The Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) has announced the team that will represent Washington in the 11th USGA Women's State Team Championship, to be held Sept. 10-12 at the Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Shawn Farmer
Amanda Jacobs of Seattle, Leslie Folsom of Tukwila and Shawn Farmer of Bellevue have each been selected based on their standings on the WSGA Performance Points List, compiled over the last two years (August 1, 2013 - August 1, 2015).
All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico may enter teams of three players. The two lowest of the three individual scores count as the team's score for each day's round. The team with the lowest aggregate score through 54 holes will win the title.
Folsom, a veteran player in many state and regional championships, represented Washington in this championship in 2013. She was the 2013 Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur Player of the Year. In 2014, Folsom won the WSGA Champion of Champions, as well as the Seattle Women's Golf Association's City Championship. She earned a spot in the semifinals of the 2014 Pacific Northwest Women's Mid-Amateur, and runner-up in the Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur. In 2015, Folsom has continued to compile high finishes. She placed third in the Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur, 20th in the Washington Women's Amateur, and was a semifinalist in the Seattle Women's Golf Association City Championship.
Leslie Folsom
Farmer was also a member of the Washington State contingent in the 2013 championship. She won the 2014 Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur, meaning that all three players have claimed this title in the past three years. This year, Farmer finished runner-up in both the WSGA Champion of Champions and the WSGA Women's Mid-Amateur.
Jacobs comes off a 2014 season where she was named the WSGA Women's Mid-Amateur Player of the Year, won the Pacific Northwest Women's Mid-Amateur, and qualified for the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur, where she made it to the Round of 32. Jacobs recently won the 2015 Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur and finished runner-up in the Seattle Women's Golf Association City Championship. She has also finished runner-up in the 2015 Pacific Northwest Women's Mid-Amateur, and taken 4th at the British Columbia Women's Mid-Amateur.
This competition, as well as the Men's State Team Championship, grew out of the United States Golf Association's centennial anniversary in 1995. USGA officials believed that a new championship, one in which each state could be represented by amateur, non-college golfers, was an appropriate way to cap the USGA's year-long birthday celebration. The competition proved to be such a success that the Association decided to continue conducting the championship biennially.
The format was fashioned after the biennial World Amateur Team Championship, which involves three-person teams in a 3-count-2 stroke-play format. State associations were given a variety of options in which to select its team members.
In 2009, the USGA decided to hold the Men's State Team and Women's State Team competitions at separate sites, and beginning in 2010, the schedule was changed to have the competitions alternate years, with the Men's State Team Championship conducted in even years and the Women's State Team in odd years.
Beginning in 2015, there will be a cut after the first 36 holes of the Championship to reduce the number of teams to 21 heading into the final round.
Click here for more information about the USGA Women's State Team Championship.
Dalhousie Golf Club, a Nicklaus Design course primarily designed by Gary Nicklaus, sits on land that was settled in 1798 originally by Rebecca Ramsey, the Scottish Earl of Dalhousie's sister.
