USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championship

Fact Sheet

Oct. 9-14 Pasatiempo Golf Club Santa Cruz, Calif.

PAR AND YARDAGE - Pasatiempo Golf Club will be set up at 5,790 yards with a par of 36-36--72.

THE COURSE - The golf course at Pasatiempo Golf Club was designed by Alister Mackenzie and opened in 1929. It was one of at least nine golf courses in California designed by the native Englishman, who earned degrees in medicine, natural science and chemistry from Cambridge University. Mackenzie lived in a house along the left side of the sixth fairway until his death in 1934.

ADMISSION - The public is invited. Both admission and parking are free.

DEFENDING CHAMPION - Marlene Streit of Canada became the oldest to hold a USGA title when, at age 69, she edged Nancy Fitzgerald of Carmel, Ind., in 23 holes at Barton Creek Resort and Club in Austin, Texas, to win the 2003 Championship. Streit squared the match by winning the 18th hole with a par 5 and then won it with par 5 on the fifth extra hole. It was the fourth USGA title for Streit, who also captured the 1956 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1985 and 1994 Senior Women's Amateurs.

"This is really something," said Streit. "If anyone had said I'd win another national championship after 2000, I wouldn't have believed it."

Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., had won the four previous Senior Women's titles.

MARLENE STREIT A HALL-OF-FAMER - Marlene Streit will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Nov. 15, 2004, along with professionals Isao Aoki, Tom Kite and Charlie Sifford. Held at the headquarters in St. Augustine, Fla., the ceremony will be televised by The Golf Channel.

A career amateur, Streit has won 15 national Canadian titles, including 11 Canadian Women's Amateurs. She has won four USGA titles, including the 1956 U.S. Women's Amateur. She won the 1953 British Ladies Amateur and the 1964 Australian Ladies Amateur as well.

Streit has been named Canadian Woman Athlete of the Year five times, and Outstanding Canadian Athlete of the Year in 1951 and 1956. She holds the Order of Canada and is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

WHO CAN ENTER- Open to female amateur golfers who will have reached their 50th birthday on or before Oct. 9, 2004, and have USGA Handicap Indexes not exceeding 18.4. Entries closed Aug. 18, 2004.

ENTRIES - The USGA accepted 394 entries for the 2004 championship. The record high of 418 was set in 2002.

EXEMPT PLAYERS - Fourteen exempt golfers are entered into this Championship, including five past champions:

Mary Budke of Eugene, Ore. – former U.S. Women’s Amateur champion (1972)

Marsha Butler of La Jolla, Calif. – 2002 semifinalist

Anne Carr of Seattle, Wash. – 2002 semifinalist

Carolyn Creekmore of Dallas, Texas – 2003 quarterfinalist

Nancy Fitzgerald of Carmel, Ind. – 1997 champion, 2003 runner-up

Maj-Britt Heden of Sweden – 2004 International European Senior Ladies champion

Jo-Ann Lindsay of Edina, Minn. – 2003 quarterfinalist

Pat Milton of Monroe Falls, Ohio – 2003 quarterfinalist

Sue Pidgeon of England – 2003 British Senior Ladies British Open Amateur runner-up

Anne Sander of Seattle, Wash. – 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1993 champion

Jean Smith of Eagle, Idaho – 1995 champion

Marlene Streit of Canada – 1985, 1994 and 2003 champion

Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickely, Pa. – 1999-2002 champion

Marianne Towersey of Newport Beach, Calif – 2003 semifinalist

CALIFORNIA QUALIFIERS - Marsha Butler of La Jolla and Marianne Towersey of Newport Beach are two Californians who are fully exempt into the Senior Women's Championship. Others who have earned spots through qualifying are:

Susie-Q Conklin of Sunnyvale, Calif.

Ginger Essick of Pleasanton, Calif.

Kathie Hetherington of Alamo, Calif.

Ann Lahey of Kentfield, Calif.

Kellie Magee of Mill Valley, Calif.

Nancy Markey of San Francisco, Calif.

Shelley Mayer of San Marcos, Calif.

Mima Suwa of Sunnyvale, Calif.

Sandy Szczerbin of San Ramon, Calif.

Sally Tomlinson of Merced, Calif.

Rose Marie Warren of Auburn, Calif.

Sandy Woodruff of Santa Cruz, Calif.

Note: Sandy Woodruff is a member at Pasatiempo Golf Club, where she is the current women's Club champion. This will be her fifth Senior Women's Amateur. She reached the quarterfinals in 1999, where she lost to four-time champion Carol Semple Thompson.

USGA ON THE WEB - Log on to the USGA internet site at www.usga.org/championships for the latest and most complete Senior Women's Amateur Championship information. The site will also provide stories and downloadable photographs daily. During stroke play and the first round of match play, scores will be posted after nine holes. During the balance of match play, scores will be posted hole-by-hole for each match. Please visit www.usga.org/championships or http://www.seniorwam.org. Following the final match, a champion's interview will be available online, complete with downloadable audio links in broadcast quality.

SCHEDULE - Championship play will be conducted from Oct. 9-14. Following 36 holes of stroke play (Oct. 9-10), the low 64 scorers will advance to match play. Match play rounds are listed below:

Oct. 11 (Monday) -- Round one matches

Oct. 12 (Tuesday) -- Rounds two and three

Oct. 13 (Wednesday) - Quarterfinal and semifinal round matches

Oct. 14 (Thursday) - Final round

FOR THE WINNER - The champion receives:

  • possession of the Senior Women's Amateur Championship trophy for the ensuing year
  • an exemption for all future USGA Senior Women's Amateur championships
  • an exemption for the next U.S. Women's Amateur Championship
  • an exemption for the next three U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championships,
  • an exemption for the next U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship

PASATIEMPO GOLF CLUB AND THE USGA - Pasatiempo is hosting its second USGA championship. It previously hosted the 1986 U.S. Women's Amateur, won by Kay Cockerill. Cockerill is now a TV golf announcer.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - Pasastiempo is celebrating its 75th anniversary in September. The Club opened in September 1929, just prior to the great stock market crash in late October of that year.

PASATIEMPO GUEST LIST - Pasatiempo has long been a get-away for celebrities, including the Vanderbilts, Rothchilds and Chryslers, but it also was a favorite stop for Babe Didrickson Zaharias and Joyce Wethered. Zaharias was arguably the best female athlete of the twentieth century. Wethered is considered by many to be the top English female golfer of all time.

THE VISION OF MARION HOLLINS - Marion Hollins was in her late 20s when she won the 1921 U.S. Women's Amateur title, beating Alexa Sterling of Atlanta, 5 and 4. A well-to-do New Yorker, she moved to California in the mid 1920s and in 1928 purchased the 570-acre tract that would become Pasatiempo Golf Club. She persuaded Alister Mackenzie to build the golf course that opened in 1929. She named it Pasatiempo, a Spanish phrase meaning the "passing of time."

PASATIEMPO HOLE-BY-HOLE - 5,790 yards, par 36-36--72;

Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out
Par 5 4 3 4 3 5 4 3 5 36
Yards 460 378 173 312 156 486 335 149 459 2,908

Hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In
Par 5 4 4 5 4 3 4 4 3 36
Yards 440 311 371 467 331 125 353 345 139 2,882

HISTORY OF CHAMPIONSHIP - The first USGA Senior Women's Amateur championship was played in 1962 at the Manufacturer's Golf and Country Club in Oreland, Pa. In its 42 years of competition, the championship has had 21 different winners. Ten golfers have won the title more than once.

The event moved to match play in 1997 and became the last of the 10 national amateur championships to adopt a match-play format. Sectional qualifying was first conducted for the 2000 championship.

USGA MEDIA CONTACT - The USGA media relations staff member on site will be Craig Smith. Call the USGA office at (908) 781-1040 until Oct. 6. He will be on site as of Oct. 7. The media center phone number will be (831) 427-3595. A cell phone contact number is (908) 216-3229.