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.

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 the 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 an 18-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.