 4-foot birdie putt, then drained a 40-footer for birdie at the par-3 sixth hole. Caldabaugh hit driver at the narrow par-4 ninth, split the fairway and hit a 50-degree wedge one pace from the hole.

She brushed the putt to win the senior division for the fourth time in six years. First-round leader Danielle Davis of St. Simons Island, Ga. (76) was third at 3-over and defending FCWA senior champion Kim Keyer-Scott (75) of Estero and 2016 senior champion Sarah Phillips-Durst (76) of Pinehurst, N.C., tied for fourth at 5-over.

First Coast Women’s Amateur 

At King & Bear 

Amateur division 

Elizabeth Kondal 70-60--139  

Sarah Scott 70-77--147 

Sofia Rivera 77-73--150  

Wyndom Burnett 76-75--151  

Emma Wells 74-78--152 

Amelia Cobb 76-76--152  

Madison Balaskiewicz 75-79--154  

Braelyn Pippin 81-73--154  

Madelyn Campbell 75-81--156 

Sloane Siebert 75-81--156 

Marissa Cardenas 77-79--156  

Lisa Colee 81-77--156  

Mackenzie McCormack 79-77--156 

Nancy Cox 80-77--157  

Kenzie Heba 72-85--157  

Maddie Rathjen 79-79--158  

Jenna Fonda 76-83--159 

Emily Tillo 82-77--159  

Grace Richards 78-83--161  

Kylie Turner 77-85--162 

Amanda Gerrish 79-83--162 

Danielle Dailey 80-83--163 

Hannah Stevens 82-83--165 

Ralienne Nacional 84-81--165  

Meaghan Gulliksen 81-85--166 

Meaghan Gulliksen 81-85--166  

Annabelle Mozingo 87-79--166  

Gabriela Shortridge 83-84--167 

Jody Clark 83-86--169 

Ashley Huffman 87-83--170  

Elena Denny 85-89--174 

Alexandra Drum 87-87--174  

Addy Vogt 89-87--176  

Madison Melton 88-89--177 

Sophia Cavanaugh 107-92--199 

Senior division 

Tama Caldabaugh 74-70--144  

Susie Keane 74-71--145  

Danielle Davis 71-76--147 

Sarah Phillips-Durst 73-76--149 

Lin Culver 78-71--149  

Kim Keyer-Scott 74-75--149  

Therese Quinn 72-78--150 

Kim Bruce 83-78--161  

Christine Hunt 77-85--162  

Jennifer Hawkins 77-85--162  

Jeri Roche 81-81--162  

Shauna Snyder 78-85--163 

Debbie Caruso 83-88--171 

Karen Fisher 87-87--174 

Jane Rollinson 90-88--178  

Lora Fioretti 92-91--183  

Renee Alter 88-97--185 

Jennifer Eckensberger 93-92--185 

Xiaolin Tian Jones 96-89--185 

Janette Eddy 97-101--198 

Super-senior division 

Mary Helen McElreath 75-84--159 

Claudeen Lindberg 79-86--165 

Shan Giordano 84-83--167 

Lori Collins 88-80--168  

Fran Clinkscales 90-81--171  

Dot Peck 90-83--173  

Helen Short 87-87--174 

Carol Williams 84-94--178 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Elizabeth Kondal rolls to record eight-shot victory in First Coast Women's Amateur