Bowers wins fourth straight state senior golf amateur

GALESBURG — Jan Bowers became just the second golfer in the 51-year history of the Illinois State Senior Women’s Amateur Championship to win four straight championships on Thursday at Soangetaha Country Club.

Bowers, of Lincoln, finished the three-round tournament with a 1-over-par 75 to beat Hui Chong Dofflemyer 229-231. It is the fifth championship for Bowers, all coming in a six-year span. She tied Mahomet’s Mary Jones for the most consecutive titles. Jones won four straight from 1977-80.

She finished 7-over-par in her 54-hole round. Bowers went 73-81-75.

Mary Ellen Martin, of Winfield, finished fourth with a 246, two strokes behind Mo Sheehan, of Grayslake. Martin is the only other golfer to win the title since Bowers won her first in 2015. Martin took home the 2016 championship.

Two Galesburg golfers — Cheri Hosteng and Gail Hannam — finished fifth and sixth, 248 and 252, respectively.

Bowers led all three days of the tournament. She opened Thursday’s play with just a one-stroke lead over Dofflemyer and doubled that edge over the final 18 holes.

Three different golfers have won three straight titles each but no one had done it — before Bowers last year — since Jackie Schwarz, of Schaumburg, between 1996 and 1998.