| Jensen Castle wins the US Women's Amateur |
 - With a round of -2, 70 at Walnut Grove CC on Thursday, July 8th, Jensen Castle, tied for the 4th of just 6 positions in the US Women's Amateur Qualifier, missing a three-person playoff by just a shot. She started her round on that hot steamy day by making bogey's on the 5th and 7th holes before turning it on by birding 8, 12, 13 and 16 to bring it inside the qualifying number by just one shot. Once she reached the US Women's Amateur at Westchester CC just outside of New York City her first round of 79 left her outside of the number to make the match play field (The Low 64 reach the Match Play). Her second round score of 71, brought her into a tie for 63rd position with 11other golfers, one of them being Marissa Wenzler, from Centerville, this year's Western Women's Amateur Champion. To make Match Play she was going to have to survive a 12 for 2 playoff. The playoff only took one hole. She and Marissa, both teammates on the Kentucky Women's Golf Team, where the only two to birdie the 166 yard par 3 playoff hole. They would enter the Match Play Competition as the Number 63rd (Jensen) and 64th (Marissa) Seed. In the round of 64, Jensen went on to beat the number 2 seed, Kennedy Pedigo 3 & 2 and Marissa would beat the number 1 seed, Rachel Kuehn 1 up.  In the Round of 32, Marissa lost 3 & 2 to Hailey Borja, and Jensen beat Sophia Linder 1up. In the Sweet 16, Jensen defeated Jenny Bae 4 & 2. In the Quarterfinals, Jensen soundly defeated Emily Mahar from Australia 6 & 5 before in the Semifinals, winning in 19 Holes when her opponent, Rachel Heck missed a 2 footer on the last hole to win the match. On the first extra hole Jensen made about a 20 foot birdie putt and when Rachel missed her shorter putt, Jensen was into the finals. In the Finals, the morning 18 of the 36 hole championship match ended with Yu-Chiang (Vivian) Hou from Chinese Taipei being 2 up before Jensen stormed into the afternoon matches winning five of the first eleven holes before losing the 30th and 31st and then winning the 33th, losing the 34th and closing the match out when she made birdie on the 35th hole to win the 121st Women's Amateur Title. This is the second Champion that has come through the Walnut Grove qualifier as Sophia Schubert won the 2017 Championship at San Diego CC. For More |
