Berteotti, Johnson remain tied in Championship Division at LPGA T&CP National Championship
Cusimano joined at top of Senior Division by Austin; cuts made to top 46, top 24.

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WILLIAMSBURG, Va., Sept. 15, 2009 – Two rounds in the books and two LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP) are tied at the top of each of the two divisions. Class A member Sarah Johnson, of Flagstaff, Ariz., and Missie Berteotti, a LPGA Tour Class A member from Presto, Pa., carded matching 70-69 scorecards to lead the Championship Division by four strokes at 3-under-par 139. Perhaps the shot of the day was Johnson's eagle on the 466-yard, par-5 hole seven. She said she used driver off the tee, followed by a 3-wood to 20 feet.

“Had a 33 on the front. That was a little bit better,” she said. “I struck it better. I hit it really well. Then I kind of struggled a bit on the back. I had a couple good up and downs and hung on to the end.”

Playing in the next-to-last group of the day, she was just one group ahead of LPGA Tour veteran Berteotti. After nearly 10 years of not playing competitively, Berteotti remains pleased being at the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes. Solid ball-striking, she said, made a difference.

“I was a little shaky starting off and I turned it around and birdied three, four, eight and nine. It was kind of like a little roller coaster. I bogeyed number two and bogeyed number five. So, bogey, birdie, birdie, bogey,” she said of her front nine on Tuesday. “Then I settled down and I started hitting a lot of solid shots. I birdied eight and nine and made nine solid pars on the back side. I hit a lot of solid shots, so I'm glad I turned it around and felt solid ball-striking-wise.”

In the Championship Division, the cut was made Tuesday afternoon to the top 46 players and ties who carded 19-over-par 161. Forty-seven players of 66 who started the event will compete in the final round.

In the Senior Division, Dede Cusimano, of Basalt, Colo., remains at the top thanks to rounds of 69-72, while Sally Austin found the low round of the day for the division on the Kingsmill Resort & Spa's River Course with a 1-under-par 70 after a first-round 71. They are tied at 1-under-par 141 and are three strokes ahead of Beverly Davis (72-72) and Marjorie Jones (73-71) at 2-over-par 144. “Putting was not good. I had probably five shots within six feet and I missed them all,” Cusimano said. “Whoever it was, they did a good job on the pin placements today. I just wasn't putting as well as I did yesterday, so I didn't make as many putts. It just came down to the putts. My ball-striking is well, but my putting didn't work too well today.”

Austin agreed the pin placements were “fair,” and was pleased with her round, overall.

“Today was fun. I hit more shots closer to the hole,” said the Class A member from Chapel Hill, N.C. “I had a lot of birdie opportunities, even though I was hardly in the fairway. I had only one double – missed two putts – otherwise, it was almost a perfect round of golf.”

The cut in the Senior Division was clean with 24 of 34 players advancing to Wednesday's final round with a 17-over-par 159 or better. Both divisions will split a $70,000 purse.

The annual event is being contested on the Kingsmill Resort & Spa's River Course for the first time in LPGA T&CP history. The event was a biennial event from 1983 to 1993 and then began to be played each year after that. The LPGA T&CP counterparts on the LPGA Tour, however, have made this Williamsburg stop for the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill since 2003.

Final-round tee times for the 2009 LPGA T&CP National Championship are at 8 a.m. off the first and 10th tees.

About the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals

The LPGA Teaching and Club Professional (T&CP) membership, founded in 1959 and celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has enjoyed an unprecedented rate of growth in recent years and boasts the largest membership of women golf professionals in the world. With nearly 1,300 members, the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals are dedicated to the advancement of golf through teaching, coaching and managing golf facilities. Its national member programs including teaching, coaching, business management and leadership skills training programs and conferences, tournaments, employment services, online education and junior golf programs. LPGA T&CP members also teach and support the LPGA's various grassroots programs that are working to increase the involvement of women and youth in golf, as well as contribute to the growth of the sport overall including LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, Ronald McDonald House Charities LPGA Tour Junior Clinics and the LPGA Golf Clinics for Women. The LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla. For more information on the LPGA, log on to www.LPGA.com.

2009 LPGA T&amp;CP National Championship Round Two Wrap-Up

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2009 LPGA T&CP National Championship Round Two Wrap-Up