Sweet summer: Siblings each win golf titles

Caroline Sweet, a recent Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduate and the Gazette-Star Golfer of the Year, won the girls' division of the Nordlinger Cup at Mount Vernon Country Club on the same afternoon that her younger brother, Jordan, won the boys' bracket by four strokes.

Jordan, a sophomore at DeMatha High School, already had clinched the boys' title with a one-under par 69 when he decided to check on his older sister's progress. Caroline had clinched the girls' title with two holes remaining and needed only to par the last two holes to clinch the overall championship. Jordan firmly expected his sister to seal the verdict with a birdie, but when she bogeyed the last two holes the overall title ended up in his hands.

"My sister and I are very competitive and we practice together all the time," said Jordan, who also won the three-day Dewey Ricketts Tournament for 14- and 15-year-old boys at Andrews Air Force Base. "But we never play against each other in tournaments. When my mom [Christine Sweet] told me that she was one stroke ahead of me with two holes left, I thought for sure that she would win."

Jordan birdied the first hole but then committed four bogeys on the front nine to make the turn at three over. But he quickly righted course and birdied the first three holes on the back nine to get back to even-par and finished the round at one-under par thanks to a birdie on No. 16. His round of 69 was four strokes better than runner-up Mason Short in the boys' bracket.

Caroline, who captured the state public school championship last fall, won the three-day Maryland Women's Amateur at Crofton Country Club two weeks prior to the Nordlinger Cup. With two holes remaining in the Nordlinger Cup, she only needed a pair of pars to edge her younger brother for the overall title. Instead, she bogeyed the last two holes and yielded the victory to Jordan while winning the girls' title by six strokes.

"I played really well until the last two holes," said Caroline, who is headed to William & Mary this fall to play golf and major in English.

Caroline won the Maryland Women's Amateur by edging Lisa Schlesinger in the gold medal round of the three-day event. Sweet trailed Schlesinger by two strokes with five holes remaining, but quickly turned the tide by making birdies on No. 14 and 15. Sweet nailed a 15-foot par putt on No. 18 and maintained a one-stroke lead when Schlesinger missed a birdie putt that would have sent the tournament into a sudden death playoff.

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.