Jordan Ferreira of University Place, Wash. shot a 1-under par 71 in the second round of the 21st Washington State Women’s Amateur to take a commanding five-shot lead into tomorrow’s final round. Denise Kieffer, also of University Place, leads the 15th Washington State Senior Women’s Amateur by two, while Carol Dick of Lakewood, Wash. will be making a bid to go wire-to-wire in the Washington State Super Senior Women’s Amateur.
The three championships are conducted by the Washington State Golf Association, and are being held concurrently at Port Ludlow (Wash.) Golf Club.
In today’s second round, Ferreira shot the low round of the championship so far. With three birdies against two bogeys, it is the only round under par out of the entire field, and after yesterday’s round of even-par 72, her two-day total is 1-under par 143.
Ferreira, 19, just finished her freshman year playing on the women’s golf team at the University of Notre Dame. Last month she set a course record in qualifying for last week’s U.S. Women’s Open. Ferreira is a two-time WSGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year.
Tied for second, five shots behind Ferreira, is Christina Proteau of Port Alberni, B.C. and Alivia Brown of Gig Harbor, Wash. Proteau is better known as a mid-amateur player who is a two-time defending champion of the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur and has been named the PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year the past two years.
Brown had started the second round tied for the lead with Ferreira. She just graduated from Bellarmine Prep, and in the fall will be playing on the women’s golf team at Washington State University.
Defending champion Mallory Kent of Tukwila, Wash. is in eighth place, 13 shots behind Ferreira. Kent had a hole-in-one today on the 170-yard par-3 12th hole.
Kieffer, who has finished in the top 10 of the Senior Women’s Amateur the past three years, had the hot round today which included three birdies, as well as an eagle on the short par-5 ninth hole. She was 2-under par for the day standing on the tee at No. 18, but made a triple-bogey seven on the finishing hole. “I think I got a little excited standing on the tee (at 2-under),” Kieffer said with a laugh. “And I jacked my tee shot into the woods, hacked it out, and ended up with triple. The course is good; it’s tight, and tricky.”
Kieffer had started the day six shots behind first round leader Alison Murdoch of Victoria, B.C. Three past champions are within striking distance of Kieffer going into tomorrow’s final round. Murchoch, who won in 2010, is alone in second; Yasue Alkins of DuPont, Wash., the 2012 champion, is in third place, four shots back; and Lisa Smego, the defending champion from Olympia, Wash., is in fifth place.
Carol Dick of Lakewood, Wash. maintained a 4-shot lead after two rounds in the Super Senior Women’s Amateur.
For tomorrow’s final round, the leaders will be teeing off at 11:30 a.m.
Past champions of the Washington State Women’s Amateur have gone on to make their mark in the golf community, and include Paige Mackenzie (2002), a member of the University of Washington Athletic Hall of Fame who finished her senior year ranked the No. 1 golfer in the nation by Golfweek, and who currently plays on the LPGA Tour; Kelli Kamimura (2001), a former four-time high school state champion and All-American at the UW, who now is the head coach of the women’s golf team at Washington State University; Jimin Kang (1999), who was the runner-up at the 1999 U.S. Women’s Amateur while still in high school, and who now plays on the LPGA Tour; Molly Cooper (1997, 2000), who was the medalist at the 2000 U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier, and who now is the Director of Tournament & Member Programs at the Pacific Northwest Section PGA; Renee Skidmore (2005), who recently competed on the Golf Channel’s Big Break series; and Erynne Lee (2011), who was selected the WSGA Women’s Player of the Year in three consecutive years, made it to the quarterfinals or better of the U.S. Women’s Amateur three times, and is now a rising star on the UCLA women’s golf team.