97th Women’s Western Junior starts Tuesday at Hinsdale Golf Club
HINSDALE, Ill. (June 10, 2024) – Hinsdale Golf Club will welcome top junior golfers from around the world for the 97th Women’s Western Junior on June 11-14.
First played in 1920, the Women’s Western Junior is the oldest national junior golf championship for young women in the United States. The tournament has served as a proving ground for many future LPGA Tour stars, including past champions Nancy Lopez (1972, 1973, 1974), Grace Park (1993), Cristie Kerr (1994) and Candie Kung (1998).
The event will mark the fourth Women’s Western Golf Association championship the historic Chicago-area club has hosted. One of 11 founding clubs of the Western Golf Association, Hinsdale Golf Club hosted the 1937 Women’s Western Junior and the Women’s Western Amateur in 1912 and 1914. Four WGA championships have been contested at Hinsdale, including the 1907 Western Open.
Competition will begin with 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying, after which the field of 78 will be cut to the low 16 players for match play. The champion will receive an exemption into the 2024 Women’s Western Amateur at Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, in July.
Suzie Tran, of Poulsbo, Washington, returns after a thrilling victory last year at Greenbriar Hills Country Club near St. Louis, and will have an opportunity this week to become the first player to repeat as champion of the event since Monique Gesualdi in 2003.
Tran, a Michigan commit, is one of 31 players in the field currently committed to compete at the NCAA Division I level. The field features standouts from 24 states and six countries worldwide, including:
Molly Brown Davidson of Springville, Alabama. Davidson was named a 2023 Rolex Junior All-American and the 2022 Alabama Junior Girls Player of the Year after winning the 2022 Alabama Women’s State Amateur and advancing to match play at the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior. The Alabama verbal commit also won the 2023 Dixie Women’s Amateur and has made the cut in two Epson Tour events.
Sophia Lin of Taipei, Taiwan. Lin will compete in her first WWGA championship after rattling off back-to-back wins last summer at the Kevin Harvick Foundation Junior Championship and Fresno-Clovis CVB Junior Championship. Lin competed in the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior and finished in the top 10 at the 2024 ANNIKA Hilton Grand Vacations Championship.
Lisa Copeland of Naperville, Illinois. Copeland’s WWGA resume includes a runner-up finish at the 2022 Women’s Western Junior at Prestwick Golf Club in Frankfort, Illinois, and a match play appearance in 2023 at Greenbriar Hills Country Club. Copeland also won Marion Miley Bracelet for low combined score in the Women’s Western Junior and Women’s Western Amateur in 2023.
Hadley Ashton of Erie, Colorado. A match play qualifier at the 2023 Women’s Western Junior, Ashton returns to the championship after posting seven top 10 finishes since 2023, including a pair of second-place finishes at the 2023 AJGA Colorado Junior and the 2024 AJGA Junior at Copper Valley. She is committed to Wisconsin.
Sayers Allen of Spring Branch, Texas. The Arkansas commit has reached the Sweet 16 of the Women’s Western Junior each of the past two years and finished second in stroke play in 2023. Allen posted six top 10s in 2023, including a runner-up finish at the AJGA Joplin Junior Championship.
“This year’s field is among the deepest, most talented we’ve seen in this championship’s history,” said WWGA President Susan Buchanan. “Hinsdale Golf Club will certainly be an excellent test for these future stars of the LPGA Tour, and we’re looking forward to crowning a worthy champion at this storied golf club.”
The roots of Hinsdale Golf Club can be traced back to 1893, when a group of 20 residents laid out a rudimentary six-hole golf course in a pasture that featured buried baking powder cans as holes. The club was officially incorporated in 1898 and moved to its present location one year later.
Herbert J. Tweedie designed the original nine holes with David Foulis and Jock Adams completing the enduring layout in 1909. Numerous architects have made small tweaks to the course over time, building a challenging test that features narrow, contoured fairways and elevated greens.
Hinsdale has also been a steadfast supporter of both the Women’s Western Golf Foundation and the Evans Scholars Foundation. The WWGF has been awarding scholarships to young women who play golf since 1971, while the ESF is a nonprofit administered by the WGA that has awarded full college tuition and housing scholarships to more than 13,000 youth caddies since 1930.
Hinsdale has had 84 of its caddies graduate as Evans Scholars. Three current Evans Scholars caddied at Hinsdale, and two Hinsdale caddies were awarded new Evans Scholarships earlier this year.
WWGA and WGA Championships Hosted by Hinsdale Golf Club
1937 Women’s Western Junior – Muriel Veatch, champion
1934 Western Junior – Fred Haas, Jr.
1924 Western Amateur – H.R. Johnson
1916 Western Junior – John Simpson
1914 Women’s Western Amateur – Mrs. H.D. Hammond
1912 Women’s Western Amateur – Caroline Painter
1907 Western Open – Bobby Simpson