Portland (Ore.) Golf Club to host U.S. Women's Amateur in 2015
The USGA announced Portland (Ore.) Golf Club as the host site of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. The dates of the championship are Aug. 10-16.
“Portland Golf Club holds a very special place in golf history,” said Thomas J. O’Toole Jr., USGA vice president and chairman of the Championship Committee. “The USGA is proud to bring another championship to the club and add another page to the Portland Golf Club history book.”
This will be the 33rd USGA championship conducted in the state of Oregon and the third held at Portland Golf Club. In 1982, the club hosted the first of Miller Barber’s record three U.S. Senior Open Championship victories, while Bill Ploeger won the 1999 USGA Senior Amateur Championship.
USGA says it will take on pace-of-play issues
By Ron Gaines, Golfweek.com
If it’s true that an organization takes on the personality of its leadership, nobody should be surprised that USGA President Glen Nager is putting slow play at the top of his list.
Five-hour rounds are unacceptable for Nager, a partner at Jones Day, a high-profile, fast-paced law firm in Washington, D.C.
“The cry that pace of play has become one of the most significant threats to the game’s health has become only louder over the last year," Nager said recently. ". . . This problem touches every golfer, from the professional to the elite amateur to the collegiate player to the millions of recreational golfers at both public and private facilities.”
In its recent announcement, the USGA has commited to making the game more welcoming, enjoyable and sustainable and is directing resources toward this new research.
The first step will be an initiative to identify challenges and solutions regarding pace-of-play issues in the game of golf.
The USGA will look at golf facilities and analyze factors such as course design and setup, along with player management and the effectiveness of player-education programs.
For players, the USGA will continue to look at the Rules of Golf ...
Kraus, Weworski take four-ball title
Results from the 22nd Women's Trans Senior Four-Ball Championship, held April 23-25 at Whirlwind Golf Club in Chandler, Ariz:
Champions
Andrea Kraus (Baltimore, Md.), Corey Weworski (Carlsbad, Calif.): 66-62-68–196
Flight 1
Kim Eaton (Tempe, Ariz.), Liz Waynick (Scottsdale, Ariz.): 68-68-69–205*
Lisa Schlesinger (Laytonsville, Md.), Mimi Hoffman (Springfield, Va.): 65-70-70–205*
Jennie Robinson (La Quinta, Calif.), Mina Hardin (La Quinta, Calif.): 71-67-68–206
Flight 2
Jeanne Lallensack (Oro Valley, Ariz.), Mary Fink (Scottsdale, Ariz.): 72-74-74–220*
Christie Austin (Cherry Hills Village, Colo.), Cindy Pallatino (Scottsdale, Ariz.): 73-72-75–220
Bev Hoffenberg (Greenwood Village, Colo.), Nancy Ziereis (Centennial, Colo.): 73-74-74–221
Flight 3
Beverly Kim (Wahiawa, Hawaii), Lily Yao (Honolulu, Hawaii): 76-77-75–228
Barbara Blankenship (Centertown, Mo.), Janis Clemens (Sedalia, Mo.): 77-76-76–229
Ginny Becker (Naples, Fla.), Peggy Williams (Pickerington, Ohio): 78-76-76–230
Dorothy Powell (Rockford, Ill. ), Salley Wessels (Mt. Morris, Ill.): 76-79-75–230
Flight 4
Pat Linson (Papillion, Neb.), Tracey Whitley (Bellevue, Neb.): 77-81-78–236
Brenda Samuelson (Clarinda, Iowa), Jill Blackwood (Ft. Myers, Fla.): 81-77-79–237
Peggy Muenster (Clayton, Mo.), Vicki Wolken (Clayton, Mo.): 78-81-80–239
Flight 5
Cindy Anderson (Eugene, Ore.), Susan Palmer (Eugene, Ore.): 83-83-78–244
Carol Key (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Carole Grosch (Worland, Wyo.): 86-80-83–249 ...
Despite three pro titles, Ko's best is yet to come
Editor's note: This story originally ran in the Feb. 15 issue of Golfweek, after Lydia Ko's New Zealand Open victory.
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – As the teppanyaki chef counted to three, Lydia Ko sat poised to catch part of Wednesday night’s dinner in her mouth. At the last second, an embarrassed Ko leaned back and caught the flying egg in her hands. It would be the only time all week she’d back down from a challenge.
Ko, the 15-year-old Kiwi whose golf game is as measured and precise as the chef with two slashing knives, was the guest of Harris Kim, owner of Ace Wasabi and six-time club champion at Clearwater Golf Club, site of the ISPS Handa New Zealand Women’s Open. Four days later, Ko returned to this delectable Japanese grill for a victory celebration, where she likely ordered a second round of apple juice.
“It’s always special to make history,” said Ko, after learning she was the first Kiwi to win the New Zealand Women’s Open. Ko collects national open trophies like some kids her age collect junior club championships. She became the youngest player to win on the LPGA when she ...
USGA taps St. Louis local Port for Curtis Cup captaincy
So much of Ellen Port's golf history has been written with St. Louis as the backdrop. That ranges from beginner to state amateur champion to USGA champion and, by 2014, will include a Curtis Cup captaincy.
Port, 51, will get the rare chance to captain the biennial international competition in her backyard when the 2014 matches are contested at St. Louis Country Club on June 6-8. Port drives past the course daily to get to John Burroughs School, where she’s in her 27th year as a physical education teacher and coach.
“I certainly wake up every morning thinking about it,” Port said of a captaincy that’s just beginning to sink in.
To Dot Paluck, chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee, Port's location is only part of the equation.
"I think St. Louis is a bonus, not the reason she was chosen," Paluck said. "She has one of the best records in women's amateur golf."
Aside from knowing the St. Louis golf landscape from the grassroots level on up, Port, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., is the name perhaps most associated with women’s amateur golf in Missouri. She’s an eight-time Missouri ...
Ellen Port to captain U.S. at 2014 Curtis Cup
When the Curtis Cup makes its first trip to Missouri, the U.S. team will be in local hands.
Ellen Port, 51, a five-time U.S. Golf Association champion who played in the 1994 and ’96 Curtis Cups, will coach the Americans in 2014 against Great Britain & Ireland’s top female amateurs, a source close to the selection process said.
An announcement was expected this week. Port would not comment.
Port, of St. Louis, won eight Missouri Women’s Amateur titles and holds membership in the Missouri and St. Louis sports halls of fame.
Port, the reigning U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, also owns four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles. She teaches physical education and coaches golf at John Burroughs School in St. Louis.
The U.S. team, which lost the 2012 Curtis Cup in Nairn, Scotland, leads the series, 27-7-3.
St. Louis Country Club, a Charles Blair Macdonald design and site of the Curtis Cup, will celebrate its centennial in 2014.
Drug tests coming to men's, women's U.S. Amateurs
Drug testing is coming to the U.S. Amateur.
The U.S. Golf Association informed past U.S. Amateur participants Tuesday that drug testing will occur at the 2013 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The USGA began drug testing at the 2009 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. This is the first time it will test at an amateur event. The U.S. Amateurs, like the Opens, will follow the International Golf Federation’s Anti-Doping Policy, which adopts the World Anti-Doping Agency List of Prohibited Substances.
Joe Goode, the USGA’s managing director, communications, said golf’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympics was the reason behind the decision. “The USGA has determined that it is in the best interest of the sport of golf and the players to begin the introduction of drug testing with a program that is approved by the International Olympic Committee,” Goode said. There are no current plans to expand the program to other USGA amateur championships, he added.
The majority of competitors at the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur are college athletes, who are subject to NCAA testing. “I don't see any problem ...
Players saddened by loss of Women's Amateur Public Links
Editor's note: For the news story on the USGA's decision to dissolve the U.S. Public Links Championships after 2014, please click here.
• • •
Emily Tubert rarely is at a loss for words. When she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in 2010 – chattering and singing her way around Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Ind., with dad and caddie Marcelo – it launched a career that would continue to blossom on the Arkansas roster, and include a spot on the U.S. Curtis Cup team.
Phoning in on the eve of the Lady Puerto Rico Classic on Feb. 9, Tubert, a college junior, was momentarily speechless when she learned that the USGA has plans to discontinue the WAPL after the 2014 championship.
“I’m kind of really surprised, kind of pretty shocked that they would do that,” Tubert said. “I think it’s such a great tournament.”
Tubert became the 33rd champion of the event in 2010, and said it’s something she’ll carry with her forever. Despite the initial shock that the tournament is going away, she easily dug out memories from that week, when she was a relative unknown.
“One ...
With poise and precision, Ko, 15, captures third pro title
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – It was a remarkable display of poise and precision. Lydia Ko, the 15-year-old Kiwi who isn’t old enough to know what failure feels like and wins national opens the way most girls her age win club championships, made the locals proud on Sunday at Clearwater Golf Club. Ko won the ISPS Handa New Zealand Women’s Open by one stroke over American Amelia Lewis, who three-putted the 54th hole. Lewis took home the winner’s paycheck, but not the trophy.
“I didn’t cry at the Canadian Open,” said Ko when asked about her teary walk off the 18th. “I guess (this tournament) meant more.”
Ko missed only one green on Sunday, hitting it long on the third hole out of the rough. That, incidentally, was her only bogey of the day. Ko closed with a 4-under 68 for a 10-under 206 total. This marks her third professional victory, including the 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open (youngest in LPGA history) and the NSW Open, which she won at age 14.
Ko, the first Kiwi to win the NZ Women’s Open, said she doesn’t have a “trophy holder place.” Judging by the way she ...
Ko falls in bid to defend title at Australian Women's Amateur
Lydia Ko’s quest to defend her title at the Australian Women’s Amateur ended Friday as the 15-year-old New Zealander fell in the second round of match play. Ko, the top-ranked amateur in the world, fell to Victoria’s Jo Charlton, 2 and 1, at Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne. Ko also is the reigning U.S. Women's Amateur champion.
Ko had finished 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying tied at 4-under 140 with Grace Lennon. Ko took the No. 2 seed while Lennon took the top spot on the match-play bracket.
Australian Minjee Lee advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Cathleen Santoso on the 19th hole. Lee won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur in June, and is No. 2 in the R&A’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
American mid-amateur Meghan Stasi lost to Kotone Hori of Japan, 5 and 4, in Round 2.
Ko, 15, attempting title defense at Australian Women's Amateur
It’s summer in Australia, which means World No. 1 amateur Lydia Ko is making headlines Down Under instead of in the U.S. Ko, 15, of New Zealand, was a co-medalist Wednesday in stroke-play qualifying for the Australian Women’s Amateur and has advanced through the first stage of match play.
Ko, whose biggest 2012 victories included the U.S. Women’s Amateur at the LPGA’s Canadian Women’s Open, shot 4-under 140 at Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne and tied Grace Lennon of Victoria. Lennon received the top seed while Ko is playing with the No. 2 seed on the match-play bracket. Ko is the defending champion.
Ko defeated New South Wales’ Jessica Dengate, 6 and 5, in Thursday’s first round, and will meet Victoria’s Jo Charlton in the second round.
Among the players who also advanced to the second round of match play are Australian Minjee Lee, the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, and Meghan Stasi, a Florida native who won her fourth U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur title last year.
The Australian Men’s Amateur also is being contested this week in Melbourne. The top two seeds, No. 1 Brady Watt and ...
Princeton's Shon holds off Aubert by one shot for Sally title
Complete tournament results, click here
• • •
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Down the stretch in the final round of the South Atlantic Amateur, Kelly Shon got resourceful.
On the amateur circuit, there are no electronic leaderboards, and no coach is standing nearby with live scoring on her phone. So Shon pulled out her range finder on the 17th tee, not to scope a yardage but to size up the competition. Among the final group, she had a two-shot advantage, but a look up the fairway showed that Shannon Aubert was 4 under on the day, and tied with Shon at 8 under for the tournament.
“I figured I needed to made a birdie (at No. 17),” she recalled after the round.
Shon had birdied Oceanside Country Club’s 17th the previous day to keep her one-shot advantage on Kelsey MacDonald. On Saturday, Shon took advantage of a good drive, laid up her second shot, then hit a knock-down wedge to 9 feet. She easily made the putt to get to 9 under. At No. 18, with a crowd of locals pressed around the green, Shon stuck her approach to 20 feet, and two-putted for a final-round 69 and the most prestigious victory of ...
Crucial birdies help Princeton's Shon keep narrow lead at Sally
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Kelly Shon’s third round at the South Atlantic Amateur boils down to two holes: the eighth and the 17th at Oceanside Country Club.
At the par-4 eighth, Shon made the most of a mediocre tee shot and a weak-right 5-iron by rolling a delicate chip down a steep green and into the hole for birdie. By the watery, par-4 17th, when she felt her game slipping, she made another birdie. A bogey at No. 18 left her with 74 for the day and a 54-hole total of 6-under 210.
Shon, a New Yorker using the Sally to dust off her game before she heads back to Princeton for the spring, needed the heroics at both of those holes. Her two-shot lead from the previous day had turned into a single-stroke advantage by the end of Friday. Kelsey MacDonald is right behind her, and Shannon Aubert and Alex Stewart are tied for third, two shots behind McDonald.
This is Shon’s first go at the Sally, and she entered at the last minute. Her impression of the course Thursday evening was that though short, it could play tough if the wind were to pick up. On Friday ...
Puisite sisters haven't forgotten Latvian roots; Krista T-3 at Sally
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – For proof that golf truly is a global game, look to the two Latvian players entered in this week’s South Atlantic Amateur (Sally).
Krista Puisite was more than willing to give a primer on all things Latvia (food, golf, Natalie Gulbis) just off Oceanside Country Club’s 18th green on Thursday. You get the impression it’s not the first time she’s been asked.
Still, Krista has a hard time explaining how exactly she and younger sister Mara got golf clubs in their hands as young children. It’s not a particularly popular sport in Latvia, in the Baltic region of northern Europe that has a population of a little more than 2 million.
In fact, there are only two 18-hole tracks and one nine-hole course in the entire country (not including the “garden holes” some people use for yard practice). The Puisites practice at Ozo Golf Club near their home in Riga, the capital.
By Krista’s count, Ladies European Tour player Laura Jansone is the only female professional with Latvian roots. There are no golf magazines and no Golf Channel at home. This is where the conversation turns to Natalie Gulbis, who has ...
'Random' trip to Florida has Shon in lead halfway through Sally
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – It’s the halfway point of the South Atlantic Amateur, and the leader didn’t even know this tournament existed just a few weeks ago.
Normally the players who show up for the Sally, and the rest of the Florida Orange Blossom Circuit, are what you might call regulars.
Kelly Shon is an outlier.
Shon hails from Port Washington, N.Y., and is a junior at Princeton. She calls this trip south “random.” It was intended only for practice when she decided she wouldn’t be going to South Korea to visit family for the holidays. Shon’s mother encouraged her to use the time off to hone her game, and Shon’s proof of how hard she worked is in the sock tan.
“I got a lot darker,” she says of her Florida tan. “That says something.”
Shon, who is renting a condo about 20 minutes down the beach, signed up for the Sally at the last minute, after hearing about the tournament through the grapevine. Through two rounds at Oceanside Country Club, she is at 8-under 136, and two shots ahead of Kelsey MacDonald. Shon’s second-round 69 included five birdies and two bogeys.
“It ...
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Recent Women’s Amateur Golf Galleries
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