WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Huntsville Golf Club captured a weather-shortened 34th Women’s Coal Scuttle Championship at Wyoming Valley Country Club (par 73, 5,107 yards) Thursday.
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Heavy rains created unplayable course conditions. GAP officials suspended play at 1:30 p.m. before shortening the event to nine holes. Huntsville posted 45 points to prevail. Barbara Pagana (16), Kasey Saraka (15) Danielle Dalessandro (14) and Bernadette McHugh (10) represented the team.
Wyoming Valley finished second with 44 points. Its own Molly Gorman earned individual medalist honors with 20 points.
The low three of four scores count toward the team total.
“I don’t think we go out thinking it’s going to end in nine holes, so you better put your best nine forward. We’re trying to play every hole,” Dalessandro, 31, of Philadelphia, Pa., said.
“I thought it really started pouring after No. 9,” Pagana, 77, of Selinsgrove, Pa., said. “I was ahead [of Saraka, Dalessandro and McHugh] and thought, ‘This isn’t going to work.’”
Pagana cleared No. 13 (par 3, 121 yards) when the horn sounded. Dalessandro, playing in the day’s last group, just completed No. 9 (par 5, 329 yards).
“I tried to get at least one point on every hole, and anything more than that was great. You don’t need to be a hero in this format,” Dalessandro, a four-time (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024) Women’s Coal Scuttle medalist, said. “I X’d [No. 8], which was super unfortunate. It was a great shot that got a bad bounce.” Dalessandro’s drive on No. 8 hit the cart path and breached the out-of-bounds stakes.
Once the nine-hole results calibrated, Saraka turned out to be the Huntsville hero. Her birdie on No. 9 proved to be the difference. She executed a 30-yard pitch to 10 feet.
“Luckily, the greens were slower because they were punched recently, and the water [from the rain] helped,” Saraka, 37, of Shavertown, Pa., said. “It was a grind. I started with a double bogey, then came back with a par, then another double. Then I seemed to settle in, string a few holes together and get some points for the team.”
Huntsville now holds eight Women’s Coal Scuttle titles, its last coming in 2024.
“We’ve had a pretty stable group for six or seven years,” McHugh, 63, of Forty Fort, Pa., said.
“This means everything,” Pagana added. “We’re excited.”
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 140,000 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.
