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Tournament founder, Mark Berman, presents the winner’s check to Jessica Provasmik.
On The Green Consulting is proud to have been a part of this unique and highly successful event, handling all of the tournament operations and logistics.
(Article and image courtesy of PXG Women’s Match Play Championship)
After a combined 224 holes, including the shortened 54-hole stroke play seeding event, and 188 grueling match-play holes, Jessica Porvasnik (Hinckley, OH) prevailed as the first champion of the inaugural PXG Women’s Match-Play Championship.
Having won the title for Stroke-Play at King & Bear and emerging as the top seed in the Match-Play event, Porvasnik dominated the Pod Play Points format, winning her group by eight points. She then showed why she was the number one seed and top player on the WAPT in 2021. Her consistent play, ability to make big putts and steely resolve just proved too much for her competition to handle.
That’s not to say it was easy. In the final match, Porvasnik ran into the quiet New Zealander, Julianne Alvarez, who was the 14th overall seed. Alvarez pulled off the first upset in the match-play bracket by defeating 2-seed Sofia Garcia, who will be playing in the December’s LPGA Q-Series Finals for a chance to play on golf’s biggest stage. Alvarez is no stranger to the big stage or match-play. The 2016 National Champion at the University of Washington has also won the New Zealand Amateur, both of which require match-play to win. Alvarez gave Porvasnik all she could handle, going to 20 holes to decide a winner. Alvarez got off to a quick start in the championship match, going 4-up through five holes. After that, Porvasnik started to battle back, and the battle raged on as the weather transformed from a relatively calm day to gusting winds and temperatures dropping into the high 50’s as the sun set at the World Golf Village’s Slammer & Squire Course.
Porvasnik’s slow start was nothing new for her. Earlier in the day, she had to battle back against one of the most experienced match-play players in the field, Finland’s Emily Pentilla. In that semifinal match, down three with nine holes to play, Porvasnik would go on to win six of the night’s eight holes, where Porvasnik closed out Pentilla on the 17th green with a 3-and-1 victory.
Down one on the 18th in the championship match, Porvasnik stuck her approach shot and made the routine par. Alvarez caught the lip on her 4-foot slider to close the match, and suddenly the Championship match was going to extra holes. Back to the tee on 18, this time it was Alvarez who buried the long putt to keep the match going. Over to the 165-yard par-3 13th at the Slammer & Squire course, they went for the second playoff hole.
It was there that Porvasnik put her tee shot right over the back left of the flag-stick to about 15 feet. Alvarez pushed her tee shot to about 20 feet from the stick on the opposite corner. Then, with two undulations to climb on the way to the hole, she left herself another 4-footer and marked. Porvasnik nearly birdied the hole, and Alvarez conceded the 6-incher for par.
It was all up to Alvarez. With four feet separating her from a third playoff hole and a darkening sky, she just burnt the edge, sealing an all-time comeback win for Porvasnik.
With her dad on the bag for all 188 match-play holes, Porvasnik pulled off the back-to-back victory and banked the $8,000 Champions’ check. With that, and her $5,000 from the week before, she became the first player in WAPT history to collect more than $40,000 during a calendar season—certainly a women’s developmental tour milestone. Alvarez earned $5,500 for second place.