The Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) has announced the team that will represent Washington in the 12th USGA Women’s State Team Championship, to be held Sept. 26-28 at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, N.M.
Leslie Folsom of Tukwila, Jamie Huo of Kent and Shawn Farmer-Sese of Renton have each been selected based on their standings on the WSGA Performance Points List, compiled over the last two years (August 2015 – August 2017).
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.
For Folsom, a veteran player in many state and regional championships, this will be the ninth consecutive State Team Championship in which she has represented Washington, having earned a spot in every championship since 2001. She won the 2016 and 2017 Seattle Women’s Golf Association City Championships, and was a semifinalist in the 2016 Washington State Women’s Golf Association Championship. She qualified for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, and made the Round 64. She finished tied for second in the 2016 WSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur, and finished fourth in the 2017 event. She finished third in the 2016 Washington State Women’s Champion of Champions.
Farmer-Sese is also making her third consecutive appearance in the State Team Championship, having also been named to the 2013 and 2015 squads. She qualified for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, making the Round of 32; and also qualified for the 2017 championship. She finished second in the 2015 WSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur, tied for second in the 2016 championship, and second again in the 2017 event. She finished runner-up in the 2016 PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur. Farmer-Sese was named the 2016 WSGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year.
This is the first appearance for Huo in the Women’s State Team. She recently graduated from Seattle University, where she played four years on the women’s golf team. She competed in the 2015 Trans-National Women’s Amateur, and finished 11th in both the 2016 and 2017 WSGA Women’s Amateur. In the 2016 PNGA Women’s Amateur, she made the Round 32, then made the Round 16 in the 2017 championship. She finished third in the 2016 BC Women’s Amateur, and was runner-up in the 2016 Washington State Women’s Golf Association Championship. Huo won the 2017 WSGA Women’s Champion of Champions.
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.
Click here for more information about the USGA Women’s State Team Championship.
This is the first USGA championship to be held at The Club at Las Campanas, a course that was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2000. This is just the second USGA event to be held in New Mexico.
Founded in 1922, the WSGA is a 501c4 non-profit, amateur golf association governed by men and women volunteers. Serving over 68,000 individual members at more than 550 member golf clubs and 270 golf courses throughout the state of Washington and Northern Idaho, the WSGA works to continually expand the game of golf to people of all backgrounds.
The WSGA also serves as a statewide representative of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and works closely with a number of allied associations within the golf industry for the betterment of the game.
