U.S. Women's Amateur Under Way

The U.S. Women's Amateur Championship is under way at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Oregon. Unfortunately, it is under way minus its defending champion, the effervescent Maria Jose Uribe of Colombia. Uribe played in the just-completed Women's British Open and was unable to make it back to Oregon for the start of stroke-play qualifying today.

But there are many great players who are there, and among the names to watch are:

• Amanda Blumenherst, the 3-time NCAA player of the year
• Tiffany Joh, the 2-time U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links champion (including earlier this year)
• Kimberly Kim, the 2006 U.S. Women's Am winner
• And 13-year-old Alexis Thompson, who qualified for the U.S. Women's Open at age 12 last year and won the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur two weeks ago

Stroke-play qualifying began today and continues Tuesday. The top 64 advance into the match-play draw. You can follow scoring on the official Web site.

The Golf Channel will have two hours of coverage daily during the match-play portion, Wednesday-Sunday (times Eastern) - 4-6 p.m. (ET) Aug. 6-9 and 5-7 p.m. (ET) for the final on Sunday.

See also:

• U.S. Women's Amateur winners
• U.S. Women's Amateur golf courses
• More on the U.S. Women's Amateur