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By Chris Lang
MANAKIN-SABOT — Paula Reto was on the green, mere feet from qualifying for the United States Women’s Open on Monday evening at Hermitage Country Club. Then the skies darkened, and within minutes, a fast-moving, high-wind storm forced a suspension of play. Lightning painted the skies surrounding the club. The day was over. The putt would have to wait.
Reto is participating in this week’s LPGA Kingsmill Championship and had secured housing in Williamsburg for the week. So she drove two hours round trip on Tuesday morning to finish her round with a two-putt par and claim qualifying medalist honors.
Reto posted a 10-under 134 over 36 holes of qualifying, including a second-round 65 that tied for best round of the day. Reto, who is from South Africa and played college golf at Purdue, was on fire on a hot, muggy Monday on Hermitage’s Manakin Course, finishing with 12 birdies and two bogeys. Her 134 was the best round in U.S. Women’s Open qualifying this year, beating out Kris Tamulis’ 135 at Florida’s Sugar Mill Country Club.
Reto will be making her second U.S. Women’s Open appearance. She missed the cut last year. Her performance at Hermitage could mark a change in fortunes for this week’s event at Kingsmill. She had missed the cut in six of her previous seven starts.
Professionals claimed three of the four qualifying spots at Hermitage. Xiyu Lin, a 22-year-old LPGA Tour member, qualified for her fourth U.S. Women’s Open by posting a 7-under 137. She shot 69 in the morning and 68 in the afternoon, finishing just ahead of the storm. Lin made just two bogeys in her 36 holes. She’ll look to better her T-26 finish in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open, which also represented her only made cut in the event.
Lin’s best ever finish in the U.S. Women’s Open came in 2016, when she tied for 26th. That was her only made U.S. Women’s Open cut.
The lone amateur to advance to the championship proper in Shoal Creek, Ala., was Gina Kim, a highly regarded junior who will begin her college career in the fall at Duke University. Kim, who attends Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina, was a member of the 2017 Junior Solheim Cup and 2016 Junior Ryder Cup teams. She’s currently ranked 55th in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Kim posted the best round of the morning, a 5-under 67 that featured six birdies and a bogey. She was steady in the afternoon with two birdies and a bogey, enough to help her to a 6-under, 138 finish.
Kim tied with LPGA player Julieta Granada for the final qualifying spot. Granada, a 31-year-old Paraguayan, will participate in the U.S. Women’s Open for the 11th time, though she’ll be looking to make her first cut since 2014. Her best finish came in 2007, when she tied for 10th. Granada was the flagbearer for Paraguay at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
Granada was four shots out of qualifying position after returning an opening-round 73 Monday. But she started her second round with a flurry of birdies, making four in her first five holes to vault back into contention. She played the rest of her bogey-free round at 3 under for a 7-under 65, earning her a qualifying spot.
On Tuesday morning, LPGA players Lindy Duncan, Tiffany Joh and Vicky Hurst competed in a 3-for-2 playoff for the two alternate spots. Hurst was eliminated on the first playoff hole, and Duncan earned the first alternate spot after making a par on No. 9, the second playoff hole. Joh, who bogeyed the second playoff hole, will be the second alternate.
Chris Lang is the Editor of Virginia Golfer Magazine and Manager, Digital Media for the VSGA.