Amateurs at the Masters are one of the tournament’s great long-standing traditions. But amateurs at a major is not a storyline unique to Augusta National.
After the Masters ends on Sunday, there will be one last major on the 2020 calendar: the U.S. Women’s Open. Amateurs in this major present equally thrilling storylines. In 2019, Gina Kim finished T-12 at the Country Club of Charleston. She was 1 under and five shots back.
Earlier this fall at the ANA Inspiration, another LPGA major, Rose Zhang tied for 11th, just seven shots off the winning score of 15 under.
Zhang, who recently was named the Mark H. McCormack Medal winner for playing her way to the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, leads the list of amateurs who have earned an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Open, to be played Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston.
The following 20 players earned exemptions based on their WAGR position as of Nov. 4 and will join the 156-player field for next month.
No. 1 Rose Zhang, of Irvine, Calif.
No. 2 Ingrid Lindblad, of Sweden
No. 3 Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, of France
No. 5 Linn Grant, of Sweden
No. 6 Emilia Migliaccio, of Cary, N.C.
No. 7 Alessia Nobilio, of Italy
No. 8 Ho Yu An, of Chinese Taipei
No. 11 Benedetta Moresco, of Italy
No. 12 Agathe Laisne, of France
No. 13 Maja Stark, of Sweden
No. 14 Lucie Malchirand, of France
No. 15 Beatrice Wallin, of Sweden
No. 16 Olivia Mehaffey, of Ireland
No. 17 Lily May Humphreys, on England
No. 19 Kaitlyn Papp, of Austin, Texas
No. 20 Emma Spitz, of Austria
No. 22 Caterina Don, of Italy
No. 23 Amelia Garvey, of New Zealand
No. 25 Auston Kim, of St. Augustine, Fla.
No. 27 Allisen Corpuz, of Honolulu, Hawaii
Thirteen of the 20 amateurs joining the field will be making their U.S. Women’s Open debut. Corpuz, a fifth-year senior at USC, is the only amateur playing in her third U.S. Women’s Open.
With the addition of these players, 24 amateurs are currently in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open field. Gabriela Ruffels earned an exemption as last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur champion. Also in 2019, Lei (Angelina) Ye (U.S. Girls’ Junior) and Ina Kim-Schaad (U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) won USGA championships. Emily Toy won the 2019 Women’s Amateur Championship, conducted by The R&A.
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