Cretella & Weddell Win 49th Mixed Pinehurst
Last summer, Brittany Weddell of Spring Meadow tied for third in the NJSGA Women’s Public Links Championship.
On Tuesday, June 9, Weddell was part of a championship on her 24thbirthday and she and George Cretella of Due Process Stable combined for a two-over-par 73 to win the 49th NJSGA Mixed Pinehurst Championship by four strokes at Beacon Hill Country Club in Atlantic Highlands.The event is sponsored by TSP Capital Management of Summit, N.J.
Weddell, a former co-captain of the Rutgers women’s golf team, now works as a pro shop assistant at Due Process with hopes of obtaining an LPGA teaching certificate. She is a native of Bourne, Mass., which is located on Cape Cod.
Weddell and Cretella outlasted Owen Ruhnke and Maura Ballard of Raritan Valley (77), her former coach at Rutgers, who took second place on a match of cards over Kathy Foos and Rob Wolf of Greenacres.
The net division went to Blaise Duffy and Kate Platt (67) of Montclair on a match of cards over Debbie and Rich Bohny of Beacon Hill. Third place went to Kathy Finno and Nick Grossman of Picatinny (69, m.o.c.).
In the senior division, Donna and Jim McHugh of Upper Montclair (78) won the gross division with Kaaron Ross and Gerald Batt (85-16-69) of Greenacres taking the net title.
“This feels amazing. It’s great to play in tournaments. I love to compete. It’s good to know my skills are still there,” she said.
Weddell plans on again playing in the Women’s Public Links, this year scheduled for July 9 at Knob Hill in Manalapan. She is also considering the Women’s Amateur, August 3-6 at Bedens Brook in Skillman.
Weddell and Cretella played in last year’s Mixed Pinehurst and were well out of the mix with an 85.
“We just came into this with a fresh start. It was a new course. Everything was different than last year,” said Weddell, who was paired with Ballard and Ruhnke at Beacon Hill.
A bogey run on Weddell and Cretella’s back nine, from holes 10 through 14 nearly ousted the duo from contention. The pair, which started on Hole 3, then birdied holes 16, 17 and 18 to get back into it. On Par-3 No. 18, Weddell lofted a seven iron within two feet of the hole. On the team’s final hole, the par-4 second, Weddell sank a 20-foot birdie putt that hung on the lip before falling in.
“After the 14th hole, we had to get off the bogey train,” she said. “We knew we still had a chance and wanted to keep it together. If I was chipping well, he was putting well. It came together at the end. We had to get over that huge hump.”
Weddell’s career at Rutgers included an individual victory at the Hartford Invitational her sophomore year. She shot 71 on the final day of her senior year, at the Big East Championship.
“I don’t play as much as I used to. It seems I can still go out and get back into it when I can,” she said.
