San Jose’s Katherine Zhu is Co-Medalist at 2025 Women’s Mid-Am Championship

Three (maybe four) NorCal players advance to match play

San Jose’s Katherine Zhu came out of an up-and-down day on the MPCC Dunes course tied for medalist status, sharing first place with Jessica Spicer of Williamsburg, Virginia after posting a 2-over 74 in the second round for a 36-hole total of 141. Zhu, starting on the first tee at noon, went out in 3-over 38 with bogeys on holes 3, 6, and 7. Three birdies on the back nine, on holes 11, 12, and 15, helped offset the front nine deficit, but bogeys on 13 and 14 dropped her to 2-over for the round. Erica Whitehouse, of Mechanicsville, Virginia was tied with Zhu and Spicer for the medalist spot until her last hole, #11 (she started her round on the 12th hole), where she carded a double-bogey six in the failing evening light.

This four-legged local resident seemed unperturbed by the action during the 
stroke play rounds of the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Championship at
Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Among the other Northern California players in the field, Jennifer Wang, of Menlo Park, put herself solidly into the match play portion of the tournament at T28, with a stroke play score of 76-73–149. Lara Tennant, of Pebble Beach, brought it home safely at 9-over to make match play, while Boulder Creek’s Jennifer Serbin, who earlier in the day looked like she might be missing out on further play in the event with a 10-over total of 184, will be part of a playoff tomorrow morning to finalize the match play field after the cut moved from +9 to +10 in the final hour of Round 2.

Wild swings (in scores) on final day for the full field

Golf is a crazy game. If you play, you know – and nothing brings out the craziness like competitive golf. Case(s) in point: Mackenzie Tyler, of Hampton Bay, New York shot 90 on Saturday in the first round of stroke play: seven pars, seven bogeys, four double-bogeys – and today she sailed through her first nine holes at even par, with seven pars, one birdie, and one bogey. Two more bogeys in her final nine holes dropped her to a 2-over 74; she improved her score by sixteen strokes over the first round, but still missed the cut by 10 strokes. Alison Trevino, of San Antonio, Texas, put up four pars, two bogeys, two double-bogeys – and a hole-out eagle, on the 294-yard, par-4 fifth hole – on the front nine today. Her two-round total of 86-76–162 missed the cut by eleven strokes.

Significant swings in scoring from the first to second round, both good and bad, were not uncommon this weekend. Thirty players shot a score five or more strokes higher on Sunday than Saturday; fifteen players improved their score by that amount. Consistency from Round 1 to Round 2 was not necessarily an indicator of success, though – four of the six players from T1 to T3 shot a higher score in Round 2 by five strokes or more, and of the sixty players who made the cut at +9 or better, fourteen shot a higher score, by five strokes or more, on Sunday, while only seven improved by five strokes or more. Go figure…

Big playoff set for Monday morning to finalize the Top 64

A not-uncommon feature of tournaments in this format is a playoff to determine one or more final spots in the match play field. When it’s one spot being contested it may be over quickly: One player gets a hot hand and birdies the playoff hole while the others make par or worse – boom, it’s over. It gets more complicated when there are two or more spots being contested, and after the cut moved from +9 to +10 late in the day, the USGA officials at MPCC found themselves faced with a massive 12-for-4 playoff; that is, there were sixty players at +9 or better at the completion of stroke play, and the twelve players who finished at +10 will vie for the four spots required to complete the field of 64 before match play can commence.

One of the local Bay Area players, Jennifer Serbin of Boulder Creek, is among the lucky (?) dozen who will tee it up on the 10th hole tomorrow morning (but no, not as a “twelve-some”; they will be split up in a manner TBD at the time of this writing). We wish Jennifer the best of luck, but our sympathies lie with Sue Wooster, of Australia, who might have been the lucky #13 in the playoff group were it not for finishing her round with a double-bogey on hole 18 to miss the playoff by a single stroke.