Hou sisters headed for the LPGA Tour after solid showings in Q-Series

   The Hou sisters from Taiwan suffered some tough losses in 2021.

   They helped Arizona reach the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. and both had match wins in the Wildcats’ 3-2 upset of Pac-12 champion and top-seeded Stanford in the quarterfinals.

   Older sister Yu-Sang Hou won her match, but younger sister Vivian fell in her match as Arizona came up just short in a 3-2 loss to eventual national champion Mississippi in the semifinals.

   Three months later, big sister Yu-Sang was on the bag as Vivian Hou marched all the way to the final of the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y.

   Vivian would fall, 2 and 1, in the scheduled 36-hole final to Kentucky’s Jensen Castle and was fairly inconsolable afterward, but there is no shame in reaching a U.S. Women’s Amateur final and Team Hou, with a couple of high golf IQ types like Yu-Sang and Vivian involved on every shot, battled to the end.

   Both played the fall portion of the wraparound 2021-2022 college season at Arizona, Vivian as a junior and Yu-Sang, taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility from the spring of 2020 lost to the coronavirus pandemic, as a fifth-year player.

   But 2021 turned out just fine for the Hou sisters in the last week as the final four rounds of the LPGA’s Q-Series played out at Highland Oaks Golf Club in Dothan, Ala. When the eight-round marathon – it started with four rounds at two courses at Magnolia Grove Golf Club the previous week down the road in Mobile, Ala. – finally wrapped up Sunday, both Hou sisters, competing as amateurs, had finished among the top 45 and earned playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2022.

   The Hou sisters were two of four current college standouts who finished among the top 45 and earned their LPGA Tour cards for 2022. Those four – Arkansas redshirt senior Brooke Matthews and Duke senior Gina Kim are the other two – can turn pro and start competing right away when the LPGA season gets under way or they can defer accepting their cards until July of next year, which would allow them to complete the rest of the college season.

   It sounds like the Hou sisters are leaning toward beginning their professional careers right away, which will be a tough loss for the Arizona program. But as I’ve mentioned in the past when scenarios like this have come up, college golf coaches are hoping they’re recruiting players talented enough to play on the LPGA Tour at some point in the future. When that future arrives a little early, the coaches are more focused on their players’ success than they are worried about the immediate future of their team.

   Vivian Hou was the low amateur after eight rounds at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses in Alabama. Vivian Hou had pretty much solidified her chances of making the coveted top 45 with rounds of 5-under 67 and 3-under 69 in her first two tours at Highland Oaks.

   Pretty sure the wind came up over the weekend and Vivian Hou struggled a little, posting a 1-over 73 in Saturday’s seventh round and closing with a 2-over 74 in Sunday’s eighth and final round as she finished in a tie for 20^th place with a 10-under 564 total.

   Yu-Sang Hou was in danger of missing the cut after the first four rounds until she finished strong with a sparkling 66 in the fourth round at Magnolia Grove to join her sister at Highland Oaks.

   After opening with a 73 at Highland Oaks, Yu-Sang Hou, who helped Arizona capture the 2018 NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. as a freshman, carded a solid 4-under 68 in Friday’s sixth round. Yu-Sang Hou added a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s seventh round and closed with a 74 in Sunday’s eighth round as she finished in a tie for 30^th place at 7-under 567.

   Matthews joined Yu-Sang Hou in the tie for 30^th place at 7-under. The Rogers, Ark. native was really solid for three days at Highland Oaks, sandwiching a 3-under 69 in Friday’s sixth round with a pair of 70s in rounds 5 and 7 before closing with a 2-over 74.

   Matthews is one of those players who has improved a little each year at Arkansas. But she really took off during the fall portion of the 2021-’22 college season.

   Matthews blitzed Youmans Hall Golf Club in Hanahan, S.C. with rounds of 63, 64 and 64 for a stunning 25-under 191 total in the Cougar Classic that smashed the previous NCAA record in relation to par for a 54-hole tournament by any woman anywhere by six shots.

   I theorized at the time that Matthews, always a talented player, had gotten a jolt of confidence from her appearance with the United States team that rallied from an early deficit to claim a 12.5-7.5 victory over a strong Great Britain & Ireland team in the Curtis Cup Match at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales in late August.

   Duke’s Kim was another member of that U.S. Curtis Cup team. She teamed with Matthews as they suffered a setback in a four-ball match on Day 1 at Wales. It was the beginning of an 0-4 weekend for Kim, but the team success no doubt tempered her disappointment.

   Any doubt that Kim, a native of Chapel Hill, N.C., would someday be an LPGA Tour player was erased in the spring of 2019 when, as a freshman, she helped Duke capture its seventh NCAA crown with a victory over Atlantic Coast Conference rival Wake Forest in the Final Match at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. and came back a couple of weeks later to claim low-amateur honors in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina, finishing in a tie for 12^th place.

   Kim was ready for Week 2 of Q-Series as she carded a sizzling 6-under 66 in her first round at Highland Oaks. She added a 2-under 70 in Friday’s sixth round and a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s seventh round before struggling a little in Sunday’s final round with a 76 as she finished among the group tied for 35^th place with a 5-under 569 total.

   Matthews and Kim will likely head for the LPGA Tour earlier rather than later in 2022, but we’ll see.

   South Korea’s Na Rin An finished strong, closing with a 6-under 66, to erase a five-shot deficit and edge France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard by a shot for medalist honors that earned her the top prize of $15,142.

   The 25-year-old had opened Week 2 with a 64 at Highland Oaks, but still trailed Roussin-Bouchard before going low again in Sunday’s eighth round for a ridiculous 33-under 541 total.

   The 21-year-old Roussin-Bouchard spent most of her college career at South Carolina at or near the top of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). She rattled off seven straight rounds in the 60s in the pressure-cooker that is Q-Series before cooling off with an even-par 72 in the final round for a 32-under 542 total that left her a shot behind An.

   Roussin-Bouchard’s seventh-round 67 featured a hole-in-one at the short 13^th hole at Highland Oaks. Roussin-Bouchard was the Southeastern Conference’s individual champion last spring at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.

   An and Roussin-Bouchard really separated themselves from an immensely talented field. Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, the 18-year-old Rookie and Player of the Year on the Ladies European Tour (LET), closed with a 2-under 69 to finish six shots behind Roussin-Bouchard in third place with a 26-under 548 total.

   It was another five shots back to Ruoning Yin of China and Peiyun Chien of Taiwan in a tie for fourth place, each landing on 21-under 553.

   Yin seemed particularly fond of the Highland Oaks layout as she opened Week 2 with a 7-under 65 and added her worst round of the week, a 69 in Friday’s sixth round, before making a big move on the weekend when the wind seemed to bother the rest of the field as she posted back-to-back 67s.

   Chien was very solid at Highland Oaks with 3-under 69s in the fifth, seventh and eighth rounds around an even-par 72 in Friday’s sixth round.

   Janie Jackson was right at home on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail as the former Alabama standout was the low American, finishing two shots behind Yin and Chien in sixth place with a 19-under 555 total.

   Jackson’s fifth-round 68 featured a hole-in-one as her pitching wedge at the 129-yard fourth hole landed past the cup and spun back. The 27-year-old was also strong on the weekend, posting back-to-back 3-under 69s in the final two rounds.

   A lot of headlines are focused on the young phenoms in women’s golf, but a lot of LPGA Tour pros have a career track similar to that of Jackson. She has steadily risen through the ranks and she displayed the poise under pressure during the final rounds of Q-Series that comes from the experience gained grinding it out on the Symetra Tour.

   I dedicated a lot of my post on the halfway mark of the Q-Series on Southern California product Allisen Corpuz. It was appropriate that Corpuz will be joined in the LPGA Tour’s 2022 rookie class by Southern Cal teammate Jennifer Chang, both landing in a large group tied for 16^th place at 11-under 563.

   Corpuz of Honolulu, Hawaii was a sophomore and Chang of Cary, N.C. one of four freshmen on the youthful Southern Cal team that reached the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek.

   Corpuz was also part of the winning U.S. team in the Curtis Cup Match along with Matthews and Kim, going 3-0 at Conwy Golf Club in Wales. She entered Week 2 of Q-Series in the top 10, but struggled a little at Highland Oaks. After a solid 4-under 69 in the fifth round, Corpuz went 74, 73 and 72 in the final three rounds, but still easily earned playing privileges on the LPGA Tour in 2022.

   Chang, the runnerup to Duke’s Erica Shepherd in the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo., opened Week 2 with a 4-under 68 at Highland Oaks and grinded out rounds of even-par 72 and 1-under 71 in the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively, before closing with a 73 to join her fellow Trojan Corpuz at 11-under.

   A couple of teammates on the Texas team that earned a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk last spring, Agathe Laisne of France and Kaitlyn Papp of Austin, Texas, also moved on to the LPGA Tour in tandem.

   Laisne closed with back-to-back 3-under 69s on the weekend at Highland Oaks as she finished among the group tied for 22^nd place with a 8-under 565 total. Then she was off to Spain and five rounds of the final stage of LET Q-School at the La Manga Club. Sounds like she’s planning to play a worldwide schedule if she is eligible on both tours.

   Papp became one of the headliners of the unusual winter solstice U.S. Women’s Open – rescheduled from its normal spring time frame by the pandemic -- at Champions Golf Club in Houston a year ago when she played in the final group in Saturday’s third round while still an amateur. She went on to finish in a tie for ninth place, earning low-amateur honors in the process.

   Papp was in grind mode at Highland Oaks, opening with a 1-over 73 in the fifth round, matching par with 72s in both the sixth and seventh rounds and closing with a 2-over 74 as she landed among the group tied for 32^nd place at 6-under 568.

   A couple of players I was clearly rooting for in my post at the halfway point of Q-Series, former South Carolina standout Katelyn Dambaugh and former Alabama star and two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kristen Gillman, couldn’t quite get inside the top 45 and ties needed to earn an LPGA Tour card.

   Dambaugh, who, like Roussin-Bouchard, won an SEC individual crown at Greystone in 2017, was one frustrating shot off the cutoff of 4-under 570 as she struggled to a 78 in Friday’s sixth round and a 76 in Sunday’s final round to finish with a 3-under 571 total.

   With some of the uncertainty and confusion created by the pandemic the last two years behind Dambaugh, the left-hander should be able to settle in on the Symetra Tour and try to make the LPGA Tour via Symetra’s Race for the Card.

   Gillman, the Austin, Texas native who helped Alabama reach the final of the 2018 NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek, also struggled in the final round with a 4-over 76 that left her in a tie for 53^rd place with a 1-under 573 total.

   Gillman will be one of the best players on the Symetra Tour in 2022 and her time away from the LPGA Tour, the big league of women’s golf, won’t last long.