Former Glasgow High School standout Abbie Lee overcame the heat and a challenging field to win the 96th Kentucky Women’s State Amateur golf tournament at the University Club of Kentucky on Wednesday.
Lee, a rising senior at Middle Tennessee State University, closed out the three-day event by winning a semifinal and championship match on the final day in Lexington.
Stroke-play qualifying narrowed a field of 37 golfers to 16 for the match-play portion. Lee entered match play as the No. 11 seed but defeated No. 6 Elizabeth Eberle 2-and-1 and No. 14 Macie Brown 4-and-3 on her way to the semifinals. There, Lee knocked off No. 7 Taryn Walker, the 2005 Women’s Am champion, 2-and-1. Eberle is a rising sophomore at Stetson from Madison Central. Brown is a rising sophomore at Vanderbilt from Bullitt East. Walker, like Lee, played at Glasgow and Middle Tennessee.
The championship match pitted Lee against No. 5 seed Nina McMurtrey, Lee’s former high school teammate at Glasgow who now golfs for Western Kentucky University.
Lee captured the title with a birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 1-up victory.
Lee was runner-up in last year’s tournament to Bellarmine’s Alaina Schmitt.
McMurtrey advanced to the final match by beating University of Kentucky golfer Maria Lopez Echevarria 1-up.
