The United States Women’s Amateur Championship took place Aug. 7-13 at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista. Dean Knuth, San Diego Country Club member and general chairman of this year’s tournament, termed the nationally-telecast golfing event “a great success.”
“The golf course was in great condition and looked great on television,” Knuth said. “The USGA called it magnificent and the championship agronomist for the USGA said that the greens were better than at this year’s U.S. Open and Women’s Open.
“He was amazed in the consistency between greens and said that the firmness meter measured only two one-thousandths differences over the entire course, which no one has achieved. And, the weather was perfect the entire nine days.”
All around, it was a win-win situation both for the San Diego Country Club and the golfing world.
In fact, Knuth related that the USGA declared that the San Diego Country Club set a new standard in hosting their championships. “The staff manager said that we are the best host that she has ever seen,” he said. “Our members were welcoming and enthusiastic.”
Knuth said the latter was evident to the players from the day they registered until they left.
Many local families hosted the golfers during the tournament so they could concentrate on their game.
Knuth called the qulality of golf “exceptional.”
World-class golfers from 21 countries participated in the Chula Vista event. France’s Shannon Aubert captured medalist honors for the opening two days of stroke-play with a 7 under par score.
Knuth said Aubert set a new women’s competitive record at club with a round of 66 “from essentially the white tees.”
Aubert, who attends Stanford University, stayed at the home of Dave and Wendy Rowlands during the competition.
Sophia Schubert, a Tennessee native and rising senior star at the University Texas, prevailed in the 36-hole final match over Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela, another collegiate golfer attending Stanford.
An estimated 500 spectators attended the finals.
The match that made the biggest news at this year’s tournament took place on Aug. 11 when 13-year-old C.J. Wu (pronounced “Oo”) from Chinese Taipei held-off world-ranked Lauren Stephenson by prevailing on the 30th hole. The 12 extra holes is a USGA record and Wu made a 69-foot putt on 18 to keep the match going.
Knuth noted that Fox Sports carried the match one-and-a-half hours overtime into prime time on the East Coast and there were more than one million Internet hits on the match worldwide.
“The really great result of the championship was that we raised $200,000 more than our total cost and that money will be going to two junior golf charities in the community to help inner-city kids,” Knuth explained.
