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By Chris Lang
KESWICK – By winning the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, Lauren Greenlief earned a two-year exemption from qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
With that exemption spent, she had earn her spot in the field at this year’s championship the hard way. On a scorching Monday at Glenmore Country Club, the Ashburn resident and International Country Club came out hot, making eagle on her first hole and setting the tone for a 7-under-par 65 that earned her qualifying medalist honors.
Greenlief, Richmond’s Caroline Curtis (Hermitage CC) and Potomac Falls’ Katie Reilly (Trump National GC Washington D.C.) claimed the three available spots for the championship proper, which will be held Aug. 6-12 at The Golf Club of Tennessee in Kingston, Tenn.
Greenlief will be making her sixth appearance in the championship and will be looking to qualify for match play for the first time. Curtis and Reilly will both be making their U.S. Women’s Amateur debuts.
Greenlief, the reigning VSGA Women’s Amateur Champion, tamed Glenmore to the tune of six birdies, an eagle and a bogey. She was 4 under after four holes and cruised home with the 65.
“What I did today was to try to be aggressive,” Greenlief said. “The greens are soft, so I was pretty much just firing in at all of the pins. It was pretty rare that I had longer than 20 feet for my first putt on any hole. It was pretty consistent. It was a pretty low-stress round.”
Curtis, Reilly and Kristin Hearp (Hidden Valley CC) all shot 70 to tie for second. The final two spots were decided on the first playoff hole, the par-5 1st. Hearp found trouble with her second shot, landing in a pot bunker. Curtis and Reilly both hit the green in regulation, with Reilly hitting her 9-iron approach to five feet. She converted for birdie, Curtis made a two-putt par, and Hearp made bogey.
Hearp will be the first alternate out of the site. Louise Yu of Duluth, Ga., will be the second alternate.
Curtis, a rising senior at Collegiate School in Richmond who will play her college golf at Alabama, has participated in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, but this will be her debut in an individual USGA championship. She birdied three of her first five holes, made a bogey on No. 7, and parred out for her 70.
“I haven’t played my best golf this spring,” said Curtis, who was a finalist in last year’s VSGA Women’s Amateur. “But I had a tournament last week and I just worked on my swing a little bit. On the last day, I felt like I broke through. And I think that carried over into this week. I got my confidence back, started playing a lot better, making more shots and just playing like myself, which was really good.
Today, I did a good job of taking it one shot at a time. These qualifiers are tough. You only have 18 holes. One bogey, and everything can start to snowball. I think I did a really good job of staying in the moment, and that’s what really helped me today.”
Reilly, who begins her senior year at Elon University next month, played 19 holes of bogey-free golf and made birdies at Nos. 8 and 11 to earn her spot in the field. She’s made steady improvement this summer and contended in last month’s VSGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship.
“It definitely boosts my confidence,” Reilly said. “I’ve never played at this level before. Every summer, I’ve just been improving. To be going into my senior year of college and finally competing at this type of level, it’s great. It definitely boosts my confidence going into my last year of Division I golf.”
Lang is the editor of Virginia Golfer magazine and the VSGA’s manager, digital media.