Country club champion becomes Cedar Rapids golf champion

Molly Altorfer used a little local knowledge to her advantage and won her first Women's City Amateur title Friday at Ellis Park Golf Course.

Altorfer built a two-stroke lead in Thursday's first round at Cedar Rapids Country Club, where she recently won the women's club championship. She followed that with a 3-over par 75 at Ellis, where she worked during her high school days in the mid-1990s.

“I play out of CRCC, so that was an advantage,” Altorfer said, “and I spent a lot of time out here before the course was redesigned (in 2002). But I haven't played an 18-hole round here since they redid the course.”

Altorfer said she hadn't played in the city am since 1996 or 1997. That was before she graduated from Cedar Rapids Washington and went off to Gustavus Adolphus College in Minneapolis. She and her husband, Derek, returned to the Cedar Rapids area in 2006.

“I hadn't played the city am the last couple of years because it is on a Thursday-Friday, but I decided to take a couple days off and play,” said Altorfer, who is the director of communications and marketing at Mount Mercy College. “It was worth the two days of vacation.”

Altorfer had two birdies and five bogeys in her final round. She won by four strokes over Megan Furnish and Peggy Garrett. Defending champion Julie Bush finished fourth, five shots back.

Furnish, a sophomore at Cedar Rapids Jefferson, tied for Friday's low round with Altorfer and nearly made it a men's-women's double for the J-Hawks. Jefferson Coach Steve Koepke won the men's city am last weekend.

“(Koepke) made me a much better player. He's a very good teacher and coach,” said Furnish, who was ineligible to play for the J-Hawks last spring as an open-enrolled student from the Kennedy district.

She was allowed to practice with the team. “He taught me about course management, how to hit better pitch and chip shots from around the green.”

Kathy Zamastil shot an 80 Friday and won the senior division by 12 strokes over Judy Blank. It was her second straight senior title and third overall.

“I'm finally getting old enough to get into a division I can handle,” joked Zamastil, who shot 39-41. “(Consistency) has not been the name of my game this year. It felt good to finally play well.”

Bonnie Jones aced the par-3 No. 14 hole using a 9-iron.

It was her second hole-in-one. She had one in November 2008 at the Heritage Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

There were 56 entries in the tournament, 36 in the open division and 20 in the senior division.

-- Mike Koolbeck