History was made at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball as seven teams shared medalist honors at stroke-play qualifying. That’s the most for any USGA championship, surpassing the six players who medaled at the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bandon Dunes.
During an unseasonably warm and windy day at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington, the seven sides finished at 11-under 133 to top a crowded leaderboard. A total of 32 teams advanced to match play, with an 8-for-5 playoff moving into a Monday finish.
Defending champs Thienna Huynh, 19, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Sara Im, 18, of Duluth, Georgia, carried their momentum into 2023 as they shared medalist honors thanks to a nine-hole record of 30 on the front nine.
Match play begins on Monday with the Round of 32. With the NCAA Championship being held this week in Arizona, few college players were able to qualify for the event due to scheduling. That leaves a number of hotshot teen tandems in the field. In fact, there were 18 players in the field this week between the ages of 12 and 15.
Two teams of 14-year-olds advanced.
Here are five more teams to watch heading into match play:
Anna Davis and Kiara Romero
Anna Davis and Kiara Romero are one of seven teams to medal at the Four-Ball after rounds of 65-68. Davis, 17, gained national attention when she won the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur sporting a bucket hat and chill demeanor. The Auburn commit competed in three professional majors as a result of that victory.
Romero, who is also 17, heads to Oregon this fall. She defeated Saki Baba in the second round of the Girls’ Junior last year. Baba, of course, went on to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur that summer in dominating fashion. Romero’s older sister, Kaleiya, helped Pepperdine advance to this week’s NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Shannon Aubert and Calli Ringsby
Former Stanford teammates Calli Ringsby and Shannon Aubert missed the cut at last year’s Four-Ball but came out firing this year in Washington, where the duo shot 66-67 to take a share of medalist honors. The 27-year-olds, the oldest side to advance to match play, decided to forgo the professional ranks and instead launched careers in the tech industry.
“I’ll speak for myself,” said Aubert, “I feel old here.”
Aubert, a launch manager for a real estate technology company, first earned medalist honors in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur at San Diego Country Club. She also competed in the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Women’s Opens and represented her country in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in 2012. She speaks four languages and has lived in nine countries.
Ringsby, a software development product manager, is competing in her fourth USGA championship. She started her first business – CalliBay – when she was 12, selling items for others on eBay for a 20 percent commission. The team’s designated MacGyver at Stanford, Ringsby was relied upon to assess injuries and fix broken phones and bikes. She once made LPGA player Mariah Stackhouse a skateboard.
Angela Zhang and Alice Ziyi Zhao
Angela Zhang, 14, began her week with a bang when she drained a 25-foot birdie putting in a playoff to qualify for the U.S. Women’s at Pebble Beach. Zhang then flew back across the country to her home state of Washington for this week’s Four-Ball with partner Alice Ziyi Zhao.
The two 14-year-olds, who shared medalist honors after rounds of 66-67, are one of the the youngest teams in the field this week. Zhang and Zhao met five years ago at the IMG Academy Junior World Golf Championships. Zhao was co-medalist last year in stroke-play qualifying at the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay – at age 13.
Zhang became the youngest player to win the Washington Women’s Amateur last year at age 13, the same summer she won the state junior title. She also owns the competitive course record at The Home Course, a 7-under 65.
Molly Smith and Morgan Smith
The Smith sisters are one of six sibling sets in the field. Molly, 18, and Morgan, 19, are headed to UCF and Georgetown, respectively, in the fall. The Westford, Massachusetts, sisters shot 66-69 to cruise into match play in their championship debut.
Molly caused quite a stir earlier this month when she narrowly missed on advancing through a U.S. Open sectional against the men. Earlier this spring, Morgan and Molly became the first sister duo to compete in the Massachusetts Four-Ball Championship, taking a share of 68th out of 192 teams.
Bailey Shoemaker and Kaitlyn Schroeder
Eighteen-year-olds Kaitlyn Schroeder and Bailey Shoemaker finished runner-up in this championship last year at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico. Earlier this spring, Schroeder enrolled at Alabama as a redshirt freshman to get acclimated with college life. Shoemaker, who made the cut at least year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, heads to Southern Cal this fall.
Schroeder is the daughter of UNF men’s coach Scott Schroeder and was last year’s AJGA Player of the Year, winning both the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior and Junior PGA titles
