CHAMPIONSHIPS

35th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur: Inside the Field

By Jonathan Coe, USGA

| Sep 14, 2022 | FORT MYERS, FLA.

35th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur: Inside the Field

35th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Home

WHO’S HERE – Among the 132 golfers in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur field, there are:

Oldest Competitors: Sheryl Scott (65, born 1/15/1957), Terrill Samuel (61, born 4/8/1961), Ellen Port (60, born 9/21/1961), Martha Leach (60, born 12/21/1961)

Youngest Competitors: Jackie Rogowicz (25, born 8/31/1997), Daria Delfino (25, born 7/2/1997), Isabella DiLisio (25, born 6/3/1997), Jacqueline Twitty (25, born 4/22/1997), Chaithra Katamneni (25, born 1/19/1997), Pendelton Bogache (25, born 12/4/1996), Laine Evans (25, born 11/20/1996)

Average Age of Field: 38.55

Field breakdown by age: 

Age 25-29: 41 competitors
Age 30-39: 49 competitors
Age 40-49: 20 competitors
Age 50-59: 18 competitors
Age 60-70: 4 competitors

U.S. States Represented – There are 34 states represented in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur: Alabama (3), Arizona (2), California (11), Colorado (3), Connecticut (1), Florida (10), Georgia (2), Hawaii (1), Idaho (2), Illinois (2), Indiana (1), Iowa (1), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maryland (2), Massachusetts (6), Michigan (5), Minnesota (2), Missouri (1), Nevada (1), New Jersey (2), New York (6), North Carolina (7), Ohio (3), Oregon (4), Pennsylvania (8), Rhode Island (1), South Carolina (4), Tennessee (4), Texas (10), Utah (2), Virginia (3), Washington (1), Wisconsin (2) 

International – There are eight countries represented in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur: United States (118), Canada (5), Mexico (3), Thailand (2), Australia (1), Czech Republic (1), India (1), Singapore (1)

USGA Champions (13): Blakesly Brock (2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Kelsey Chugg (2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Lauren Greenlief (2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Kathy Hartwiger (2002 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Shannon Johnson (2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Ina Kim-Schaad (2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Judith Kyrinis (2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Martha Leach (2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Ellen Port (1995, 1996, 2000, 2011 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and 2012, 2013, 2016 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Julia Potter-Bobb (2013, 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Meghan Stasi (2006, 2007, 2010, 2012 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Shelly Stouffer (2022 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur), Lara Tennant (2018, 2019, 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur)

USGA Runners-up (13): Talia Campbell (2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Kelsey Chugg (2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Aliea Clark (2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Shannon Johnson (2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Judith Kyrinis (2014 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Martha Leach (2011 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur), Ina Kim-Schaad (2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Ellen Port (2002 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Julia Potter-Bobb (2014 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur)

Curtis Cup Team Members (2): Ellen Port (USA, 1994 and 1996; USA captain in 2014), Meghan Stasi (USA, 2008)

Most U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Appearances (2022 Included): Martha Leach (33), Ellen Port (28), Dawn Woodard (20), Meghan Stasi (16)

Players from Florida (10): Kaylin Crownover (Tampa), Jamie Freedman (Miami), Gigi Higgins (Cape Coral), Kim Keyer Scott (Bonita Springs), Sarah Matin (Winter Garden), Kelli Pry (Tampa), Meghan Stasi (Fort Lauderdale), Emily Stoker (Tampa), Jacqueline Twitty (Tampa), Heather Wall (Lakeland)

PLAYER NOTES

Pendleton Bogache, 25, of New York, N.Y., is personally pledging $10 per par, $100 per birdie and $1,000 per eagle to The First Tee of Metropolitan New York during the stroke-play rounds of the championship. She is also soliciting friends, family, colleagues and any other supporters of the game to match her pledge. Bogache competed on the Georgetown University women’s golf team for four years.

Blakesly Brock, 26, of Chattanooga, Tenn., captured the 2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C., in her first championship appearance. The former University of Tennessee golfer won six consecutive holes at one point in the championship match, defeating Aliea Clark 5 and 4, to become the third-youngest champion in U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur history. Brock won the 2021 Tennessee Women’s Mid-Amateur and is a two-time winner of the Tennessee Girls’ Junior Amateur. She played high school golf at the same school (Baylor School) that counts Harris English, Keith Mitchell and Luke List as alumna.

Clare Connolly, 29, of Chevy Chase, Md., is competing in her seventh USGA championship and fourth U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. In 2021, she advanced to the quarterfinals at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C. Connolly, a golf and tennis sales representative for a sunglasses manufacturer, caddies on the weekends at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., the site of three U.S. Open Championships. She advanced to match play in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. Her brother, Chris, has played in four USGA championships.

Kaylin Crownover, 30, of Tampa, Fla., won a gold medal for the United States at the 2017 Deaf Olympics in Turkey. At age 2, Crownover’s parents discovered that she suffered from 90 percent hearing loss. She was born with two dislocated hips at birth and spent her first 16 months in a full-body cast. Crownover is competing in her second USGA championship, after reaching last year's Round of 16 at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C. She played at Campbell University, where she was a two-time Big South Conference player of the year and won four individual titles. She played on the Symetra Tour from 2014 to 2017 before regaining her amateur status in 2019. Crownover works as a sales and marketing coordinator for Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, Fla.

Isabella DiLisio, 25, of Hatfield, Pa., was a four-year letter-winner at the University of Notre Dame, capping her career with the ninth-best stroke average in program history. Her great-grandfather, Nick Ciocca, caddied for Ben Hogan in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion.

Kimberly Dinh, 30, of Midland, Mich., advanced to the Round of 16 in last year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C. She finished ninth in the 106th Michigan Women’s Amateur in 2022, after winning the title in 2021. She played college golf at the University of Wisconsin before putting golf on pause for five years during graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dinh, a senior research specialist for a multinational chemical corporation, also won the 2020 Michigan Women’s Mid-Amateur and was runner-up in 2021. She serves as the chair of the Mid-Michigan chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Jamie Freedman, 26, of Miami, Fla., had scoliosis surgery in eighth grade and was told she would never be able to play golf again. After having two rods and 20 screws placed in her back, she has been playing pain-free ever since. She is competing in her fourth USGA championship and her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Mid-Am. She lost in the Round of 16 in 2021. As a senior at Nova Southeastern University, she was the lone D-III selection to the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup Team.

Lauren Greenlief, 32, of Ashburn, Va., won the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, La., defeating Margaret Starosto in the championship match, 2 and 1. Greenlief, a management consultant, is a five-time Virginia State Golf Association (VSGA) Women’s Golfer of the Year and a two-time VSGA Women’s Amateur champion. She is competing in her seventh U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and was a semifinalist in 2019. In 2018, she became the first mid-amateur in 12 years to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Shannon Johnson, 39, of North Easton, Mass., reached the semifinals of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C., losing to eventual champion Blakesly Brock in 19 holes. She won the 2018 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., after finishing as the runner-up in 2016. Johnson, a field representative for a major golf manufacturer, is playing in her 19th USGA championship and eighth U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She was runner-up in the 2021 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur this August.

Ina Kim-Schaad, 38, of New York, N.Y., won the 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Forest Highlands in Flagstaff, Ariz., defeating fellow New York City resident Talia Campbell in the championship match. Kim-Schaad reached the quarterfinals in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, losing 1 up to Amanda Jacobs. She was the runner-up in the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon. Following a decorated junior career, Kim took an 11-year hiatus from the game to devote time to her career in the financial world. When she met her husband, Ian Schaad, Kim decided to leave the financial world and spend more time playing amateur golf. Her older sister, Hana, is a former professional golfer who qualified for two U.S. Women’s Opens.

Mary Langdon Hardman, 30, of Galveston, Texas, is a two-time Mississippi Women’s Amateur champion (2010, 2014) who is competing in her second U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She played college golf at Mississippi State University and helped the program earn its first NCAA postseason berth in 2013. Her father, Jim Gallagher Jr., is a five-time PGA Tour winner, member of the 1993 Ryder Cup team and current Golf Channel analyst. Her mother, Cissye Gallagher, is a 12-time Mississippi Women’s Amateur champion and a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

Martha Leach, 60, of Hebron, Ky., is competing in her 33rd U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, the most among players in the field. She has reached match play in all but three appearances and won the title in 2009 at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club in Ocala, Fla. Leach advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Anchorage (Alaska) Golf Course. She was co-low amateur in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn C.C., tying for 20th with Ellen Port, and also earned low-amateur honors in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2018. Leach was inducted into the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2018. Her sister is World Golf Hall of Famer and six-time USGA champion Hollis Stacy. Leach and Stacy are one of two sister tandems to win USGA championships, joining Harriot and Margaret Curtis.

Erin Packer, 44, of Peachtree City, Ga., is the daughter of Allen Doyle, the 2005 and 2006 U.S. Senior Open champion. She caddied for her father full-time on the PGA Tour Champions from 2000-03, and for the 2006 and 2007 U.S. Opens. Packer, a real estate agent, has competed in 10 USGA championships, including five U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs. Her husband, Brandt, is a producer for Golf Channel/NBC and her father-in-law, Billy, was a longtime college basketball announcer for both NBC and CBS.

Ellen Port, 61, of St. Louis, Mo., nearly won her eighth USGA championship last year when she fell short in the final match of the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur to Lara Tennant, 2 and 1. Port, a seven-time USGA champion, has won four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles, with her most recent coming in 2011. She is tied with Anne Quast Sander and Carol Semple Thompson for second among female USGA champions with seven titles, trailing only JoAnne Carner (eight). Port made history last year by becoming the first woman to win the Met Senior Amateur, the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association's premier senior men's championship, prevailing in a four-hole playoff. She finished as co-low amateur in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open with Martha Leach (T-20) and finished T-29 in this year’s championship at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio. The 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur will be her 71st USGA championship.

Julia Potter-Bobb, 34, of Indianapolis, Ind., is a two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion (2013, 2016), and the first female left-handed champion in USGA history. Potter-Bobb, a University of Missouri graduate, is a five-time Indiana Women’s Amateur champion and winner of the 2016 Indiana Women’s Open. She serves as the director of business operations and member services for the Indiana Golf Office and was a 2008 P.J. Boatwright Jr. intern for the Missouri Golf Association. Potter-Bobb was the runner-up in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and the medalist in the 2019 championship in Flagstaff, Ariz., where she reached the Round of 16. This will be her 10th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur start.

Courtney Stiles, 40, of Pinehurst, N.C., is the executive director of The First Tee of the Sandhills. Stiles played collegiately at North Carolina State University and spent two years on the Futures Tour before regaining her amateur status in 2009. She is competing in her 10th USGA championship and fifth U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.

Shelly Stouffer, 52, of Canada, won the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur last month at Anchorage (Alaska) Golf Club, the USGA’s first championship in Alaska. She became the eighth Canadian to win a USGA championship and joined Marlene Stewart Streit (1985, 1994, 2003), Gayle Borthwick (1996, 1998) and Judith Kyrinis (2017) as Canadian winners of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. Stouffer will be making her fifth USGA championship start. In addition to her win last month, she advanced to the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, lost in the Round of 32 in the 2015 Women’s Mid-Amateur and missed the cut in the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open. She recently finished T29 at the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

Lara Tennant, 55, of Portland, Ore., became the first player since Carol Semple Thompson (1999-2002) to win three consecutive U.S. Senior Women's Amateur titles when she defeated seven-time USGA champion Ellen Port, of St. Louis, Mo., 2 and 1, in the championship match at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Ala., in 2021. Tennant, who played at the University of Arizona, is a four-time Oregon Senior Women’s Amateur champion and winner of the 2020 California Senior Women’s Amateur and 2019 R&A Women’s Senior Amateur Championship. She was one of six amateurs to make the cut in the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Open and finished 28th.

Dawn Woodard, 48, of Greenville, S.C., is a consultant who assists individual golfers and teams with enhancing performance. A five-time South Carolina Women’s Amateur champion, Woodard has competed in more than 30 USGA championships, including 20 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs. Woodard is a three-time medalist (2006, 2007, 2012) in this championship and a three-time quarterfinalist (2007, 2009, 2021). She earned all-region and all-conference recognition at Furman University and helped the Paladins advance to four NCAA tournaments (1993-96).

Jonathan Coe is a senior manager of championship communications for the USGA. Email him at jcoe@usga.org.