2009 USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championship Fact Sheet

Sept. 12 – 17, 2009
The Homestead – Cascades Course
Hot Springs, Va.

PAR AND YARDAGE - The Homestead’s Cascades Course will play at 5,515 yards and a par of 35-35—70.

ARCHITECT - The Cascades Course was designed by William Flynn and opened in 1923.

HOLE BY HOLE:

COURSE SETUP - The USGA Course Rating® for the Senior Women’s Amateur at The Homestead’s Cascades Course is 73.3 and USGA Slope Rating® is 130.

Tees, approaches and collars, height of grass – just below 0.5 inch
Fairways – 0.5 inch
Putting greens – 0.120 inch with a speed of 10.5 to 11 feet on USGA Stimpmeter
Primary Rough – 2.5 inches
Intermediate Rough – 1.5 inches (6-foot width)

USGA AND VIRGINIA - The 2009 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur will be the 17th USGA championship conducted in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The most recent USGA championship played in Virginia was the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg. It will be the eighth USGA championship and first Senior Women’s Amateur hosted by The Homestead.

Previously, the club has hosted the 2000 U.S. Mid-Amateur, the 1928 and 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, the 1988 U.S. Amateur, the 1980 USGA Senior Amateur, the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open and the 1966 Curtis Cup.

Year and Championship – Winner

2000 U.S. Mid-Amateur – Greg Puga def. Wayne Raath, 3 and 1
1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur – Wendy Ward def. Jill McGill, 2 up
1988 U.S. Amateur – Eric Meeks def. Danny Yates, 7 and 6
1980 USGA Senior Amateur – William Campbell def. Keith Compton, 3 and 2
1967 U.S. Women’s Open – a-Catherine Lacoste, 294 (10 over par), by two strokes over Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone
1966 Curtis Cup – USA def. GB&I, 13-5
1928 U.S. Women’s Amateur – Glenna Collett def. Virginia Van Wie, 13 and 12

WWW.USGA.ORG - For the latest news and scores during the championship, please visit www.usga.org or www.seniorwam.org.

ADMISSION - Admission and parking are free. Tickets are not needed for this USGA championship and spectators are encouraged to attend.

SCHEDULE OF PLAY - Championship competition will be in two stages: The 132 players eligible, including exempt players, will compete in 36 holes of stroke play to determine 64 qualifiers for match play.

• Saturday, Sept. 12 – First round, stroke play (18 holes)
• Sunday, Sept. 13 – Second round, stroke play (18 holes)
• Monday, Sept. 14 – First round, match play (18 holes)
• Tuesday, Sept. 15 – Second round, match play (18 holes); Third round, match play (18 holes)
• Wednesday, Sept. 16 – Quarterfinals, match play (18 holes); Semifinals, match play (18 holes)
• Thursday, Sept. 17 – Final, match play (18 holes)

WHO CAN PLAY - The USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship is open to amateur female golfers who will have reached their 50th birthday by Sept. 12, 2009, and who have a USGA Handicap Index® not exceeding 18.4.

QUALIFYING - Sectional qualifying (18 holes, stroke play) was held at 22 sites Aug. 6-18.

ENTRIES - A total of 502 contestants entered the 2009 championship. The record of 543 entries was set in 2006.

EXEMPT PLAYERS - There are 15 players fully exempt from qualifying for the 2009 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship:

Mary Budke, Eugene, Ore. – 1972 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion
Carolyn Creekmore, Dallas, Texas – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur semifinalist
Susan Dye, England – USGA Special Exemption
Joan Higgins, Glendora, Calif. – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist
Diane Lang, Jamaica – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion
Boodie McGurn, Richmond, Va. – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist
Noreen Mohler, Bethlehem, Pa. – USGA Special Exemption
Claudia Pilot, Austin, Minn. – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur semifinalist
Robyn Puckett, Irvine, Calif. - 2007 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur semifinalist
Tanna Lee Richard, Fort Smith, Ark. – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist
Anne Sander, Seattle, Wash. – USGA Special Exemption
Anna Schultz, Rockwall, Texas – 2007 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur semifinalist
Marlene Stewart Streit, Canada - 2003 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion
Carol Semple Thompson, Sewickley, Pa. – 2008 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist
Chris Utermarck, Germany – 2008 Senior Ladies’ British Open Amateur champion

HISTORY - The first USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship was played in 1962 at the Manufacturers’ Golf and Country Club in Oreland, Pa. In its 47 years of competition, the championship has had 25 different winners. Eleven golfers have won the title more than once.

The event began as a stroke-play competition but moved to match play in 1997, becoming the last of the 10 national amateur championships to adopt a match-play format. Sectional qualifying was first conducted for the 2000 championship.

The first Senior Women’s Amateur Championship was a stroke-play showdown of two longtime rivals. Maureen Orcutt, a four-time Curtis Cup player, finished with a 54-hole score of 240, seven strokes ahead of Glenna Collett Vare. In the 1920s and 1930s, Vare reigned as this country’s finest woman player with a record six victories in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Great players of the past have thus far dominated the Senior Women’s Amateur. Carolyn Cudone, another former Curtis Cup Team member, won the championship five times in succession from 1968 to 1972. Dorothy Porter won four Senior Women’s Amateur Championships and is one of only four players to have also captured the U.S. Women’s Amateur. In 1993, Anne Sander, the Women’s Amateur champion in 1958, 1961 and 1963, won her fourth Senior Women’s Amateur.

Marlene Stewart Streit, the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion in 1956, won the Senior Women’s Amateur in 1985, 1994 and 2003, and has finished as runner-up a record five times. The 47-year span between Streit’s first and last USGA titles is the longest among all USGA champions. Carol Semple Thompson won the 1973 Women’s Amateur and the 1990 and 1997 Women’s Mid-Amateur, and captured her fourth consecutive Senior Women’s Amateur title in 2002.

2008 CHAMPION - Diane Lang, a native of Jamaica now residing in Weston, Fla., defeated Toni Wiesner of Fort Worth, Texas, 6 and 5, at Tulsa (Okla.) Country Club for her third Senior Women’s Amateur title in four years. Lang will defend her title this year. Wiesner passed away in July 2009.

FOR THE WINNER - The champion receives:

• A gold medal, and custody of the Senior Women’s Amateur Championship Trophy for the ensuing year
• An exemption to the next 10 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championships
• An exemption from sectional qualifying for the next two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships
• An exemption from sectional qualifying for the next two U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships, if otherwise eligible
• An exemption from sectional qualifying for the next two U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championships, if otherwise eligible

THE TROPHY - The USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship Trophy was first presented in 1962 by the United States Golf Association and Friends of Senior Golf.

FUTURE SITES - The 2010 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur will be played at Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., Oct. 9-14. The 2011 championship will be played at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., Sept. 10-15.

USGA MEDIA CONTACT - Rhonda Glenn will be the USGA media representative on-site. Prior to the championship, she can be reached at (352) 347-1932 or by e-mail at rglenn@usga.org.