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US Senior Women’s Open Added to USGA Championships

By Elizabeth Bethel

Jun 15, 2015; University Place, WA, USA; General view of USGA flags on top of the 18th grandstand during practice rounds on Monday at Chambers Bay. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 15, 2015; University Place, WA, USA; General view of USGA flags on top of the 18th grandstand during practice rounds on Monday at Chambers Bay. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports /
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An early look at the USGA’s new national championship, the US Senior Women’s Open, promises some world-class senior golf competition!

The US Senior Women’s Open, the newest of the USGA’s national amateur and pro-am championships, will begin conducting sectional qualifying events for the inaugural contest at the Chicago Golf Club, July 12-15, 2018. If you’re a women’s golf fan, get this one on your calendar.

You might also give some thought to 2019 as well, when the Senior Women’s Open will tee it up at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club.

The USGA’s Diana Murphy explained to Ron Sirak that the venues are critical to the new championship’s success:

"We are thrilled with the quality of these courses. We think having venues of this quality will help grow girls’ golf and women’s golf."

Eligibility

If you’re a low-handicap amateur who’s passed the half-century mark you can get in on this one. The field will be open to women pros and amateurs with an index no greater than 7.4 who have reached their 50th birthday by the first day of the championship.

As is the case with other USGA national championships, including the US Open and the US Women’s Open, the field of 120 players will be determined by a combination of exemption categories and sectional qualifiers.

USGA Championship Committee chair Stuart Francis explained what many of us who follow the women’s game already knew:

". . . the U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship will provide the game’s ultimate test for some of the most decorated women in golf, both professional and amateur . . ."

A Long-Overdue Addition to the National Championships

Some might say the Senior Women’s Open is an overdue addition to the USGA championships. The inaugural US Senior Open (which, of course, really should read “Men’s Senior Open”) was contested at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY in 1981. Designed to “mirror the fledgling [PGA] Senior Tour,” the US Senior Open boasts a long list of notable champions, including Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin, all also US Open champions.

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Still, this is a case of better late than never. The USGA has an established track record of collaborations – most recently with The Masters Foundation and the PGA TOUR, for example to launch and sustain the fabulously successful Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship – that grow the game and simultaneously enhance amateur and pro satisfaction with playing golf.

An Early Look at the Field

Players who meet the exemption criteria and will be eligible in terms of their age for the inaugural US Senior Women’s Open include US Women’s Open champions Juli Inkster, Hollis Stacy, Amy Alcott, Pat Bradley, Laura Davies, and Liselotte Neumann. That’s certainly a good start for the field!

Add Dottie Petter, Kay Cockerill and Pearl Sinn, who hold ANA Inspiration and US Women’s Amateur championships. Lorie Kane will likely be eligible because she’s played in 10 US Women’s Opens. And this is just a preliminary list.

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We’ll watch for the USGA announcement of sectional qualifiers. I know there are some low handicap women out there who would thoroughly enjoy teeing it up at the Chicago Golf Club next year. I play golf with a couple of them!

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