(Dupont, WA)
The 8th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship makes its return to the Pacific Northwest this week starting on Saturday, May 13th, and concluding on Wednesday, May 17th at The Home Course in Dupont. The Championship was first held in 2015 where Mika Liu and Rinko Mitsunaga won 4&3 at Bandon Dunes. The tournament has been held every year since then, with the exception of 2020, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, Georgia teens Thienna Huynh and Sara Im won 1 up last year in Puerto Rico and will be competing this year.
The Home Course will be playing around 6,500 yards this week at Par 72. There are 64 sides (128 players) competing this week, with competitors ranging from 13 years old, to 64 years young. The youngsters are flooding the field, as the average age of the participants is 20.34, with over half the field being teenagers. 28 different states and the District of Columbia are being represented at the Championship, California leads the field with 22 players being from The Golden State and three golfers will be representing Washington. There will also be 10 different countries being represented at this year’s event.
Qualifying took place in the fall as teams at 26 different sites attempted to qualify their way into the tournament. Qualifying was just 18 holes at each site, with every site getting a different amount of sides that would automatically qualify. Most sites had just one or two sides that were guaranteed a spot with alternates being awarded as well. One site had five spots up for grabs, with three of those spots being won with scores of 63. To be eligible for the event, you must be an amateur whose handicap doesn’t exceed 14.4.
One of the local competitors is Angela Zhang of Bellevue, WA. WA Golf wrote a piece on her this week, highlighting the recently turned, 14 year old. Angela and her playing partner, Alice Zhao of Irvine, California, qualified for the tournament with a 65 (7 under) at The Home Course last September while they were both 13-year-olds. Zhang won the 2022 Washington Women’s Amateur and was the youngest player to ever win the championship at age 13. Zhang, who is just in eighth grade was named the Washington Golf Junior Girls’ Player of the Year and will be attending Bellevue High School this upcoming fall. Her playing partner, Zhao, was a co-medalist last year at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which was played at Chambers Bay. In the two days of stroke play competition, Zhao shot 10 under, to tie her with two other players to bring home co-medalist honors. Zhang and Zhao will be teeing off at 11:35 AM Saturday to begin their quest to be the youngest U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Champions.
There is one duo from Washington who will be competing this week, a pair of Gonzaga Bulldogs, Grace Lee, and Taylor Mularski. Lee was the West Coast Conference’s Freshman of the Year and finished fifth individually at the WCC Championship, which was held at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton. She is familiar with winning at The Home Course, as Lee won the 2019 Pacific Northwest Junior PGA. This will be Mularski’s first USGA event, whose resume includes the 2021 Spokane Area High School title and Greater Spokane League MVP. Lee and Mularski will be part of the first group teeing off at 7:00 AM, Saturday morning.
The format is on Saturday and Sunday, the teams will play 18 holes of stroke play each day, and the top 32 teams will advance to the match-play portion of the Championship. On Monday, the Round of 32 will take place, then on Tuesday the Round of 16 matches will take place in the morning, while in the afternoon the Quarterfinal matches will take place. The tournament will culminate on Wednesday where the two Semifinal matches will take place in the morning and the Championship match will take place in the afternoon.
The winners will receive a gold medal, custody of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Trophy for one year, a 10-year exemption from qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, exemptions into the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bell-Air Country club as well as the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior, U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, U.S. Senior Women’s Open, if age eligible, and the winners get their names inscribed on a plaque that recognizes all of the 2023 USGA champions that will be at the Hall of Champions at the USGA Golf Museum in New Jersey.
I will be on the grounds all day on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for coverage of the Championship. At the end of each day, I will have a recap of what took place during the day.