Entries have closed for the 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, scheduled for Aug. 3-9, 2020, at Woodmont Country Club’s North Course in Rockville, Md., and the field is nearly complete as the USGA prepares to host its first all-exempt championship in recent history next month.
As previously announced, the field for the championship will be made up entirely of exempt players due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spots still remain for winners and runners-up of the 2020 North & South Women’s Amateur, the Women’s Western Amateur and the Ladies National Golf Association championships.
Thirteen USGA champions are among the 126 players currently in the field, which has been reduced to 132 players for 2020. They include the defending U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, Gabriela Ruffels, of Australia, as well as Kelsey Chugg (2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Hailee Cooper (2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Megan Furtney (2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Lauren Greenlief (2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Shannon Johnson (2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Ina Kim-Schaad (2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Kaitlyn Papp (2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Ellen Port (2012, 2013, 2016 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur; 1995, 1996, 2000, 2011 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Julia Potter-Bobb (2013, 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Erica Shepherd (2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior, 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Meghan Stasi (2006, 2007, 2010, 2012 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), and Lei Ye (2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior).
The field also features 14 of the amateurs who competed in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.), including low amateur Gina Kim, who tied for 12th at 1-under-par 283, and Rose Zhang, who finished in a tie for 55th.
In addition, 25 of the top 50 players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking® (as of July 8) are in the field, including No. 5 Emilia Migliaccio, of Cary, N.C.; No. 8 Zhang, of Irvine, Calif.; No. 9 Caterina Don, of Italy; No. 11 Ruffels, of Australia; No. 12 Papp, of Austin, Texas; and No. 15 Sofia Garcia, of Paraguay.
Aneka Seumanutafa, a rising junior at The Ohio State University, is the lone representative from the host state of Maryland, residing in Emmitsburg, approximately an hour from Rockville. Virunpat
Olankitkunchai, of Thailand, is a rising senior at the University of Maryland who became the first Terrapin in program history to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2019.
Woodmont Country Club is hosting its first USGA championship. It hosted U.S. Open final qualifying 32 out of 33 years since 1986, as well as three U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers. The U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was first conducted in 1895 as one of the USGA’s first three championships. It is open to female amateurs who have a Handicap Index® not exceeding 5.4. Notable champions include Juli Inkster, Glenna Collett Vare, Patty Berg, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Carol Semple Thompson, Beth Daniel, Danielle Kang, and Lydia Ko.
USGA Release, July 14, 2020
