Former Cal Golfer Katherine Zhu Leads After Day One of Women’s Mid-Am

The first day of competition in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Championship is in the books, and the current middle-of-the-pack score is between four and five strokes over par. With 132 women in the field and 64 advancing to match play after stroke play concludes on Sunday, players in the top half of the field at this point are well positioned for advancement to the match play portion of the tournament. That being the case, four of the eight Bay Area players in the field are in good position, given an equally good day tomorrow, to advance to match play.

As a matter of fact, San Jose resident Katherine Zhu, a former Cal Women’s Golf player, leads after day one on the strength of a 5-under 67. Zhu, a 2022 graduate of Cal-Berkeley, works in marketing at SportsBox AI, a company that is developing marker-less 3D motion capture and analysis for sports applications.

Zhu is trailed by Jessica Spicer, of Williamsburg, Virginia, at 4-under, with four players at 3-under, and three each at 2- and 1-under par, respectively, for a total of 12 players under par after round one. 

Boulder Creek native Jennifer Serbin, a former San Jose State Women’s Golf team member, lies second among local players and T-13 overall after carding an even-par 72 today. After opening her round with a par on the 351-yard par-4 first hole, Serbin fell back to 2-over with an unfortunate run of three bogeys, on holes 4, 5, and 6. Righting the ship, Serbin put together a long run of pars, with birdies on hole 11 and 17, to finish with an even-par 72.

Serbin played lower-tier professional golf with some success after college, but in 2016 a non-golf-related injury brought the curtain down on her pro golf career. After recovering from the injury, she petitioned for a return to amateur status in 2020, and has been playing in NCGA and USGA amateur competitions since then.

Pebble Beach resident Lara Tennant, who holds the distinction of winning three consecutive U.S. Senior Women’s Open titles: 2018, 2019, and 2021 (there was no tournament in 2020), is third among the Bay Area golfers in the tournament with a 3-over 75. Tennant is playing on familiar ground, as she is a member of the host club.

Finally, Jennifer Wang of Menlo Park, who played college golf at Division 1 Columbia University of New York, carded a 4-over 76 to put herself in a strong position to advance to match play.Stroke play resumes Sunday morning with 7:30 a.m. tee times. Spectators are admitted to the event for free, and as is usual at USGA amateur events, are allowed to walk the fairways behind the players – it is a great way to experience the golf course and see it as the players do.

2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am – For The Love of the Game

The United States Golf Association (USGA) runs seventeen championship tournaments each year, thirteen of which are open exclusively to amateur golfers. The final championship of the year in 2025 is the Women’s Mid-Am, an event that is open to amateur golfers age 25 and up with a maximum handicap of 9.4. Coming on the heels of the Walker Cup, which was held just last month at the Cypress Point Golf Club, the tournament is being held this year at another of the beautiful golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula, the aptly named Monterey Peninsula Country Club, deep in the heart of the Del Monte Forest.

Monterey Peninsula Country Club, owner of one of the coolest logos in golf,
is hosting the 2025 USGA U.S. Women’s Mid-Am tournament this year. 

This scenic, and exclusive, region – which covers eight square miles of the approximately 20 square miles of the Monterey Peninsula – is home to some of the finest golf anywhere: Pebble Beach Golf Links; Spyglass Hill; The Links at Spanish Bay; Poppy Hills, the home and headquarters of the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA); and the Cypress Point Club (the site of this year’s Walker Cup).

“Amateur: one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession”

Home to two courses, the Shore and Dunes, MPCC is familiar to golf fans from its 31 years in the rota for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, most recently from 2010 to 2020, 2022 and 2023, on the Shore Course. This tournament is being contested on the Dunes course, the original course on the property, which was one of the three courses in the rota for famed pro-am in the “Crosby Clambake” days, from 1947 to 1964. Designed in 1924 by Seth Raynor, the Dunes course was revisited by Rees Jones in 1998 and the Fazio Design Group in 2016.

A field of 132 players ranging in age from 25 to 63 years, from thirty-four states and thirteen countries, will play two rounds of stroke play this weekend, after which the top 64 golfers will enter the single-elimination match play stage of the contest, with the winner determined by a 36-hole final on Friday, October 10th.

The prizes to be won are a trophy, an entry into the following year’s U.S. Women’s Open (and if the winner will be 50 or over, the U.S. Senior Women’s Open) – and a footnote in the history of the game. True to the spirit of amateur competition, while there are perks (as just listed) and a deep sense of personal accomplishment, there is no monetary reward.

One of the most highly renowned golfers in American history, Bobby Jones, was a lifelong amateur, a man who played solely for the love of the game, and the USGA’s amateur events carry on in that spirit.

The two USGA Open championships, for men and women, feature fields that will contain amateurs each year, but mainly consist of professional players. Even the U.S. Amateur and the Women’s Amateur, the two Junior championships, and the international team events – the Walker Cup for men and the Curtis Cup for women – generally feature players at least some of whom have their eyes set on a future in professional golf.

The Mid-Am events, however, are deep with players who are making their way in the world in business or a profession, with golf comprising “a pastime rather than a profession.” The Women’s Mid-Am, which was initiated in 1987, attracts a field of former collegiate players, for the most part, women with a desire for competition who play for the love of the game, for the opportunity to play at beautiful and often private, exclusive courses such as this year’s venue. It is, in my opinion, the purest expression of golf competition.

There are eight competitors from around the Bay Area in the event this year, including former Cal golfer Katherine Zhu and 2002 medalist Lara Tennant. As a bonus for the local golf fan, the event is free for spectators – and if you tell the guard at the entrance to the 17-Mile Drive that you are going to the tournament they will waive the $12.25 entry fee. Come out this weekend or any day through Friday, October 10th.