A Rao(sing) U.S. Women’s Am Performance by Princeton Standout

Quick, name the only player in this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur field to make consecutive quarterfinal runs? It’s not a household name or someone near the top of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®. Catherine Rao, 19, of Camarillo, Calif., was a standout junior player, good enough to earn a spot on the 2021 USA Junior Solheim Cup Team but chose a different collegiate path than the normal blue-chip recruit. She decided to trek across the country to play at Princeton, an Ivy League school known more for academics than athletics. So far, it’s paid off in both instances for the economics major. Rao has demonstrated in consecutive Women’s Ams that it doesn’t matter what university logo is on the front of the golf shirt. A year ago at Chambers Bay, she was eliminated by 2021 GB&I Curtis Cup Team member Annabel Wilson. This year at Bel-Air Country Club, about an hour drive from her Southern California residence, she draws Stanford standout Rachel Heck, the 2021 NCAA individual champion and recipient of that year’s Annika Award for the nation’s top golfer. Both Stanford and Princeton are beacons of academia, as the Palo Alto, Calif., school is often called the “Harvard of the West.” Now we’ll see if this Tiger can become the Prince(ton) of Bel-Air.