U.S. Women's Amateur qualifying is set to commence on the Prospector Course at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash. on Tuesday, July 2, as 60 players will look to earn one of this qualifier's six available spots into the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, to be held at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.), August 5-11.
The Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) is the local representative of the USGA and conducts this qualifier for the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.
Players to watch are Cassy Isagawa, the University of Oregon freshman who last week won the BC Women's Amateur; Cyna Rodriguez of Manila, who won the 2008 PNGA Women's Amateur; Mallory Kent of Tukwila, Wash., who last week won the Washington State Women's Amateur; Chessey Thomas of Spokane, who won the 2012 PNGA Women's Amateur; and Aaren Ziegler of Canby, Ore., who won the 2011 PNGA Women's Amateur.
This year marks the 113th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. Along with the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open, the Women's Amateur was one of the USGA's first three championships.
The first U.S. Women's Amateur Championship was played one month after the 1895 Amateur and Open Championships. Although a stroke-play format was selected for the first championship, the Women's Amateur became a match-play competition in 1896, and has remained so ever since.
The defending champion is Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who would make history later in the summer by becoming the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour event when she won the CN Canadian Women's Open, and the first amateur to win an LPGA Tour event in 43 years.
The most noteworthy champion is the late Glenna Collett Vare, a lifelong amateur who won the Cox Cup a record six times. In the 1920s and 1930s, Vare was the darling of the sports world, much as Bob Jones was during that era. Second only to Vare is JoAnne Gunderson Carner, a member of the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame who won five Women's Amateur Championships. Combined with her two wins in the U.S. Women's Open and a single win in the U.S. Girls' Junior, Carner's record of eight USGA titles is eclipsed only by Jones and Tiger Woods, who have each won nine.
The U.S. Women's Amateur is one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association (USGA), 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.
