Onwentsia Club Set To Host Elite Field In Historic Edition Of Women’s Western Amateur Championship
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (July 15, 2024) – The Women’s Western Amateur Championship returns to its founding site at Onwentsia Club this week, bringing a decorated field of international stars back to one of the Chicago area’s most historic clubs.
Held without interruption since the first playing at Onwentsia in 1901, the Women’s Western Amateur will return for the first time in 80 years on July 16-20. The championship attracts many of the top amateurs in the world, with past competitors going on to win a combined 135 major championships. Past winners include legendary stars Patty Berg and Louise Suggs as well as more recent standouts Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn.
With 33 of the top 200 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking set to compete this week, the field is the strongest in championship history. The list of collegiate stars and junior standouts includes players from 28 states and 12 countries, including:
Ole Miss senior Caitlyn Macnab of South Africa. A three-time Golfweek All-American, Macnab recorded seven top 10s during the 2023-24 collegiate season, including wins at the Mason Rudolph Championship and NCAA Bermuda Run Regional. Macnab recently went 3-1 for the International team at the Arnold Palmer Cup and is ranked No. 31 in WAGR.
Furman graduate Anna Morgan of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Ranked No. 29 in WAGR, Morgan was named the Southern Conference Female Athlete of the Year for a third consecutive year after posting four wins this season. Morgan also won the 2023 North & South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst and went 3-1 for the victorious United States team in the Arnold Palmer Cup.
Stanford graduate Sadie Englemann of Austin, Texas. The two-time Golfweek All-American reached the final of the 2023 Women’s Western Amateur and was the stroke play medalist in 2022. Englemann won the 2023 East Lake Cup and has won two NCAA team championships with Stanford in 2022 and 2024.
Texas sophomore Farah O’Keefe of Austin, Texas. O’Keefe was named both the 2024 Big 12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year after winning the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate and posting five top 10s. Ranked No. 35 in WAGR, O’Keefe competed for the United States in the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup and reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.
Clemson graduate Annabelle Pancake of Zionsville, Indiana. The 2024 Golfweek All-American finished runner-up at the 2022 Women’s Western Amateur and 2023 British Women’s Amateur. Pancake’s summer has already featured a win at the Sea Island Women’s Amateur, placing her 44th in WAGR.
Stanford junior Kelly Xu of Claremont, California. Ranked No. 48 in WAGR, Xu was a semifinalist at the 2023 Women’s Western Amateur and won the 2022 Ladies National Golf Association Amateur. Xu was also named a 2024 Golfweek All-American as a member of Stanford’s NCAA championship-winning squad.
Four previous Women’s Western Junior champions will seek to become the 11th player in history to win both WWGA championships.
Suzie Tran (2023) of Poulsbo, Washington
Jessica Mason (2022) of Westminster, Colorado
Mara Janess (2021) of Barrington, Illinois
Gabriella Gilrowski (2019) of Carmel, Indiana
A handful of players who competed in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, will also tee it up at Onwentsia this week: Huai-Chien Hsu of Taiwan; Katie Li of Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Keeley Marx of Australia; Julia Misemer of Overland Park, Kansas; and Caroline Smith of Inverness, Illinois.
The 2024 Women’s Western Amateur will be the fourth event in the Women’s Elite Amateur Golf Series, a new season-long competition that tests the best players in amateur golf over a series of five historic championships. Series leader Catie Craig of Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia, will compete this week after winning the North & South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst in June.
The championship will start with 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which the field will be cut to the low 32 players for match play. Five rounds of 18-hole matches will decide the Women’s Western Amateur champion.
Onwentsia has hosted the Women’s Western Amateur four times, last in 1944. It also hosted the 1899 U.S. Amateur, 1900 Western Amateur, 1906 U.S. Open and 2021 Western Junior. The first nine holes were designed by Charles Blair Macdonald while Herbert J. Tweedie, James Foulis and Robert Foulis completed the 6,400-yard layout in 1898. Tom Doak completed a renovation in 1996.