A state champion will be crowned at Peninsula GCC

The championship, for years, was played at Pebble Beach, from 1967 to 1986, before moving to Quail Lodge Resort in Carmel from 1987 to 2019. The tournament has rotated around the state since 2020, with both the NCGA and the Southern California Golf Association alternating as hosts.

For the first time, the winner of the California Women’s Am gets an automatic spot into the USGA’s Women’s Amateur Aug. 5-11 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“We’ve hosted qualifying events for national championships in the past,” said Mike Braun, who is a member and former president at Peninsula GCC and is currently a board member of NCGA.

“[Last year’s U.S. Women’s Open qualifier] was so successful, (NCGA) asked us to host the state women’s championship this year,” Braun continued. “Next year, we’ll host the Girls’ California Junior Championship.”

It is only appropriate Peninsula is named a host site considering the founder of the California Women’s State Amateur Championship, Helen Lengfeld, was a member at Peninsula, and its previous incarnation as Beresford Country Club, at its founding in 1911.

She was a member before famed golf-course architect Donald Ross completed a redesign of the course in 1922. Lengfeld went on to found the Women’s Golf Association of Northern California and later the California Women’s Golf Circuit, both of which have been incorporated under the NCGA umbrella.

In 1967, she started the California’s Women’s Amateur and later started the junior version of the same event, for players ages 10 to 18. The Women’s Amateur is open to all female golfers with a Handicap Index of 7.4 or less.

“She was a very prominent member at Peninsula and a huge figure in the golf world,” Braun said.

Just as prominent is Peninsula’s golf course, which, was originally designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1912. Ten years later, the club called in Ross for a complete redesign. Ross is considered the greatest golf architect of the 20th century, with hundreds of courses built by the time of his death in 1948.

The Peninsula course is a rarity in the Ross portfolio: it is the only one he built west of the Rockies and just one of four west of the Mississippi River. A bulk of designs can be found in Massachusetts, where he built 52 courses. Florida has 35 Ross creations and New York, 20. Courses he’s designed have hosted major golf tournaments, including Oak Hill in New York and Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.

The course for the California Women’s Amateur will play to about 6,200 yards, par 72, which is perfect for a women’s event. Many courses are being made obsolete by the men’s game, where younger and younger players are simply overpowering them.

But it would be a shame to waste gems like Ross-designed Peninsula or Alister MacKenzie-built Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae, which has hosted the Silicon Valley Showcase, an event for elite female collegiate players, and are the perfect size for today’s female players.

“(Peninsula is) a classic Donald Ross course,” Braun said. “Which means that there is a premium on shots to the green. Greens are really challenging. A lot of cross bunkers in the fairway.

“To win, the winner will have to have survived seven rounds on our Donald Ross course. It’s quite the [grind] to win.”

And then there is topography of the course, which presents a lot of hills and elevation changes, in addition to a fair number of dogleg holes. Add to that a typical summer weather pattern on the Peninsula — mild to comfortable temperatures in the morning and early afternoon, followed by the afternoon winds that come blowing down State Route 92.

Temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid 70s next week.

“The course is in great condition. It’s hilly. When the wind blows, it’s fierce,” Braun said.

A field of 156 players will have to work to be crowned California state champion, however, as it will take seven rounds over six days to determine a winner. The first two days of the tournament, Monday and Tuesday, is a stroke-play event, with top 32 players moving on to the match-play portion of the week.

The Round of 32 and 16 will be played Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, before Friday’s marathon. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be Friday, with the two finalists battling head to head for the championship Saturday.

A number of high-profile players are expected to tee it up, including defending champion Kate Villegas, who just recently wrapped up her career at UCLA. Her Bruins teammate Meghan Royal, who was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention this past season, is also expected to play. Also in the field are 15-year-old Asterisk Talley, who recently won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball championship and tied for low amateur honors at the U.S. Women’s Open in early June.

A few county golfers are also expected to start. Ashlyn Johnson, a rising senior at Hillsdale and the two-time defending Daily Journal Girls’ Golfer of the Year, is on the player’s list. Johnson might have the inside track, as Peninsula GCC is her home course.

Other Peninsula golfers expected to join her are San Mateo’s Kayla Corcoran, Belmont’s Camilla Yen, Menlo Park’s Alexa Pineda and Palo Alto’s Sydney Sung.

Spectators are allowed and no tickets are needed, but note that parking will be limited.

Pair of county aces to play USGA Junior Amateur

While a San Mateo County golf course will host the women’s state amateur tournament, a pair of county golfers will be vying for the United States Golf Association Junior Amateur title next week at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, July 22-27.

Oakland Hills is another Ross-designed course.

Crystal’s Edan Cui and Nueva School’s James Lee, both rising seniors, qualified for the event for ages 10 to 18, and are just two in the 264-person field. Cui was one of 91 players who were exempted into the tournament after he made it to the to the 2023 quarterfinals of match play before falling to eventual champion Bryan Kim, 1-up.

Lee, on the other hand, had to qualify his way into the U.S. Junior Am, finishing third at the Stanford Golf Course qualifier. He carded a 69 June 10 to grab one of four qualifying spots from the Stanford site.

Walsh shines at Pepperdine

William Walsh, a 2023 Serra graduate, wrapped up his freshman year at Pepperdine University and immediately made his mark with the Waves this season.

He played in 12 events, playing 34 rounds, which was tied for the team lead. His stroke average of 72.38 was second-best, just behind Mahanth Chirravuri’s 71.44.

Walsh’s best result came during the stroke play portion of the WCC Championship, as he and teammate Brady Siravo shared low-round honors as both finished with 72.