Jordan Levitt wins 61st Connecticut Women's Amateur

It's a hot and hazy day here at Torrington Country Club for round three of the 61st Connecticut Women's Amateur. Through the front nine, day one and day two leader Maddie Chang holds onto the lead with Jordan Leavitt and Zora Williams trailing closely behind. By hole 12, Zora ties the lead but Jordan sweeps under their feet after hole 13, now a stroke ahead of Maddie and Zora. With the three so close, Jordan has a costly lip out on 14 and Zora bogeys 15, putting Chang back in the lead with the others on her tail. Leavitt sinks the par put on 16. An unfortunate par lip out for Chang gives her a bogey and just one hole ahead, Zora falls behind with a double bogey, leaving Leavitt and Chang tied once again for the lead. It all comes down to the wire. Jordan pars 17. Maddie makes a double bogey. Jordan enters the final hole two shots ahead of her competitors. Moving ahead to the 18th green, Leavitt is at the back of the green line four after an out-of-bounds shot over the road. Tensions are high on the green as they know the champion title is at stake. Jordan sinks her putt for double bogey, but after her two-stroke lead, Maddie's bogey still left her trailing one stroke behind, making Jordan the 61st Connecticut Women's Amateur Champion and granting her an exemption into the U.S. Women's Amateur. It means like everything. I'm so happy. Last year, I qualified for the AM through a one-day qualifier at Bandon, and I didn't play as well as I wanted to, so the minute I left that site, I was like, I gotta get back to the AM this year. Like, that is my goal. It wasn't a nervous thing. I shanked it. Like, shanks happen, and I shanked the ball. I think that's the second ball I've ever shanked in a competition in my life, so I kind of just looked at my caddy and laughed a little bit, and we were like, oh, well, okay, and then, you know, the mindset going into it was like, okay, we kind of know the road's OB, so let's drop another one, hit the best shot we can, and I just hit my wedge just a little bit too hard, and if you've played this golf course, you know that the 18th green is just a little bit delightful in that speed. It was definitely a bit of a chain of events on the 18th hole, but happy to come out on top. I came out swinging. I birdied one. I was pretty happy about that. I put myself in a good place on two, left the putt just short. I was hitting good shots. You can't make a birdie off the tee. Put yourself in a position to make birdie off the tee, but you can't, you know, hit in the hole, make a birdie off the tee, so we were really just taking it shot by shot, hole by hole, and I was just really trying to play golf, and, you know, the chips fell where they fell, and I'm very excited. I think I made some big putts, like on 17, where, you know, that par really counted. To win the Connecticut Amateur is, you know, it's beyond words. I'm so thrilled to be the amateur champion.