The Top Seeds Rule on Day 1 of Match Play in the Senior Women's Am

USGA

SEATTLE -- You could certainly make the case that the cream rose to the top over the weekend in the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship. There were a lot of major credentials represented by the players who finished in the top 10, and those players looked the part, generally, in the first round of match play on Monday, as 11 of the top 12 seeds won.

Starting at the top, the medalist and No. 1 seed, Shelly Stouffer, who won this tournament in 2022, blitzed the No. 64 seed, Shelly Haywood, 6&5. Stouffer won the first three holes, and was 6 up by the time she got to the ninth tee at Broadmoor Golf Club. She lost the ninth hole, but that was the only one she lost on her way to the Round of 32, which will be the first of two rounds played on Tuesday. 

No. 2 seed Brenda Corrie Kuehn, who tied for second in stroke-play qualifying, was the runner-up last year, and she overcame a slow start Monday to beat No. 63 Therese Quinn 3&2. Kuehn was 1 down after losing the 92-yard, par-3 fifth hole to a birdie and the sixth to a par, but she won five of the next eight holes on the way to a 3&2 victory.  And No. 3 seed Aussie Nadine Gole, a former No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings won 3&2, as well. 

The exception to the rule on Monday was the No. 4 seed, Sue Wooster, who has been the runner-up in the Senior Women's Am three times. She won't be this year, however, because she lost 2&1 to No. 61 Jayne Padrus. Padrus won three of the first five holes, and she expanded her lead to 4 up by winning the ninth, 10th and 11th, all with pars. Wooster got back to 2 down with a birdie at the par-3 14th, but she never got any closer.

Leigh Klasse doesn't live in Minnesota. She lives in Cumberland, Wis., at least during the summer, and retreats to Arizona in the winter. Nevertheless, she has won more Minnesota state titles than anyone else, with more than 60 (that total counts a few from Arizona), and she made it through the medal-play part of the Senior Am to match play, as the No. 31 seed. But the Round of 64 was as far as she got. She lost 1 down to the No. 32 seed, Susan Curtin. Klasse won the first hole, but she was a quick 2 down after five holes. She won the sixth, but lost the ninth, and won the 12th but lost the 13th. Klasse cut the deficit she was facing to 1-down by winning the 16th, but she missed a chance to level the match when she tied the par-4 17th with a bogey. Curtin then secured the victory by tying the 472-yard, par-5 18th with a par.

As her reward for Monday's victory, Curtin will get Brenda Corrie Kuen in the Round of 32 Tuesday morning. 


U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship

At Broadmoor Golf Club

Par 70, 5,504 yards

Seattle, Wash. 

Stroke-play qualifyiing (the top 64 advance to match play Monday morning) 

1. Shelly Stouffer, Canada                           71-73--144

T2. Nadene Gole, Australia                          74-71--145

T2. Brenda Corrie Kuehn, Asheville, N.C.    76-69--145

T4. Judith Kyrinis, Canada                            76-71--147

T4. Sue Wooster, Australia                            74-73--147

6. Terrill Samuel, Candada                            72-76--148

T29. Leigh Klasse, Cumberland, Wis.        78-78--156

Missed cut -- 161 (8-for-6 playoff Monday morning)

Andrea Kellar-Luther, Wayzata                   81-83--164 

Allison Hurley, Phoenix                               84-86--170

Brenda Williams, Minnetonka                     85-87--172  


Match play

Round of 64

No. 1 Stouffer def. No. 64 Shelly Haywood 6&5

No. 2  Corrie Kuehn def. 63 Therese Quinn

No. 3. Gole def. No. 62 Martha Leach 3&2

No. 61 Jayne Pardus def. No. 4. Sue Wooster 2&1

No. 34 Susan Curtin def. No. 31 Leigh Klasse 1 up