San Francisco’s Olympic Club is no stranger to USGA championship golf; the world-renowned golf club that sits between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean in the western reaches of the city has hosted five memorable U.S. Opens, two U.S. Amateur tournaments, three U.S. Junior Amateurs, and the inaugural Men’s Fourball Championship, in 2015. This week, though, the club records a first, as it hosts the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open on the challenging Lake Course.
While the field at the second USWO to be played in the Bay Area (the 2016 event was hosted by the CordeValle Resort in San Martin, south of San José) will be replete with world-class players, local fans may be interested in following the play of the even dozen golfers with Northern California connections who are listed below. They range from a high-school-age amateur to experienced professionals with major championship victories to their credit—including two who have hoisted the very trophy which will be awarded to the winner here on Sunday afternoon.
Will one of these twelve women, with their local knowledge and experience of NorCal weather and turf conditions, hoist the Harton S. Semple trophy on Sunday afternoon?
Amateur competitor Claire Choi, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, is a rising senior at Santa Clara University and a graduate of Punahou High School in Honolulu, the alma mater of 2014 USWO champion Michelle Wie West.
Claire qualified for the 2021 USWO, her first, with a 4-over-par 144 at Oahu Country Club on May 10th—the day before her 21st birthday.
Pleasanton, CA, native Paula Creamer has been a well-known presence in LPGA fields since 2005, after a junior/amateur career that included 11 AJGA titles, selection to the 2004 Curtis Cup team and low amateur honors in the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open.
Paula took the 2010 USWO title, carding the only under-par total score over 72 holes at Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club. Her USWO record includes 11 straight Top 20 finishes, and five Top 10s, from 2004 to 2014.
Monterey’s Mina Harigae made waves early in her golf career, winning the first of four consecutive California Women’s Amateur titles in 2001 at the age of 12. Other highlights of her amateur golf career include semifinalist finishes in the U.S. Girls’ Junior in 2003 and 2006, winning the 2007 Women’s Amateur Public Links at the age of 17, and representing the United States on the 2008 Curtis Cup team.
Mina turned pro after one semester at Duke University and has seven professional victories to her credit: three on the Symetra Tour, and four on the Cactus Tour in Arizona during the LPGA’s COVID-19 hiatus. This is her 11th U.S. Women’s Open appearance.
Currently the hottest amateur in the country, Stanford University freshman Rachel Heck took medalist honors at the May 3rd qualifier at Marin Country Club in Novato with an 8-under 136. Last August she was the stroke play medalist at the U.S. Women’s Amateur before being defeated in the Round of 16, and in 2017 was the youngest competitor in the field at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing T-33.
SoCal-raised but born in San Francisco, Danielle Kang is making her 11th start in the U. S Women’s Open this week. Her best finish in the event is a solo 4th at Shoal Creek in 2018, but Kang is no stranger to the podium in USGA competition; she took back-to-back U.S. Women’s Amateur titles in 2010 and 2011.
San José native Christina Kim has made 16 previous U.S. Women’s Open appearances, her highest finish being a T-8 in the 2010 event at Oakmont Country Club. She has one USGA championship title to her name—the 2001 U.S. Girls’ Junior. Kim has represented the United States on three Solheim Cup teams, and has racked up six Top-10 finishes in major championships, including a tie for third in the 2009 Women’s British Open.
Another Pleasanton native, Jaclyn LaHa, a 16-year-old rising high school junior, is the second-youngest competitor in the field of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open. LaHa shot a 7-under 137, including a 5-under 67 in the afternoon round, at Marin Country Club in Novato to take the second and final qualifying spot from that event.
Making her third U.S. Women’s Open appearance this week, 18-year-old Lucy Li, of Redwood Shores, played in her first in 2014 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. Li set a record for the youngest competitor in the history of the event at 11 years, 8 months, and 19 days, but shot a pair of 78s to miss the cut.
Other notable “youngest competitor” marks she has set include youngest match-play qualifier in U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links history at 10 years, 8 months, 16 days in 2013, and youngest U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier (10 years, 10 months, 4 days), also in 2013. Li played on the winning 2018 United States Curtis Cup team, and took medalist honors that same year in the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Another native of the East Bay, Concord’s Yealimi Noh is making her second U.S. Women’s Open appearance. She contended for three rounds in last year’s late-season Open in December at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, but slipped to a tie for 40th after a final-round 80.
Noh is one of six Northern California natives to claim the U.S. Girls’ Junior title, at Poppy Hills in 2018, joining Pat Hurst (1986), Jamille José (1988), Dorothy Delasin (1996,) Lisa Ferrero (2000), and Christina Kim (2001) in that honor.
Benicia’s Kathleen Scavo joins the field for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open on the strength of a medal-winning 1-over 143 in the April 26 qualifier at Half Moon Bay Golf Links.
This is the second U.S. Women’s Open appearance for Scavo, a graduate of the University of Oregon; she qualified for the 2014 event but missed the cut on the challenging Pinehurst #2 course. Her resulyts in previous USGA championships include advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior, and advancing to the round of 16 in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes, Oregon, with partner Lucy Li.
A native of Hawaii who graduated from Stanford University and who now resides in San Francisco with husband Jonnie West and daughter Makenna, Michelle Wie West needs no introduction to golf fans.
A prodigy who qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at age 10, Wie West became the championship’s youngest winner at age 13, She showed showed major championship mettle in the 2003 Kraft-Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspiration), becoming the youngest player to make the cut, and playing in the final group on Sunday after a blistering 66 the previous day.
Wie West’s U.S. Women’s Open record over 15 appearances is a checkered one—it includes a win, in 2014 at Pinehurst; a T-3 finish in 2006 at Newport Country Club; a T-10 in 2018 at Shoal Creek; four MCs; and two WDs due to injury.
Set to join the Stanford Women’s Golf team in the fall of 2021, Irvine, California, native Rose Zhang is making her third U.S. Women’s Open start this week. Zhang is the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, and took low amateur honors at this year’s ANA Inspiration.
No comments:
Post a Comment