Creston native golfs for Iowa in national team event

SANTA FE, N.M. — Creston native Leanne (Owens) Smith of Norwalk was part of the Iowa team that placed 19th among 48 teams in the 12th and final USGA Women’s State Team Championship held Sept. 26-28.

Smith, a former Iowa State University golfer and former head women’s golf coach at Drake University, qualified to be a member of the Iowa team on a point system. She placed second at the Iowa State Amateur tournament this year, and her ranking was enhanced by other performances in IGA events such as the finish by her Echo Valley Country Club team in state team play competition.

Smith is a two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur contestant (2001, 2004) and was Des Moines women’s city champion twice (2002, 2004). This year, Smith shot 77-77-74 in placing second at the Iowa State Amateur at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston.

The winner of that tournament, 15-year-old Britta Snyder of Gilbert, joined Smith on the Iowa team in New Mexico. The third member was Jenny Heinz of Cedar Falls.

Smith, 36, said she had connections to both teammates.

“This was the first one I was able to play in, and it was so much fun!” Smith said. “Britta Snyder is such a good young player. She’s already been recruited by Baylor. Her mom’s sister is Jay Horton, who was the men’s coach at Iowa State when I was there. Jenny Heinz and I played during the same years in state junior tournaments. She was from Waterloo and played at UNI when I played at Iowa State.”

Snyder finished in the top 20 individually by shooting 79-72-71 — 222 on the 6,267-yard course that played to a par of 72 on The Club at Las Campanas Sunrise Course.

Heinz shot 76-80-84 — 240 for the 54 holes and Smith shot 86-79-80 — 245. The best two scores from each team counted toward the team’s total play on each day.

Round two was rain-suspended and when play resumed, Iowa had moved into the field of 21 teams that made the cut for the final day of competition whittled down from the original 48 teams.

Team Iowa then ended up 19th shooting 155-151-151 for a 25-over par total of 457. Tennessee won the event with a total score of 1-under par 431.

Collegiate players aren’t eligible, so Smith said the teams were made up of a combination of outstanding high school players and older adults.

The USGA’s State Team championships began in 1995 as part of the association’s centennial celebration. They were conducted on a biennial basis until 2010, when the men and women began alternating years.

After a two-year review process with state and regional golf associations, it was announced in March that the USGA would retire its State Team Championships at the end of the 2017 season.

“They started the Four-Ball Tournament and Senior Women’s Open and I think they just decided to move in a different direction,” Smith said.

She said it was fun playing on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course played in a challenging setting at 7,000 feet altitude.

“I was so glad I got to play in one before it ended. Before, with coaching and everything it just didn’t work out,” said Smith, coach at Drake until June 2015 and the mother of three children ages 4, 7 and 9.

“We were really happy to qualify for the final round,” Smith said. “We were right on the line of making the cut and had to wait until they resumed playing the next morning to find out if we made it.”

Two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Julia Potter, 29, of Indianapolis, Indiana, shot 6-under 210 to claim the individual medal. Potter shot 2-under 70 in all three rounds.