California dreamin': USGA invites a dozen players to a Curtis Cup practice session at Bel-Air

 

   Meghan Stasi, the South Jersey native and 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, will get another shot at being the captain of the United States Curtis Cup team, but the circumstances will be quite a bit different this time around.

   A Stasi-captained U.S. team suffered a 10.5-9.5 setback at the hands of Great Britain & Ireland in the summer of 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club’s Old Course in Berkshire, England.

   It was a typically talented U.S. side, but GB&I seemed to be a little more determined, having not come out on top in a Curtis Cup Match since winning in 2016 at Dun Loughaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin.

   Stasi will get reacquainted with four members of her 2024 team and eight other talented hopefuls who accepted invitations from the USGA Teams Selection Committee to participate in a practice session for candidates for the 2026 U.S. team next month at Bel-Air Country Club, the George C. Thomas gem in Los Angeles, which is where the 44^th Curtis Cup will be played June 12 to 14.

   The fact that Stasi has four potential returnees from her 2024 team is significant. There often isn’t much continuity in the biennial competition, but Stasi will likely have some players who experienced the cauldron of representing your country on foreign soil in front of a bunch of golf-mad Brits who were respectfully rooting hard against you.

   The Curtis Cup Match can be a moving target as far as where it falls on the golf calendar. This year’s Curtis Cup will be in mid-June, similar to what it was when I got a chance to watch some of the best amateur players in the world when Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course was the site of the Curtis Cup in 2022.

   The 2024 Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale was played over the Labor Day weekend.

   When next year’s Curtis Cup Match is played at Bel-Air, many of Stasi’s players will be coming off the NCAA Championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. It’s likely that several of the U.S. players will have been involved in some high-leverage match-play situations at La Costa.

   There’s also a decent chance that some of Stasi’s charges will earn a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open, which will be held the week before the Curtis Cup at another Thomas design, Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

   That sounds like a lot of high-level golf in California leading into a California Curtis Cup Match.

   And wouldn’t you know it, but the four players from Stasi’s 2024 side who were invited to audition for the 2026 U.S. team Jan. 16 to 18 at Bel-Air are Cali girls.

   Another player invited to the practice session at Bel-Air, Kiara Romero, a junior at Oregon and the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), is assured a spot on the U.S. team because she secured the McCormack Medal for 2025 as the amateur player spending the most time atop the world ranking. She’s a Cali kid, too, from San Jose.

   Romero captured the Big Ten’s individual crown and led the Ducks to the team title at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md. in their first year in the conference. She then led Oregon to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at La Costa, where they fell to eventual champion Northwestern in a tough match.

   The 19-year-old Romero reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur in August at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the rugged Oregon coastline, where she fell in 20 holes to Kansas junior Lyla Louderbaugh.

   Heading the quartet of players who wore Red, White & Blue at Sunningdale and were invited to the practice session at Bel-Air was Catherine Park, a senior at Southern California from Irvine, Calif. and No. 10 in the Women’s WAGR.

   The 21-year-old Park gained some more international experience in October as part of the U.S. team that hoisted the Espirito Santo Trophy that goes to the winner of the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in Singapore.

   Park, reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megha Ganne, a senior at Stanford, and Farah O’Keefe, a junior home girl at Texas from Austin, Texas and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR, made up the U.S. team in Singapore, which prevailed in a tiebreaker after finishing in a tie atop the leaderboard with Spain and South Korea.

   The 20-year-old O’Keefe, who helped the Longhorns earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at La Costa, also accepted an invitation to the practice session at Bel-Air.

   It seems like Anna Davis, a junior at Auburn from Spring Valley, Calif. and No. 13 in the Women’s WAGR, has been around forever, but that’s because the 19-year-old was just 16 when she captured the title in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in 2022.

   Davis was part of Stasi’s U.S. team at Sunningdale and the steady left-hander, who was really good for the Tigers during the fall portion of the wraparound 2025-2026 college season, would seem like a likely choice to earn a spot on next year’s team at Bel-Air.

   Park’s Southern Cal teammate, Jasmine Koo, a sophomore from Cerritos, Calif. and No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR, went 2-1-1 for the U.S. in the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale. She’s only 19, but Koo is a proven commodity on a big stage.

   Asterisk Talley, the 16-year-old phenom from Chowchilla, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, was just 15 when she found herself paired against England’s Lottie Woad, then No. 1 in the Women’s WAGR, batting leadoff in the Sunday singles at Sunningdale with the U.S. staring at a 7-5 deficit.

   The kid proceeded to make five birdies and an eagle and blew away Load with a 3 and 2 decision.

   Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, knows a thing or two about match play. I’m sure she was impressed with the way Talley went about her business in about as tough a match-play scenario as you could draw up for a 15-year-old kid. Stasi will be happy to see Talley auditioning for a spot on the 2026 U.S. Curtis Cup at Bel-Air.

   The USGA Teams Selection Committee mostly went right down the list of Americans on the Women’s WAGR in handing out invitations to the practice session at Bel-Air.

   Kary Hollenbaugh, a senior at Ohio State from New Albany, Ohio and No. 16 in the Women’s WAGR, will join the party at Bel-Air.

   The 21-year-old Hollenbaugh finished in a tie for second place behind Romero in the Big Ten Championship at Bulle Rock and reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes, where she fell to Ganne, the eventual champion.

   Another Californian was invited to the practice session in Kelly Xu, a senior at Stanford from Claremont and No. 21 in the Women’s WAGR.

   The 21-year-old Xu is often overshadowed by her talented teammates at Stanford, but she was in the lineup when the Cardinal captured a national title at La Costa in 2024 and finished as the runnerup to Northwestern in this year’s Final Match in the NCAA Championship.

   Avery Weed, a junior at Mississippi State from Ocean Springs, Miss. and No. 29 in the Women’s WAGR, also accepted an invitation to tee it up in the practice session at Bel-Air. The 20-year-old reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes.

   A couple of members of a Wake Forest team that entered college golf’s midseason pause at No. 5 in the Scoreboard powered by clippd rankings, Chloe Kovelsky, a sophomore from Boca Raton, Fla. and No. 36 in the Women’s WAGR, and Macy Pate, a junior home girl from Winston-Salem, N.C. and No. 37 in the Women’s WAGR, will be spending a weekend at Bel-Air next month auditioning for a spot on the U.S. Curtis Cup team.

   The 18-year-old Kovelsky and the 20-year-old Pate led the Demon Deacons to the Atlantic Coast Conference team crown at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. and to the team title in the NCAA’s Lubbock Regional at The Rawls Golf Course last spring.

   Rounding out the talented dozen of Americans who accepted an invitation to audition for the 2026 U.S. Curtis Cup team at Bel-Air was Andie Smth, a senior at Duke from Hobe Sound, Fla.

   The 22-year-old reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes in August, where she fell to Romero.

   Other than Romero’s status as an automatic qualifier via the McCormack Medal, nobody else at the practice session at Bel-Air is guaranteed a spot on the U.S. team.

   Pretty sure at some point in the spring, the top three Americans in the Women’s WAGR other than Romero will qualify for the U.S. team. Later in the spring the USGA Teams Selection Committee will make the final four picks to round out the U.S. team.

   Meghan Stasi was Meghan Bolger when she won seven straight WGAP Women’s Match Play Championship crowns. She played on a winning U.S. Curtis Cup team at the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2008 and she was the losing captain in 2024 at Sunningdale.

   Stasi has never stopped learning about the game of golf, particularly match-play golf. Stasi will learn the lessons from the loss at Sunningdale and be a better captain in 2026. And any of the players who were part of the U.S. team in 2024 and are chosen to represent the Stars & Stripes again in 2026 will be two years older and better for their experience at Sunningdale.

Germany's Briem rises to the top in an eventful sprint to the finish in Q-Series Final Qualifying

 

   In the end, it was the talent of a 20-year-old German, Helen Briem, that rose to the top of the final leaderboard in the LPGA Tour Q-Series Final Qualifying Tuesday at the Robert Trent Jones Trail Magnolia Grove’s Crossing Course in Mobile, Ala.

   But you have to have talent just to reach the Q-Series Final Qualifying and the list of 31 players who earned playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2026 proved that point.

   Final Qualifying was scheduled to be five rounds, was shortened to four rounds and felt like six, at least. There was rain and cold and a round-and-half Monday followed by a sprint of between seven and 11 holes Tuesday.

   Final Qualifying is always an emotional roller-coaster and this one was no different with the weather adding its own extra touch to the proceedings.

   Briem, who had finished ninth in the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit to earn her spot in the field at Magnolia Grove, had led after two rounds and trailed Jing Yan of China by a shot with 11 holes to go in the final round at the Crossings Course when play was suspended Monday by darkness.

   Briem’s final round had started on the back nine at the Crossings Course Monday and she had completed seven holes in 1-under par.

   The 6-foot-3 bomber made the turn to the front nine at the Crossings Course Tuesday morning and went off, rattling off birdies at the third, fifth and sixth holes. She stumbled briefly with a bogey at the seventh hole, but made one more birdie at eight to complete a 3-under 33 tour of the outgoing nine at the Crossings Course and a 4-under 68 that gave her medalist honors with a 13-under 273 total.

   Nearly as impressive was the last two rounds put together by runnerup Soo Bin Joo, a talented young South Korean.

   After completing a sparkling 7-under 64 at the Falls Course Monday morning, the 21-year-old Bin Joo was 1-under through seven holes of her final round at the Crossings Course when play was suspended Monday afternoon.

   After making a birdie at the 10^th hole to get to 8-under for the tournament, Bin Joo ripped off consecutive birdies at 13, 14, 15 and 16 to complete a 6-under 66 that earned her runnerup honors, a shot behind Briem with a 12-under 274 total.

   Ryann O’Toole, the 38-year-old American, hadn’t been forced to endure Final Qualifying since 2014, but she responded like the veteran she is.

   She had gone 3-under on the incoming nine at the Crossings Course to open her final round. O’Toole then made birdies on the first, fourth, sixth and ninth holes in the resumption of her round Tuesday to complete a 7-under 65 that left her among a group of four players tied for third place 11-under 275.

   Yan of China had held a one-shot lead when darkness fell Monday night and after an early wakeup call Tuesday, she completed a 4-under 68 at the Crossings Course that left her in a tie for third place with O’Toole, country woman Mohan Du and French veteran Perrine Delacour at 11-under.

   Du, who played on the Epson Tour this year, had been hanging around near the top of the leaderboard ever since opening with a 6-under 66 at the Crossings Course Friday. Du was even-par through eight holes when play was suspended Monday night and proceeded to blitz the front nine at the Crossings Course with five birdies against a bogey as she matched Yan’s final round of 4-under 68 to earn a share of third place.

   The 31-year-old Delacour, who has split time on both the LPGA Tour and the LET during her career, was 1-over for her final round when play was suspended Monday. She calmly made three birdies and six pars on the front nine at the Crossings Course for a closing 2-under 70 that enabled her to join the group at 11-under.

    Really nice effort by Laney Frye, a native of Nicholsville, Ky. who starred at Kentucky, to head a group of three players tied for seventh place at 10-under 276.

   Frye, coming off a solid rookie season on the Epson Tour, completed a 3-under 68 Monday morning at the Falls Course and was 1-under through 11 holes at the Crossings Course to sneak into the top 10 when play was suspended late in the afternoon. Three birdies in her final seven holes Tuesday morning sealed the deal.

   Frye was joined at 10-under by a couple of talented South Korean youngsters, 22-year-old Juniper Jang and 21-year-old Dongeun Lee.

   Jang was 2-under for her final round with eight holes to play at the Crossings Course and she made three birdies on the outgoing nine at the Crossings Course to close with a 5-under 67.

   Lee, who had the lead following the disjointed third round that started Sunday and was completed Monday, was 1-over through 10 holes when play was halted Monday evening and she went 1-under in her final eight holes to match par with a 72 that enabled her to join the group at 10-under.

   Nobody made a bigger move in the final round than Polly Mack, a 26-year-old from Germany who played college golf at UNLV and Alabama.

   Not exactly sure if Mack started off the front or the back for her final round. On the outgoing nine at the Crossings Course, Mack rattled off three straight birdies at the second, third and fourth holes and added birdies at six, seven and nine for a sizzling front-nine 30.

   On the incoming nine, Mack made birdies at the 10^th and 13^th holes, gave a shot back with a bogey at 15 and added one more birdie at 16, the ninth of her round as she recorded a spectacular 8-under 64 that left her among a group of five players tied for 10^th place at 8-under 278.

   More importantly, Mack, a veteran of several Final Qualifying efforts, went from seemingly no shot to finish among the top 25 to making plans for some starts on the LPGA Tour in 2026.

   Mack was joined at 8-under by Natasha Nadaud, a 21-year-old from France, Kokona Sakurai, a 21-year-old from Japan, Leah John, a 25-year-old from Canada and 23-year-old Camille Boyd, a native of Yorba Linda, Calif. who played her college golf at Washington.

   Nadaud closed with a 2-under 70 at the Crossings Course to get her share of 10^th place.

   Sakurai was 2-under through eight holes for her final round and went 1-over the rest of the way for a final round of 1-under 71 to get it in at 8-under.

   John, coming off a solid season on the Epson Tour, had grabbed the lead with an opening round of 8-under 64 at the Crossings Course. She closed with a 1-over 73 at the Crossings Course to easily earn her LPGA Tour card.

   Boyd, another solid Epson Tour performer this year, was steady in the midst of all the rain and cold and starts and stops as she finished up with an even-par 72 to earn her share of 10^th place.

   I imagine there was a bit of celebrating for the three members of the Wake Forest starting lineup when the Demon Deacons defeated Southern California in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at Graystone Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. in the spring of 2023 who got through Final Qualifying Tuesday.

   Lauren Walsh, a 25-year-old from Ireland, and Carolina Lopez-Chacarra, a 22-year-old Spaniard, finished among the group tied for 17^th place at 6-under 286. Mimi Rhodes, a 23-year-old from England, qualified for the LPGA Tour on the number as she was part of an eight-way logjam tied for 24^th place at 5-under 281.

   Walsh, who played on Great Britain & Ireland teams in the Curtis Cup in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and in 2022 at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course, came on strong with a final round of 5-under 67 at the Crossings Course.

   Lopez-Chacarra remained an amateur long enough to represent Spain in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in October in Singapore. Spain finished in a tie atop the leaderboard with South Korea and the United States, but the US of A got to hoist the Espirito Santo Trophy in a tiebreaker.

   Now, Lopez-Chacarra is headed for the LPGA Tour after a solid showing at Magnolia Grove as she closed with a 3-under 69 at the Crossings Course.

   Rhodes, a member of the winning GB&I Curtis Cup team in the summer of 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England, won three times on her first full year on the LET this year.

   A 5-under 66 at the Falls Course in a third round that started Sunday afternoon and finished Monday morning gave Rhodes a shot and she matched par in the final round at the Crossings Course with a 72 that earned her playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2026.

   I was rooting for Gianna Clemente, the 17-year-old from Estero, Fla. via Warren, Ohio, to bring her talent to the LPGA Tour, but that will have to wait for a little while.

   I was checking the live scoring from time to time Tuesday and Clemente, who Monday qualified for three straight LPGA events as a 14-year-old in 2022, was at 4-under with just a few holes to go in her final round, needing a birdie to join the group that got through on the number at 5-under.

   Clemente, however, finished with a double bogey at the ninth hole at the Crossings Course for a final round of 1-under 71 that left her with a 2-under 284 total in her professional debut.

   Clemente knew going in that she would have status on the Epson Tour for 2026 and she sounded willing to get her feet wet at the professional level on the LPGA’s developmental tour.

   But you’ll be hearing from Clemente before long. She’s been biding her time as an amateur for more than a year. The next time Clemente tees it up in competition, she’ll be getting paid for her efforts.

   Samantha Wagner, the Easton native who played her college golf at Florida, also came up short in her bid to earn an LPGA Tour card. Wagner closed with a 1-over 73 at the Crossings Course and finished in the group tied for 48^th place with an even-par 286 total.

   Wagner made significant strides in 2025, earning her first professional victory in the FireKeepers Casino Resort Championship at Battle Creek Country Club in Michigan on the Epson Tour. You’ll see a more experienced, battle-tested Sam Wagner on the Epson Tour in 2026.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yan has the lead halfway through final round of Q-Series Final Qualifying at Magnolia Grove

 

   Once the LPGA Tour finally got some dry weather at the Robert Trent Jones Trail Magnolia Grove courses in Mobile, Ala. Monday, it just kept the players playing.

   As a result, Jing Yan of China, going 4-under through 10 holes of her final round at the par-72 Crossings Course when it was suspended by darkness, will have a one-shot lead with eight holes to play Tuesday in Q-Series Final Qualifying.

   Drenching rains early Sunday left the Crossings Course and the Falls Course at Magnolia Grove unplayable until the middle of the afternoon. With the winter solstice only a couple of weeks away, there isn’t a whole lot of daylight, but the players were sent out to try to play as much as they could.

   The third round concluded Monday – most of the leaders were playing the Falls Course in the third round – and the LPGA Tour sent the players out to get in as much of the final round as possible.

   The tournament was originally scheduled to be 90 holes and was scheduled to conclude Monday. The opening round was washed out Thursday and when the drencher hit early Sunday, the tournament was cut to 72 holes.

   It will be a mad dash to the finish Tuesday with the players trying to get one of the LPGA Tour cards for 2026 that will go to the top-25 finishers.

   Yan completed a solid 3-under 68 at the Falls Course Monday morning and then, starting off the 10^th tee at the Crossings Course, jump-started her round with an eagle at the par-4 11^th hole and a birdie at 12.

   A birdie at the first hole, the last hole Yan completed before play was suspended, got her to 4-under for the round and 11-under for the tournament.

   Yan has struggled on the LPGA Tour, but always seems to save her best stuff for the U.S. Women’s Open, for which she has qualified seven times and made the cut three times.

   She had five birdies in a stretch of six holes on the incoming nine at Erin Hills in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open on her way to a sparkling 3-under 69 in the second round that had her on the leaderboard at 4-under at the halfway point. Yan faded to a tie for 28^th place with a 4-over 292 total, but she is clearly capable of some solid stretches of golf.

   When I first clicked on the leaderboard Monday, Helen Briem, a talented 20-year-old from Germany, was tied for the lead with Yan. But Yan’s birdie at the first hole dropped Briem back into a tie for second place 10-under.

   Briem had completed her third round at the Falls Course early Monday with an even-par 71. She was 1-under through seven holes on the incoming nine at the Crossings Course. She would appear to be in pretty good shape to earn an LPGA Tour card.

   The kind of shifts that can happen in the chase of an LPGA Tour card were obvious even in those final updates before play was officially suspended Monday.

   Sharing second place at 10-under with Briem was Japan’s Kokona Sakurai. She birdied the last two holes she played, the 17^th and 18^th at the Crossings Course, to jump up into a tie for second place.

   Sakurai completed a solid 2-under 69 at the Falls Course Monday morning and was 3-under on the incoming nine at the Crossings Course.

   Dongeun Lee of South Korea had taken the lead through three rounds she completed a 2-under 69 at the Falls Course Monday. She made a birdie on the last hole she played in the afternoon, the 16^th at the Crossings Course, to jump to fourth place, a shot behind Briem and Sakurai.

   Lee had made a couple of bogeys early in her final round and the birdie at the 16^th hole got her back to 1-over for her round.

   Yu Liu, another native of China, went 2-under on the back nine at the Crossings Course to join France’s Perrine Delacour and Canadian Leah John in the trio tied for fifth place at 8-under.

   Liu had completed a 2-under 69 at the Falls Course Monday morning.

   Dellacour, who has split time on the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour (LET) during her career, and John, coming off a solid season on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour, each completed a 2-under 69 Monday morning at the Falls Course and were 1-over through seven holes on the back nine of the Crossings Course to join Liu at 8-under.

   Three Americans, Camille Boyd, a native of Yorba Linda, Calif. who was a standout at Washington, Laney Frye, a native of Nicholsville, Ky. who was a really nice player in college at Kentucky, and Ryann O’Toole, an LPGA Tour veteran battling to keep her place in the big leagues of women’s golf, are among a group of seven players tied for eighth place at 7-under.

   Boyd has been solid all week and completed a 1-under 70 at the Falls Course Monday morning. She was 1-over through seven holes on the back nine of the Crossings Course.

   Frye and O’Toole both made a move Monday to put them in good position to earn playing privileges on the LPGA Tour in 2026.

   Frye completed a 3-under 68 at the Falls Course and was 1-under through 11 holes on the Crossings Course to get it to 7-under. O’Toole matched par in the third round she completed Monday morning at the Falls Course with a 71 and then went 3-under on the incoming nine at the Crossings Course to jump up into the top 10.

   Another interesting name in that group at 7-under was Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini, who was a sophomore on a Mississippi team that was a stunning winner of the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. in 2021, defeating Oklahoma State in the Final Match.

   Tamburlini has been a winner on the LET and she put herself in position to bring her talent to the LPGA Tour with a big Monday. After finishing off a 1-under 70 at the Falls Course Monday morning, Tamburlini had four birdies and no bogeys, going 4-under for 13 holes on the Crossings Course to get it to 7-under.

   She is just five solid holes away from earning an LPGA Tour card.

   Soo Bin Yoo, a 21-year-old South Korean who owns an Epson Tour win in 2024, made a huge move in the third round as she finished off an eight-birdie, one-bogey 7-under 64 at the Falls Course.

   Bin Yoo was 1-under through seven holes on the back nine at the Crossings Course to join the group at 7-under.

   Rounding out the group tied for eighth place at 7-under were China’s Mohan Du and Juniper Jang, like Bin Yoo, another talented South Korean youngster.

   Du, coming off a solid season on the Epson Tour, completed a 1-under 70 Monday morning at the Falls Course and was even-par through eight holes on the back nine of the Crossings Course.

   Jang also completed a 1-under 70 in the morning at the Falls Course and was 2-under through 10 holes at the Crossings Course in the afternoon.

   One of the more interesting story lines at Magnolia Grove is the bid by 17-year-old Gianna Clemente to earn an LPGA Tour card after receiving a waiver to allow her to compete on the tour before turning 18.

   Clemente of Estero, Fla. via Warren, Ohio struggled a little in finishing up her third round at the Falls Course as she ended up recording a 3-over 74.

   But she ripped off consecutive birdies at the 11^th, 12^th and 13^th holes at the Crossings Course to get back in the hunt for a spot in the top 25. A bogey at the 14^th hole left her at 2-under for the back nine at the Crossings Course and just outside the top 25 in the group tied for 27^th place at 3-under.

   Samantha Wagner, an Easton native who was a college standout at Florida, has some work to do to get into that top 25.

   Wagner, who earned her first professional win at the FireKeeper Casino Resort Championship at Battle Creek Country Club in Michigan on the Epson Tour in the summer, matched par with a 71 at the Falls Course in the third round she completed Monday morning.

   Wagner was even-par through 12 holes at the Crossings Course in the afternoon and was among a group tied for 38^th place at 1-under.