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U.S. Women's Amateur Championship

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JoAnne Carner - U.S. Women's Amateur

JoAnne Carner won the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship five times.

Photo courtesy of the LPGA; used with permission

About the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship:

The U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, conducted by the USGA, is open to female amateurs with USGA Handicaps not exceeding 5.4. Qualifiers are played around the country. The Women's Am was first played in 1895; the first tournament was stroke play; all ensuing tournaments culminate in match play. The winner receives possession of the Robert Cox Cup for one year, and a gold medal.

Format
A field of 156 golfers is cut to the top 64 following two days of stroke play. Those 64 move on to single-elimination match play culminating in a 36-hole championship match.

2009 Tournament
Jennifer Song defeated Jennifer Johnson 3 and 1 to win her second USGA championship of the year. Song won the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links just a few weeks earlier.

2008 Recap
Amanda Blumenherst went 1-down to Azahara Munoz on the 18th hole of the morning session in the championship match, then fell 2-down after the 25th hole. But Blumenherst, a senior-to-be at Duke University, squared the match by the 28th hole and wound up winning her first USGA championship, 2 and 1.

Official Web site

U.S. Women's Amateur Championship Records:

Most Wins
Most consecutive wins
  • 3 - Beatrix Hoyt, 1896-98
  • 3 - Alexa Stirling Fraser, 1916-20 (not played 1917-18)
  • 3 - Glenna Collett Vare, 1928-30
  • 3 - Virginia Van Wie, 1932-34
  • 3 - Juli Inkster, 1980-82
Youngest Champion
  • Kimberly Kim, 2006 (14 years, 11 months, 21 days)
Oldest Champion
Largest Winning Margin in Final
  • 14 and 13 - Anne Quast Sander def. Phyllis Preuss, 1961

U.S. Women's Amateur Championship Golf Courses:

The U.S. Women's Amateur rotates to different courses each year. Here are the coming sites and most recent sites:

Future Sites

  • 2010 - Charlotte Country Club, Charlotte, N.C.
  • 2011 - Rhode Island Country Club, Barrington, R.I.
  • 2012 - The Country Club, Cleveland, Ohio
Recent Sites
  • 2008 - Eugene Country Club, Eugene, Ore.
  • 2007 - Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind.
  • 2006 - Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club (Witch Hollow Course) North Plains, Ore.
  • 2005 - Ansley Golf Club, (Settindown Creek Course), Roswell, Ga.
Full List of U.S. Women's Amateur Golf Courses

U.S. Women's Amateur Championships Trivia and Notes:

  • The first U.S. Women's Amateur Championship was also the first significant women's golf tournament of any kind in the U.S. Lucy Barnes defeated a field of 12 others for the first title, the only one fully contested at stroke play.

  • Beatrix Hoyt, who won the 1896-98 championships, was the granddaughter of a Supreme Court chief justice, Salmon P. Chase. Chase also served as a U.S. senator and governor of Ohio.

  • JoAnne Carner won five U.S. Women's Am titles, plus one U.S. Girls Junior and two U.S. Women's Opens, for a total of eight USGA championships. Only Bobby Jones (nine) won more USGA titles.
  • Jenny Chuasiriporn had one of the great "almost" years in 1998. She almost won the U.S. Women's Amateur, losing to Grace Park in the final (albeit by a sizable margin, 7 and 6); and she almost won the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur, losing a 19-hole playoff to Se Ri Pak.

  • The first foreign-born winner was Dorothy Campbell Hurd, a native of Scotland, in 1909.

  • Glenna Collett Vare won six times, and lost two times in the final, for a record total of eight times in the championship match.
  • In 1907, the Curtis sisters met in the championship match. Margaret Curtis defeated Harriott Curtis, 7 and 6.

  • The only meeting of a mother and daughter in match play during the U.S. Women's Amateur happened in 1962, when Jean Trainor defeated her daughter Anne Trainor in a second-round pairing.

    • U.S. Women's Amateur Championship Winners:

    Recent Winners
    2009 - Jennifer Song def. Jennifer Johnson, 3 and 1
    2008 - Amanda Blumenherst def. Azahara Munoz, 2 and 1
    2007 - Maria Jose Uribe def. Amanda Blumenherst, 1-up
    2006 - Kimberly Kim def. Katharina Schallenberg, 1-up
    2005 - Morgan Pressel def. Maru Martinez, 9 and 8
    2004 - Jane Park def. Amanda McCurdy, 2-up
    2003 - Virada Nirapathpongporn def. Jane Park, 2 and 1
    Full List of U.S. Women's Amateur Champions

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