Park leads with course 64, Purdue teammates score holes-in-one
Tuesday, July 18, 2023 – Naperville, Ill.
The 123rd Women’s Western Amateur is underway at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville, Ill. The field includes 120 players from 29 states and 15 countries. The format for the week consists of a two-day stroke play qualifier with 32 players going into match play. The course is set at par 36-36-72, with a length of 6,325 yards.
The established course record 71 was set in 2006 by amateur Brittany Puls, a White Eagle club member with a yardage of 5,052.
Catherine Park set a new course record at White Eagle Golf Club and seized the clubhouse lead at the 123rd Women's Western Amateur.
When the LPGA Challenge was held at White Eagle in 1993-1994, the yardage was 6,274. During that professional event the course record 65 was set by four Tour players, two in 1993 and two in 1994 and had not been broken until today by University of Southern California (USC) Catherine Park from Santa Ana, Calif. She said,
“Today was a very solid round, my putts were draining, and my shots were very solid. I was very committed to everything, it was a very great day, the weather was not too hot.”
She said that the lowest round she shot previously was another 64 in May of this year during the NCAA Tournament. She felt the hardest hole today was #7, the #1 handicap hole, where she got lucky when she drained a birdie putt. Her record 33-31-64, 8 under par, broke the LPGA record that had stood for 30 years.
Jasmine Koo from Cerritos, Calif. was the closest to Park as she shot 34-31-65. Jasmine serves as a Player Representative on the American Junior Golf Association’s Board of Directors. The USC commit is a two-time Rolex All American and has three AJGA victories and plans to attend USC in the fall of 2024.
In the afternoon round, 21-year-old Bentley Cotton from Austin, Tex. followed an even par 36 on the back nine with a six under 30 on the front nine for 66. She stated,
“I love the course and had pretty low expectations because I didn’t get to play a practice round. I had my U.S. Amateur qualifier yesterday in Dallas and flew up right after that and arrived here (at the club) about 6:00 PM and came out here and putted a little.”
She played a practice round here in June and said,
“When I played the practice round, I really liked the course because it is pretty different from Texas courses; the bent grass is really pure. The layout really makes you think and when the wind gets going, you really got to think as the course gets harder.”
Two Players Shoot Holes-In-One
Congratulations to Momo Sugiyama (left) and Natasha Kiel (right) on their holes-in-one today at White Eagle Golf Club!
Today was the first round of stroke play qualifying that included two holes-in-one. Starting on the back nine, Natasha Kiel from New Hope, Pa. scored the first one on the 12th hole, a 135-yard par 3.
Not long after Kiel’s ace, 21-year-old Momo Sugiyama from Carrara, Queensland, Australia also scored her hole-in-one on the 12th hole.
What are the odds that two players from two different countries would score an ace on the same hole and are teammates from Purdue University?
Tomorrow the second-round qualifier will start at 7:30 AM.