He headed back to LPGA Tour after claiming medalist honors in Q-Series marathon at Pinehurst

   Muni He is 20 now, so she was probably 17 when she showed up in Springfield, Delaware County for the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club.

   He, a native of China who had settled in the San Diego area after a stopover in Vancouver, British Columbia, got herself in the playoff for the final five spots in the match-play bracket with eight other players. With the sun setting on the William Flynn classic, four players made par at the par-3 10^th hole and nailed down spots in match play.

   He and four other players had to return to Rolling Green the first thing the following morning for the right to face qualifying medalist Mariel Galdiano in the opening round of match play. He rolled in a 22-foot birdie putt on the tough par-4 11^th hole at Rolling Green and she was in.

   Many hours later, He had one more big putt left in her, a 32-foot bomb on the par-4 fourth hole, the 22^nd hole of her match with Galdiano, for a birdie that gave the last player to make it into match play an unlikely victory over the qualifying medalist.

   He would fall in the second round, 2 and 1, to eventual finalist Virginia Elena Carta, the reigning NCAA individual champion. But you had to figure you were going to hear more from this one.

   So, it wasn’t a complete shock to see the 20-year-old He finish at the top of the heap in the LPGA Q-Series, presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, an eight-round marathon over two weeks that concluded Saturday at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s No. 9 Course. He headed a group of 45 players who earned playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2020.

   Or in He’s case, regained her LPGA Tour card. He played a year of college golf at Southern California and then turned pro in 2017. She earned her LPGA playing privileges for 2019 at last year’s inaugural Q-Series, but struggled, making only eight cuts and never cracking the top 25 in any event.

   But this Q-Series was different. Not only was He headed back to the LPGA Tour, she did it in style, all the lessons learned from the adversity of her rookie season on display in a remarkable run through two different courses at Pinehurst.

   The first four rounds, played at Pinehurst No. 6, saw He fire rounds of 69, 70, 67 and 69 as she grabbed the lead at the halfway point of the eight-round test. Then He made a major statement in her first round at Pinehurst No. 9, a sizzling 65. If the rest of the field was waiting for He to come back to them, they were surely going to be disappointed.

   He finished with steady rounds of 70, 71 and 70 that gave her a 144-hole total of 21-under 551 that left her three shots clear of the field. Eight rounds in a pressure-cooker in which your professional future is on the line. Eight rounds under par. Not bad.

   Last year’s LPGA Q-Series medalist, South Korean Jeongeon Lee6, carried the momentum of that victory all the way to a U.S. Women’s Open victory at the Country Club of Charleston last spring.

   He has made a name for herself as something of a social media star with her good looks on display on Instagram. But she proved the last two weeks that she’s a player on the course as well.

   The runnerup was Hee Young Park, a 31-year-old from South Korea, who, like He, played on the LPGA Tour in 2019. Park made her move when she posted rounds of 67 and 66 in the first two rounds last week at Pinehurst No. 9. Park finished with an 18-under 554 total.

   Third place went to Yealimi Noh, the junior phenom of 2018 who launched her Q-Series bid with rounds of 69, 69 and 66 at Pinehurst No. 6. Noh closed with a 69 at Pinehurst No. 9 in Saturday’s final round for a 15-under 557 total that left her three shots behind Park.

   Not long before winning the Girls Junior PGA Championship at the Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky. and the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula in the summer of 2018, Noh of Concord, Calif. decided to abandon her plan to play college golf at UCLA and said she was going to turn pro in 2019.

   Noh had no status, but still nearly won an LPGA event when she finished second in the Cambria Portland Classic after earning a spot in the field in a Monday qualifier. The 18-year-old earned all the status she’ll need for 2020 the last two weeks at Pinehurst.

   For all the college golf that I follow on this blog, I was mostly interested in seeing how some of the amateurs would fare at Pinehurst.

   Stanford’s 1-2 punch of Albane Valenzuela, a senior from Switzerland, and Andrea Lee, a senior from Hermosa Beach, Calif., both finished inside the top 45 and will have their choice of deferring the start of their professional careers until next summer after the college season ends or passing up the spring campaign of their senior seasons and joining the LPGA Tour at the beginning of the 2020 season.

   Valenzuela, No. 2 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), finished sixth in the LPGA Q-Series, closing with a 73 for a 7-under 565 total. Lee, No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR, finished in a tie for 30^th at Pinehurst, struggling a little in the final two rounds with a 77 Friday and a 72 in Saturday’s final round for a 3-over 575 total.

   Both have had wonderful amateur careers. Valenzuela is a two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur runnerup and was one of three amateurs in the field when golf returned to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and finished in a tie for 21^st place. Lee is a two-time member of the United States team in the Curtis Cup Match. Lee was at Rolling Green in 2016, suffering a hard-fought 1-up loss to eventual champion Eun Jeong Seong in the quarterfinals.

   Valenzuela and Lee have led Stanford into match play in each of the Cardinal’s last three NCAA Championship appearances. It will be interesting to see what they do. If they do return for the spring campaign, it would indicate that the lack of an NCAA team title is a nagging blank spot in their otherwise sparkling amateur resumes.

   Southern California’s Jennifer Chang, No. 10 in the Women’s WAGR, finished in a tie for ninth place at 5-under 507. The native of Cary, N.C., while still listed as an amateur in the results, has let it be known that she will not be returning for the spring portion of her junior season. Southern California being Southern California, the Trojans can be expected to barely skip a beat.

   Florida senior Sierra Brooks, No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR, finished in a tie for 62^nd, a pair of 78s, one in the opening round Wednesday at Pinehurst No. 9 and another in Friday’s third round, left her with a 12-over 584 total.

   While Brooks finished outside the top 45 who earned their LPGA Tour cards – the cut fell at 5-over 577 – she still has Symetra Tour status and can start her pro career in January.

   The runnerup in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Portland Country Club, Brooks entered Wake Forest in the summer of 2016, but left after an injury-marred freshman season. Brooks has had a career resurgence at Florida and was the runnerup in the NCAA individual chase last spring at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.

   Florida State’s Frida Kinhult, No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, finished in a tie for 67^th place in the LPGA Q-Series at 4-over 586. Kinhult, a native of Sweden, is in a similar situation as Brooks, although Kinhult has only played a season-and-a-half of college golf.

   The winners of the first two editions of the Valley Forge Invitational, the Symetra Tour stop played at Raven’s Claw Golf Club in Limerick Township the last two springs, 2018 champion Louise Ridderstrom and this year’s winner, Min Lee, both earned LPGA Tour playing privileges for 2020.

   Ridderstrom, a Swede who was a college standout at UCLA, finished among the group tied for 26^th place at 2-over 574. She earned her LPGA Tour card in the Q-Series a year ago, but had to return to Pinehurst to earn her playing privileges for women’s golf’s big leagues for 2020.

   Lee, a native of Chinese Taipei, finished among the group tied for 38^th place at 4-over 576.

   There is another route to the LPGA Tour and two familiar names from the recent college scene, former UCLA standout Patty Tavatanakit and former Duke star Leona Maguire, reached their goal by finishing among the top 10 on the Symetra Tour money list, known as the Volvik Race for the Card.

   Tavatanakit played out her sophomore season at UCLA and didn’t arrive on the Symetra Tour scene until June. But she won three times in just 11 starts and earned the Gaelle Truet Rookie of the Year Award as she finished second on the Symetra Tour money list with $117,518 in winnings.

   A native of Thailand, Tavatanakit spent her summers in California competing in junior events as a youngster before going to UCLA. She proved she could compete at the game’s highest level when she finished in a tie for fifth place in the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open at Shoal Creek.

   Maguire, a two-time Annika Award winner, boasted a scoring average at Duke that puts her on a short list of the greatest players in the history of Division I women’s golf. She shared low-amateur honors with Valenzuela in the 2016 Rio Games as she finished in a tie for 21^st place while representing Ireland.

   Maguire, who led Great Britain & Ireland to victory over the United States in the 2016 Curtis Cup Match, had one win and finished seventh on the Symetra Tour money list with $92,577. Maguire’s consistency was on display as she opened her 2019 Symetra Tour campaign by making 11 consecutive cuts.

   It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see either Tavatanakit or Maguire, or both, have an immediate impact on the LPGA Tour in their rookie seasons.