The 23-year-old Oakville resident fully expected to miss the cut at the CN Canadian Women's Open, having carded a five-over-par total of 149 during the tournament's opening 36 holes.

The projected cut line, after all, was at plus-two when Shepley finished her second round. She even went back to the house she was staying at in London and took a nap, before receiving an encouraging text message from her caddy later in the day.

"I think we're going to make it," the message read.

For the next hour, Shepley sat in front of a computer and monitored the action. As competitors continued to record scores in the mid-to-high 70s (only four of 152 golfers shot lower than 70 in the second round), the cut line continued to climb -- all the way to plus-five, qualifying her for weekend play.

"On my 13th hole (Friday), I said something to my caddy (Sue Horton) like 'Sorry, you could have maybe had a bag that would have played on the weekend'," recalled Shepley, whose score rose as high as plus-seven after a double-bogey on her 23rd hole of the tournament. "At that point, it wouldn't have even crossed my mind that I still had a chance to make the cut."

However, the University of Tennessee grad pulled things together, salvaging a second-round 74 by playing the last nine holes at two-under par.

Shepley completed the tournament with rounds of 76 and 77, finishing with a plus-14 total that placed her in a tie for 76th with Joo Mi Kim and Candy Hannemann. Cristie Kerr won the tournament at minus-12, overcoming an eight-stroke deficit on the final day to edge Angela Stanford.

As pleased as she was to make the cut at the Canadian Women's Open, a goal she set for herself before the tournament, Shepley was also disappointed with the way she played. She three-putted 13 times, played the 14th hole at five-over-par in the tournament and hit 42 greens in regulation.

"I'm surprised that I still have two wrists in tact right now," she laughed Monday, referring the thick rough at London's Hunt and Country Club. "If I'd played like that on the Futures Tour, I would have been pretty ticked... because it was nowhere near my capabilities. (But) it was good for me to see I didn't have to play the best golf I've ever played to be out there and that I can play out there."

She took home $3,098 for her Open performance, nearly half the total she's earned this season competing on the Duramed Futures Tour.

The tournament drew a Canadian Women's Open-record crowd of 61,000, easily the largest number of spectators Shepley has ever played in front of. She admitted to nerves in the early going but settled in as the competition wore on, aided by the 40-50 family members and friends that followed her throughout the tournament.

"I was having so much fun. My little cousins got to come -- they hadn't seen me play very much, and they were so excited running up and down the ropes with me," she said.

"It was more fun and motivating than nerve-wracking."

Shepley doesn't have much downtime to reflect on her first LPGA event. She traveled to Oshawa Monday for the Canadian PGA Women's Championship, which began yesterday and concludes today, and will play two more Futures Tour tournaments this summer.

She will then focus on LPGA Q School, a series of sectional qualifiers that she hopes will earn her an LPGA Tour card for 2007.

-- Jon Kuiperij can be reached at sports@oakvillebeaver.com.