Alexandra Austin (USGA Photo)
Alexandra Austin, of Fairfax, Va., who is six months pregnant with her first child, continued her inspiring performance on Tuesday in the 37th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, earning two victories and a berth in the quarterfinal round at historic Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass.
Austin, 31, who is competing in her fourth U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and has her husband, Josh Grove, as her caddie, matched her previous best showing in the championship, having reached the quarterfinal round last year at Stonewall in Elverson, Pa., where she lost to eventual champion Kimberly Dinh.
She will seek a spot in the semifinals on Wednesday at 7:40 a.m. EDT against Lindsay Gahm of Louisville, Ky., the No. 12 seed, who rallied to defeat 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion Judith Kyrinis of Canada, in 19 holes on Wednesday. Kyrinis, 60, a quarterfinalist last year, was seeking to become the oldest U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion by eight years.
Austin, who had the low score in stroke play (a 2-under-par 70 on Saturday) en route to the No. 4 seed, won her morning Round-of-32 match, 2 and 1, over Catherine Matranga of Fort Worth, Texas, then defeated good friend Clare Connolly, of Chevy Chase, Md., 3 and 2, in the Round of 16, gaining a bit of revenge for a 2021 loss in the Round of 64 at Berkeley Hall Club, in Bluffton, S.C.
“This was a fun match; we’re from the same area and play a lot of golf together,” said Austin, a two-time All-Big South player at Radford University who works as an insurance agent. “The first [U.S.] Mid-Am I played in, Clare beat me, so this was a fun comeback match to play against her.”
A relatively carefree attitude seems to be helping Austin this week.
“I’m just having fun – I feel like that’s the key to golf, to just have fun and don’t put pressure on yourself,” said Austin. “My feet are definitely barking. They’re hurting, but I think everyone’s are.”
No. 1 seed Jacqueline Setas, of East Lansing, Mich., also advanced to the quarterfinals, thanks to a pair of 1-up victories, with the uphill 360-yard, par-4 18th hole deciding each match. Setas, who played at Michigan State and now resides in Nashville, Tenn., made a 12-foot par putt on No. 18 to defeat Krystal Quihuis, of Pinehurst, N.C., in the Round of 32, and made a 17-foot birdie in the afternoon to complete a come-from-behind win over 2023 quarterfinalist Taryn Walker, of Prospect, Ky. Setas was 3 down to Walker through 12 holes before winning four of the last six holes.
“In the second match, I was always behind and trying to chase,” said Setas, 28, who battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2017 and was declared cancer-free one year later, following chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “I told myself I just need to make it to 18. I just kept plugging along. To make it even to 15 and 16 after being 3 down, I was happy to keep going and keep chasing.”
Like Austin, Setas’ best previous finish is the quarterfinal round, having lost in 2022 at Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., to eventual runner-up Aliea Clark in 19 holes.
Awaiting Setas is 2015 champion Lauren Greenlief, the No. 8 seed, who defeated Ashley Zagers, of Oldsmar, Fla., in 20 holes before ousting Mary Janiga Kartes, 2 and 1, in the Round of 16. Greenlief, 33, of Ashburn, Va., who made the ninth known hole-in-one in championship history in her Round-of-64 victory on Monday, won the title in her debut and has now reached the quarterfinals in five of the past six championships (the event was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19), although she has yet to get back to a final since 2015.
Greenlief’s morning victory featured a 30-foot birdie on No. 18 to extend the match, repeating a similar feat from five years ago.
“Very stressful morning; I have some experience making putts on 18,” said Greenlief, a three-time Virginia Women’s Amateur champion. “At Forest Highlands [in 2019], I also made a 30- to 35-foot birdie putt from off the green to extend a match. Ashley [Zagers] had a great lag putt from about 50 feet to 2½ feet this morning, so I knew I had to make it. It went right in the middle.”
Also advancing to the final eight on Tuesday were two-time champion Julia Potter-Bobb (2013, 2016), of Indianapolis, Ind.; Alexandra Vilatte Farret, of France; Sherry Zhong, of the People’s Republic of China; and Hana Ryskova, of Czechia. The three international players reaching the quarterfinals is a championship record; on three occasions, two international players have made it that far. Mary Ann Hayward (formerly Lapointe), of Canada, is the only international winner of this championship, in 2005.
Potter-Bobb, 36, the director of business operations and membership for the Indiana Golf Office, will take on Farret, 41, of Paris, a former Ladies European Tour professional. Zhong, 48, who played professionally for 12 years in Asia and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area two years ago, will take on Ryskova, 25, who recently completed her studies and golf career at the University of Louisville. She would be the first from Czechia to win any USGA title.
Potter-Bobb also finished runner-up in 2014 and is a three-time medalist or co-medalist (2013, 2016, 2019), but is back in the quarterfinals for the first time since her victory in 2016.
“It feels incredible; the last few years, I’ve either felt like my game should have gotten me to this point, but it didn’t, or something has come up,” said Potter-Bobb. “Just to be able to keep advancing and really testing myself, it’s just made this week very special for me.”
What’s Next
The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will take place on Wednesday, with the quarterfinals starting at 7:30 a.m. EDT and the semifinals scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. The 18-hole championship match is scheduled for Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Admission is free, and spectators are encouraged to attend.
Notable
- Five of the competitors in the Tuesday’s Round of 16 were international players, representing five countries (Canada, Czechia, France, Guatemala and the People’s Republic of China). That is the most international players to reach the Round of 16 in championship history, two more than last year at Stonewall in Elverson, Pa. The only other time that more than two players got to the Round of 16 before 2023 was in 2008, when three got to that round at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor, Mich.
- The three international players in the quarterfinal round is a championship record. Three times in the past, two international players made the Final 8. They were, in 2015, Mercedes Huarte of Argentina and Christina Proteau of Canada; in 2014, Proteau and Liisa Kelo Escartin of Mexico, and in 2005, Thuhashini Selvaratnam of Sri Lanka and Mary Ann Lapointe of Canada. Lapointe won the championship that year.
- At age 60, Judith Kyrinis was bidding to become the oldest Women’s Mid-Am champion. In 2008, Joan Higgins, of Glendora, Calif., captured the championship at age 52 with a 1-up victory over Lynn Simmons at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor, Mich. In 2017, Mary Jane Hiestand, 58, lost to Kelsey Chugg in the final at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas.
- The Round-of-16 match between No. 62 Sherry Zhong and No. 19 seed Ina Kim-Schaad, the 2019 champion, featured just three halved holes, with Zhong taking a 4-up lead before losing four straight holes, then winning Nos. 15 and 16 on the way to a 2-and-1 victory.