123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship – Inside the Field

The 123rd U.S. Women's Amateur Championship kicks off on Monday from Bel-Air Country Club.

The course twists and bends through four canyons and this George C. Thomas design will be a stern test for the 156 golfers competing.  Here's a look inside the field.

WHO’S HERE: A breakdown of the 156 golfers competing in the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Oldest Competitors: Sue Wooster, 61, of Australia.; Patricia Ehrhart, 57, of Birmingham, Ala.; Lara Tennant, 56, of Portland, Ore.

Youngest Competitor: Emily Song, 13, of Irvine, Calif.

Average Age of Field: 20.6

Field breakdown by age:

Age 13-15: 9 

Age 16-19: 65 

Age 20-25: 69 

Age 26-30: 4 

Age 31-40: 0 

Age 41-60: 4 

U.S. States Represented – There are 32 states represented in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur:  

Alabama (1), Arizona (3), Arkansas (2), California (29), Colorado (2), Delaware (3), Florida (10), Georgia (5), Hawaii (4), Idaho (1), Illinois (6), Indiana (2), Kansas (1), Kentucky (3), Massachusetts (2), Michigan (3), Minnesota (2), Mississippi (1), Nevada (3), New Jersey (5), New York (1), North Carolina (3), Ohio (2), Oregon (3), Pennsylvania (1), South Carolina (4), South Dakota (1), Tennessee (4), Texas (10), Utah (1), Virginia (3), Washington (1) 

International – There are 17 countries represented in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur:  

Australia (3), Barbados (1), Canada (8), Chile (1), Chinese Taipei (2), England (1), Germany (1), Hong Kong China (1), Japan (5), Malaysia (1), Mexico (2), People’s Republic of China (1), Philippines (1), Republic of Ireland (1), Sweden (1), Thailand (1), United States (122) 

USGA Champions (11): Blakesly Brock (2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Krissy Carman (2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Jensen Castle (2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur), Gianna Clemente (2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Thienna Huynh (2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Sara Im (2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Kiara Romero (2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Shelly Stouffer (2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Lara Tennant (2018, 2019, 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Yana Wilson (2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Avery Zweig (2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball) 

USGA Runners-up (6): Aliea Clark (2021, 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Gianna Clemente (2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Rianne Malixi (2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Brianna Navarrosa (2016 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball); Bailey Shoemaker (2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball), Casey Weidenfeld (2019, 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball) 

Curtis Cup Team Members (8): Amari Avery (USA, 2022), Jensen Castle (USA, 2021, 2022), Annabell Fuller (GBI, 2018, 2021, 2022), Megha Ganne (USA, 2022), Rachel Heck (USA, 2021, 2022), Rachel Kuehn (USA, 2021, 2022), Caley McGinty (GBI, 2021, 2022), Latanna Stone (USA, 2022) 

Most U.S. Women’s Amateur Appearances (2023 included): Rachel Heck (8), Latanna Stone (7), Megan Schofill (6) 

Top players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking® as of Aug. 2: 

No. 4 – Anna Davis 

No. 7 – Rachel Kuehn 

No. 10 – Amari Avery 

No. 19 – Andrea Lignell 

No. 20 – Megan Schofill 

No. 22 – Amanda Sambach 

No. 24 – Rachel Heck 

Players from California (29): Amari Avery (Riverside), Hailey Borja (Lake Forest), Camille Boyd (Yorba Linda), Jennifer Cai (Irvine), Caroline Canalas (Calabasas), Briana Chacon (Whittier), Bridget Chan tharath (Rowland Heights), Leigh Chien (Irvine), Anna Davis (Spring Valley), Olivia Duan (Cupertino), Chayse Gomez (Yorba Linda), Ellie Koo (Sherman Oaks), Jude Lee (Walnut), Elise Lee (Irvine), Sienna Lyford (Roseville), Madison Murr (Los Alamitos), Brianna Navarrosa (San Diego), Zixin Ni (Los Angeles), Bridget O’Keefe (Palo Alto), Nikki Oh (Torrance), Catherine Rao (Camarillo), Taylor Riley (San Diego), Kiara Romero (San Jose), Kaleiya Romero (San Jose), Emily Song (Irvine), Wa Yeung Cathy Tony (Newport Beach), Kailie Vongsaga (Diamond Bar), Kelly Xu (Claremont), Lucy Yuan (San Diego)  

Colleges with most active players: University of Minnesota (4), Duke (3), Auburn (3), LSU (3), Stanford (3), University of Michigan (3), University of Oregon (3), University of Texas (3), USC (3) 

Played in 2023 U.S. Women’s Open (10): Amari Avery (T48), Krissy Carman (MC), Monet Chun (T59), Anna Davis (MC), Aine Donegan (T45), Lauren Kim (MC), Kelly Xu (MC), Yana Wilson (MC), Jeneath Wong (MC) 

Playing in fourth USGA championship of 2023 (1): Anna Davis 

Sets of sisters in the field (3): Anci and Anika Dy, Kaleiya and Kiara Romero, Molly and Morgan Smith 

PLAYER NOTES

Adrian Anderson, 19, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., is a rising sophomore at the College of Charleston who hopes to pursue a career in medicine after her competitive career. She is majoring in biology and plans to attend medical school. Her father, David, is a physician and she grew up behind the scenes at the hospital in which he practices. A Carolinas Golf Association and South Carolina Junior Golf Association Player of the Year and 5-time South Carolina All-State honoree, Anderson led St. James High School to back-to-back state titles in 2018 and 2019.

Amari Avery, 19, of Riverside, Calif., was one of only four amateurs to make the cut in the 2023 U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach, finishing T48 in her second championship appearance. Currently No. 9 in the Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking, Avery is a rising junior at the University of Southern California, where in her sophomore season she led the team in scoring average and top-10 finishes. Since enrolling at USC in January of 2022, Avery has registered four collegiate wins while leading the Trojans to the championship match of the 2023 NCAA Championship against Wake Forest. She tied for fourth in the 2022 Augusta National Women's Amateur and advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur at Chambers Bay. Avery shares the same birthday (Dec. 30) as nine-time USGA champion Tiger Woods and was featured in the Netflix documentary “The Short Game” when she was 8 years old. She was a member of the victorious 2022 USA Curtis Cup Team.

Hailey Borja, 21, of Lake Forest, Calif., recently graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business but will use her fifth season of eligibility at Michigan this fall, utilizing the additional year granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Borja was the first four-time All-Big Ten golfer at Michigan and she has never missed a start or tournament in her collegiate career. As part of her pursuit of a sport management degree and minor in business, she recently participated in the USGA’s Pathways Internship Program during the 2023 U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. This 10-day immersive experience exposed 20 diverse college and graduate students to different careers in golf by providing training, education and networking opportunities. This will mark her fourth appearance in the championship with her best finish coming in 2021, when she advanced to the Round of 16. She also works as a starter part-time at Tijeras Creek Golf Club in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

Charlotte Cantonis, 16, of Tampa, Fla., is a rising junior in high school. Cantonis grew up in San Diego surfing and playing soccer. She has three top-10 finishes in her last three AJGA events, including T4 at Canebrake and T2 at the Kieth Mitchell Junior Championship. Cantonis was named the 2013-14 San Diego Junior Golf Association Player of the Year and owns three Florida State Junior Golf/Florida Junior Tour victories. Her second cousins Jack Maguire and MJ Maguire, who are both like big brothers to Charlotte, have both competed in USGA championships, Jack in the 2015 and 2017 U.S. Opens and MJ in the 2014 U.S. Amateur. Cantonis has verbally committed to Auburn University for the Fall of 2025.

Christina Carroll, 21, of Bear, Del., is a rising junior at the University of Delaware. The electrical engineering major’s 75.51 career scoring average ranks fifth in program history. A volunteer with her local First Tee chapter, Carroll encouraged her teammates to participate in the junior golf program when she was in high school. The Delaware Golf Association’s 2020 Robert McCurry Award recipient finished fourth at the 2022 Golfweek Fall Challenge, setting a program record of 136 in consecutive rounds, and in her sophomore season tied her career low round of 68 to finish third at the CAA Championship. She competed on both the golf and indoor track teams at William Penn High School, where she also won a Stem Degree Program Award for science and was a member of the National Honor Society.

Jensen Castle, 22, of West Columbia, S.C., won the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in New York, becoming just the third No. 63 seed to win a USGA title since seeding began in the mid-1980s and the first Kentucky player to win the championship. Castle is No. 39 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking and recently finished her senior year at the University of Kentucky where she had five top-10 finishes during the season and was named a 2022-23 WGCA All-America Honorable Mention. She will return to Kentucky for her fifth year in the fall. She has two U.S. Women’s Open appearances and was a member of two victorious USA Curtis Cup Teams.

Monet Chun, 22, of Canada, is a rising senior at the University of Michigan and will be making her second U.S. Women’s Amateur appearance. She finished runner-up in the 2022 championship at Chambers Bay in Washington, which earned her a spot in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, where she would go on to be one of just four amateurs to make the cut. Her successes last year also included winning the Big 10 individual title, while helping the Wolverines win the team title, and winning the Canadian Women's Amateur. After being part of the Canadian junior and amateur squads for several years, Chun was named to Team Canada for 2023 and is currently the top-ranked Canadian amateur in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Megha Ganne, 19, of Holmdel, N.J., made headlines in June of 2021 when she earned a spot in the final pairing of the U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club and earned low-amateur honors with her T14 finish. Ganne also qualified for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.). She is a two-time member of the USA Curtis Cup Team and 2023 will mark her fourth U.S. Women’s Amateur appearance with her best finish in the championship coming in 2019, when she was a semifinalist. Her freshman season at Stanford University included a runner-up finish at the Carmel Cup, four top-10 finishes and All-Pac-12 honors.

Rachel Heck, 21, of Memphis, Tenn., is a rising senior at Stanford University and a member of the Air Force ROTC. She is currently No. 23 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking and was a member of both the 2021 and 2022 USA Curtis Cup Teams. Heck will be making her seventh U.S. Women’s Amateur appearance. In 2021, she reached the semifinals at Westchester Country Club before losing to eventual champion Jensen Castle in 19 holes. She made it to the Round of 32 in the 2022 championship. In 2019-2020, Heck became just the third player to sweep conference (Pacific-12), regional (NCAA Stanford Regional) and NCAA titles.

Rachel Kuehn, 22, of Asheville, N.C., is competing in her fourth U.S. Women’s Amateur after earning medalist honors in 2021 and making it to the Round of 16 in 2022. At last year’s Curtis Cup, she delivered the clinching point for the USA Team for the second consecutive year as the Americans defeated GB&I, 15½-4½, at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. In her senior season at Wake Forest University, Kuehn became the first Wake Forest women's golfer in program history and just the sixth ACC women's golfer to be named the ACC Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. She collected two individual titles and five top-5 finishes during the 2022-23 year and earned first-team All-America honors for a second consecutive year. She is currently No. 5 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. Her mother, Brenda, is also an accomplished amateur golfer and made it to the Round of 16 in last year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in Alaska. Brenda was eight months pregnant with Rachel when she competed in the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles.

Nikki Oh, 15, of Torrance, Calif, is the daughter of Ted Oh, who in 1993 qualified for the U.S. Open at Baltusrol as a 16-year-old high school golfer. Ted is now the instructor for major champion Lydia Ko, and coaches Nikki, who is a rising high school sophomore. Nikki is competing in her second USGA championship. She made the cut and advanced to match play at the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior and owns four top-10 finishes in her last five AJGA starts, including a second-place finish at the Polo Golf Junior Classic and third at the Sergio and Angela Garcia Foundation Junior Championship.

Taylor Riley, 18, of San Diego, Calif., is entering her sophomore year at LSU and will be making her first start in the U.S. Women’s Amateur after finishing second in a qualifier at Victoria Club in Riverside, Calif. Riley is the daughter of a former LSU women's golf standout, Michelle Louviere Riley, and PGA Tour winner and 2004 U.S. Ryder Cup team member Chris Riley. During her freshman season at LSU, she finished T3 in her collegiate debut, earning SEC Freshman of the Week, and was named to the SEC First Year Academic Honor Roll.

Kiara Romero, 17, of San Jose, Calif., comes into her first U.S. Women’s Amateur a recent USGA champion after defeating Rianne Malixi in the 36-hole final to win the 74th U.S. Girls' Junior Championship at the United States Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado. Romero is set to join the Oregon Ducks this fall for the 2023-24 season and is currently No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. She has not finished outside of the top 10 in any event this year and recently finished third at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. Her older sister, Kaleiya Romero, is also in the U.S. Women’s Amateur field.

Molly Smith, 18, of Westford, Mass., recently made history as the first woman to qualify for the Massachusetts Amateur Championship. In May of this year, she nearly advanced out of U.S. Open local qualifying, shooting a 2-under 70 at LeBaron Hills Country Club, in Lakeville, Mass. She missed the cut by one stroke and failed to garner one of the two alternate spots in a playoff. She would have been the second female to advance from qualifying; Michelle Wie West achieved the feat in 2006. Smith qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur last year and, in this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior, advanced to the Round of 64. She will head to the University of Central Florida this fall to begin her collegiate golf career and is joined in the field by her sister Morgan.

Emily Song, 13, of Irvine, Calif., is the youngest player in the field and will make her first appearance in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She recently competed in this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at the United States Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she advanced to the Round of 64. Song, along with two other 13-year-olds, were the youngest competitors to make it to the match-play portion of the championship.

Kelly Xu, 19, of Claremont, Calif., just completed her freshman season at Stanford University. She qualified for her first U.S. Women's Open earlier this year at Pebble Beach and had the distinction of being the first female champion at Augusta National Golf Club when she claimed the Girls 7-9 Division of the inaugural Drive, Chip & Putt Championship in 2014. In 2022, she won the Ladies National Golf Association Amateur and was named the Southern California Golf Association's Player of the Year for 2021. That same year she claimed the SCGA Women's Amateur and advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2019 U.S. Girls' Junior at SentryWorld.