Nashville’s Setas Remains Alive With Pair Of U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Wins

It is unlikely that any other golfer competing in the 37^th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship is built to withstand the pressure-cooker of adversity quite like Jacqueline Setas.

The Nashville resident has faced far more daunting obstacles in her 28 years than tackling the challenging Brae Burn Country club in West Newton, Mass. This is child’s play compared to being blind-sided by the sobering diagnosis of cancer that she encountered seven years ago while competing at Michigan State University.

Setas missed her senior season with the Spartans while undergoing six months of chemotherapy followed by 15 consecutive days of radiation for Stage II Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She was declared cancer-free in 2018, and was able to rejoin her teammates to compete in one tournament during her redshirt senior campaign.

Making her fourth appearance in this event and earning the No. 1 seed as co-medalist, Setas had to rely upon her past lessons of perseverance in Tuesday’s Round of 16 match against former Middle Tennessee State University standout Taryn Walker.

Finding herself 3-down with six holes left, Setas demonstrated that same steely resolve that enabled her to overcome her cancer. She won four of those remaining holes, clinching the 1-up victory by draining a 17-foot birdie putt on 18 to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals round. It was her second win of the day that was decided on the final hole, an uphill 360-yard par 4.

Setas clawed back into the match with a birdie at 13 and a winning par on 14 to trim the deficit to one. She then evened the match on the par-3 17^th with a clutch par while Walker bogeyed the hole.

With the match all-square, Setas completed her comeback with her birdie on the final hole.

“In the second match, I was always behind and trying to chase,” said Setas. “I told myself I just need to make it to 18. I just kept plugging along. To make it even to 15 and 16 after being 3 down, I was happy to keep going and keep chasing.”

The crushing defeat prevented Walker from advancing to the quarterfinals for the second straight year, but she does earn an automatic exemption into next year’s tournament with her finish in the top 16.

Walker, a member of MTSU’s Athletic Hall of Fame from her dominant career from 2005-08 with the Blue Raiders, seemed to have the match under control most of the afternoon. She took advantage of a double bogey from Setas to win the 2^nd hole with a bogey, then went 2-up on the following hole with a winning par.

Another bogey by Setas at No. 8 gave Walker a 3-up lead, but the East Lansing, Mich. native rallied to win her first hole with a birdie on 9, making the turn 2-down.

Walker, who regained her amateur status two years ago after playing professionally for several years, seemed to steady the ship with a par to win 11 and regain her 3-up advantage. But Setas’ unflinching determination in rallying was the next chapter in her life story of overcoming long odds.

In her earlier Round of 32 contest, Setas managed to secure a 1-up win with a par at 18 against Krystal Quihuis of Pinehurst, N.C. to advance.

In an evenly contested match, neither golfer was able to forge a lead greater than 1-up throughout the round. Birdies by Setas on 5 and 7 were offset by Quihuis capturing wins at 6 and 8, leaving the match all-square at the turn.

The 32^nd-seeded Quihuis took her only lead with an eagle on the par-5 10^th hole, but Setas squared the match on 13 with a birdie. Another birdie by Setas on 15 gave the East Lansing, Mich. native the advantage, only to have Quihuis bring the match back even with a par on 16.

After both golfers tied at 17 with bogeys, Setas was able to secure the win with her clutch 12-footer for par on the last.

Setas is employed as a Performance Media Senior Consultant with Allstate in Nashville, and also serves as the varsity head golf coach at Harpeth Hall School. It is the second time she has made it to the Quarterfinals, making it this far in 2022 and making it into match play in each of her other appearances.

One of Setas’ volunteer coaches at Harpeth Hall, Valeria Mendizabal, was not as fortunate in her Round of 16 match. After taking a 2-up lead through three holes against Czechia’s Hana Rysksova, the former Mississippi State University golfer eventually was eliminated by a 4 and 2 count.

Mendizabal saw Ryskova win three straight holes on the front side to take a 1-up lead, and that margin remained intact heading to the 14^th hole. But the 6^th-seeded Ryskova sealed the match by winning with a birdie on 14 and with pars on 15 and 16.

With three-time former U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Sarah LeBrun Ingram of Nashville serving as her caddie, Mendizabal continued her impressive run as a 54-seed by eliminating 22^nd-seeded Taylor Ledwein of New Prague, Minn. in her first match of the day, 5 and 4.

The native of Guatemala, who now works at a financial advisory firm in Nashville, lost only one hole during the round and carded an impressive total of 3-under par through the 14 holes needed to complete the match.

Mendizabal went 4-up after seven holes, increasing that advantage to 5-up with her fourth birdie of the day at 12. Pars on the next two holes earned her a split, closing out the victory on No. 14.

In Walker’s earlier match, she used a streak of winning five straight holes to open her back nine in downing Thailand’s Ket Preamchuen Vanderpool, 6 and 4.

The resident of Prospect, Ky. made the turn with a 1-up lead, then compiled a stretch of three consecutive pars followed by a pair of birdies to put away Vanderpool after 14 to save some energy for her afternoon match.

Clarksville’s Hanley Long was eliminated in her Round of 32 contest on Tuesday morning. The match with Alexandra Vilatte Farret of France remained even through the first five holes, but a double-bogey on 6 and a bogey on 7 put the former MTSU golfer in a 2-down hole. After losing at 10 with another bogey, Long managed to cut Farret’s lead back to 2-up by winning the next hole.

But the 15th-seeded Farret claimed three of the next four holes for the win, sealing the 4 and 3 victory with a par on 15 as Long endured a double bogey.

Setas will take on 8^th-seeded Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va. – the 2015 champion - in Wednesday’s 7:30 a.m. quarterfinal match. The Semifinals will take place in the afternoon, setting the stage for Thursday’s championship final.

For complete results and live scoring, go to U.S. Women's Mid-Am results

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com