Contact: Susan Wagner
National Media Director
630-347-0066
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Golf, Ill. … Monroe Golf & Country Club in Monroe, Mich. has landed the 2012 Women’s Western Golf Association’s 112th National Amateur Championship. The tournament will be held June 18-23, 2012 with 144 of the top-ranked women amateur golfers coming from across the U.S. and a number of foreign countries. Tournament format is match play; 36-hole stroke play qualifier to establish Flights; Championship Flight – Low 64 qualifiers; all others into Flights of 16.
This championship has been held in Michigan on a number of occasions starting as early as 1916 when Mrs. F. C. Letts won at Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids. In 1919 Mrs. Letts was the finalist at Detroit Country Club with Mrs. Perry Fiske the winner. In 1939 the tournament was held at Oakland Hills Country Club and in 1951 at Plum Hollow Golf Club in Detroit. More recently, Travis Pointe Country Club in Ann Arbor hosted the 1985 championship; Kathleen McCarthy took home the coveted W. A. Alexander Cup and Carol Semple Thompson, an outstanding amateur player from Sewickley, Penn. claimed Finalist honors. The Women’s Western Junior Championship was held at Oakland Hills Country Club in 1936.
The defending Champion, 17-year-old Victoria Tanco from Argentina who is currently the 6th ranked women’s amateur in the world is expected to defend her title. The 2011 Finalist, Emma Lavy, is going to be a Junior at University of Arkansas and also expected to play.
Tournament applications will be available on the WWGA’s website: www.wwga.org in mid-February, 2012.
The WWGA was founded in 1901 under the sponsorship of the Western Golf Association and is one of the oldest women’s golf organizations in the United States. The Amateur Championship has been held without interruption since 1901, not even two world wars kept the tournament from being played.
Other tournaments include the Women’s Western National Junior Championship which was formed in 1920 and has been held annually with the exception of a few years during the war. In 1929 the Derby Medal Invitational was inaugurated and continued through 1941.
In 1930 the Women’s Western Open was launched and held through 1967, this tournament was considered a Major Championship in Women’s Professional Golf. In 1979 the WWGA formed its Senior Championship which was held until 2007; that tournament is currently on hiatus.
Past Champions of WWGA tournaments include Patty Berg (an 8-time champion); Joanne Gunderson Carner, Beth Daniel, Meredith Duncan, Alice Dye, Betty Jameson, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis, Nancy Lopez (3-time winner), Carol Mann, Grace Park, Betsy Rawls, Louise Suggs, Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, to mention just a few.
In 1971 the Women’s Western Golf Foundation was formed as an outgrowth of the Women’s Western Golf Association. The Foundation was formed to receive and distribute funds to advance women in scholastic achievement and collegiate golf programs by granting academic undergraduate scholarships to deserving women students who have an involvement in golf.
Since its inception, the Foundation has granted in excess of $3.5 million to more than 510 scholars representing 45 states and over two dozen collegiate women’s golf programs. Its primary source of income is contributions from golf clubs and groups participating in the Annual Foundation Scholarship Day, WWGA Directors and Trustees, golf associations, individual friends of golf and benefactors.
The Women’s Western Golf Association and its Foundation have no paid staff; all Officers, Directors and Trustees are volunteers who come from across the country.
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