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.