4th Women’s Middle-Amateur/Senior Championship

Yardley’s Ortiz, Cricket’s Regan take titles

ELVERSON, Pa.— The 4th Women’s Middle-Amateur/Senior Championship turned long-time competitors into GAP champions at French Creek Golf Club Wednesday.

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Kristina Ortiz of Yardley Country Club took the title in the Mid.-Am. division (par 70, 5,207 yards) after outlasting DuPont Country Club’s Lauren Klick on the first sudden-death playoff hole (No. 16 (par 5, 450 yards)). The pair finished regulation at 3-over-par 73.

“[Winning] feels good two ways,” Ortiz, 27, of Yardley, Pa., said. “One, it feels good that my game is still in good shape, [and two] I’m grateful that I still get to play golf.” 

The GAP Women’s Mid.-Am./Senior was Ortiz’s first loop around French Creek. 

“The golf course was tough, I was a little disappointed finishing bogey, bogey, bogey, but I felt like I hit the ball well,” Ortiz said. “Overall, I’m pretty happy with how I played today.”

Solid golf was the theme for Ortiz during regulation. She circled birdies on Nos. 3 (par 3, 122 yards) and 9 (par 4, 275 yards). On the former, she hit a 9-iron to 12 feet. On the latter, she hit a pitching wedge from 110-yards to six feet. 

On No. 16, the first playoff hole, Ortiz was left with 208 yards after her tee shot. She then laced a 4-hybrid onto the green that settled 60-feet away from the hole. Klick’s second shot, a 5-iron from 185 yards, unfortunately found the deep rough right of the green. Ortiz three-putted for a par. Klick, unable to escape the rough on her first attempt, made a bogey, six.

“As I was getting my clubs back out of my car and putting my shoes on, I thought about what Rory’s [Mcllroy] caddie (Harry Diamond) said to him when he went in the playoff at the Masters,” Ortiz said. 

In media coverage for the Masters, Diamond was quoted as saying “You would have given your right arm to be in a playoff at the start of the week.” 

While it was Ortiz’s sporting mentality that delivered her the win Wednesday. She’s exuded a competitive golf aura for most of her life. 

Ortiz grew up in Guaynabo, P.R. During her childhood, she played golf on the Puerto Rico Junior National Development team. From there, she earned a scholarship to study international business in the states at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. where she played from 2015-2019.

“I always say the golf community is small, but the Latin American golf community is even smaller,” Ortiz said. “Being fortunate to have represented Puerto Rico growing up has been a very cool experience.”

Post college, Ortiz has competed in two U.S. Mid-Ams and a U.S. Four-Ball. She proudly represents her home club in the WGAP Team Matches, and has also been selected to play on the WGAP Griscom Cup team on two occasions. 

“I’m lucky that I have a job where I’m busy most of the time during the academic year, but in the summer, the load kind of lightens and I get to play golf quite a bit,” Ortiz said. 

Now that school’s out, she’s booked for a summer of golf. Another U.S. Mid.-Am. Qualifier is circled in red on her calendar. 

In the Senior division (par 70, 4,882 yards) Melana Regan of the Philadelphia Cricket Club prevailed with a 9-over-par 79.

Her win means so much more after recovering from a knee replacement in March 2024. 

“All season I worked really hard to get myself back in shape,” Regan, 54, of Wyndmoor, Pa., said. “I’m really excited about it.” 

Regan converted seven pars in her opening nine. She remained steady coming in, and even grabbed a birdie on No. 15 (par 4, 204 yards) after her 3-wood from the tee settled in the fairway 10-yards short of the hole. Leaning on knowledge learned on trip to England last year, she putted the ball to a foot and cleaned up the shortie. 

“I was putting really well. I made some good second putts,” Regan, who works in product development for Independence Blue Cross, said. “The greens were really hard, I had a handful of three putts, but I read them relatively well.” 

Competitive golf courses through Regan’s veins. She is a third-generation member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, and has captured club championships on 12 occasions within the last two decades.

In 2021, she captured the WGAP Tournament of Champions, and has contributed her talents to Cricket’s WGAP Team since she was in her 20s. This year, her team won the Suburban Cup, a division within the WGAP Team Matches. 

“We have a really great women’s program. Lots of people to play with of all abilities,” Regan said. You’re never short of finding someone to play golf with, especially from a female perspective.” 

Prior to the 2025 GAP tournament season, GAP’s Women’s Committee revisited the format of the GAP Women’s Championship. At the inception of the event in 2022, the overall, amateur, middle-amateur (ages 25-49) and senior (ages 50 and over) competitions were conducted concurrently across 18 holes of stroke play at a single host site.

Beginning in 2025, the middle-amateur and senior competitions kept this same format. The BMW GAP Women’s Championship, now expanded from an 18-hole event to a 54-hole event to comply with World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) eligibility standards, is now exclusively an amateur competition. This year’s edition will take place July 29-30 at Wilmington Country Club (North/South).

GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The organization’s 345 Member Clubs and 110,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.