NW players will show their game at U.S. Women’s Open
The Northwest amateur golf scene will be well represented at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, when Krissy Carman of Eugene, Ore., Angela Zhang of Bellevue, Wash., Lauren Kim of Surrey, B.C. and Anna Davis of Spring Valley, Calif. (by way of Chewelah, Wash.) tee it up.
A record total of 2,107 players submitted entries for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. The draw? The national championship will be held for the first time at iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links.
After exemptions are finalized and qualifying is completed at 26 different sites, 156 players will tee it up in the championship proper, which is being held July 6-9, 2023.
About the Northwest amateurs who have made it into the field at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open:
Krissy Carman earned an exemption into this U.S. Women’s Open by winning the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She had attended Oregon State University for two years before transferring to Portland State University, where she played on the women’s golf team and twice earned All-Big Sky Conference honors. She had also won the 2016 Oregon Women’s Amateur.
After college she got married and had a son, and did not play competitive golf from 2018-2021. Once back on the course, Carman racked up a win at the 2022 Oregon Women’s Stroke Play Championship, earned medalist honors at the Oregon Women’s Amateur, then a runner-up finish at the Oregon Women’s Mid-Amateur. She was medalist at a local qualifier for the 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. At the end of the 2022 season, Carman was named the PNGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year.
Already this year, Carman has won the Oregon Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Along with a spot in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, Carman’s win in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am also earned her an exemption into the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and an exemption into the next 10 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships.
Anna Davis shot rounds of 71-71 to earn medalist honors in qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open on May 22 at Valencia (Calif.) Country Club.
The left-hander exploded onto the national scene in April 2022 when she won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, competing against top-flight collegiate players. That win got Davis into three majors and four additional LPGA Tour events, where she made five cuts. She missed the cut in her first U.S. Women’s Open start last year at Pine Needles.
Davis spends her summers in Chewelah, Wash., and competes in the Washington Junior Golf Association circuit. Anna won the 8-11 Girls WJGA State Championship three times (2015-2017) and the 14-15 Girls State Championship in 2020. (Her twin brother Billy won the 8-11 Boys WJGA State Championship in 2017, and the 14-15 Boys State Championship in 2021.)
Davis, who represented the U.S. in the 2021 Junior Solheim and Junior Ryder Cups, won the Girls’ Junior Invitational at Sage Valley earlier this year as well as the Girls’ Junior Orange Bowl. Just finishing her junior year in high school, she plans to attend Auburn University in the fall of 2024.
Lauren Kim shot rounds of 70-69 to claim the second available spot at the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier held at Victoria (B.C.) Golf Club on May 15. This will be the second straight U.S. Women’s Open she has qualified for.
Kim has been named to Team Canada women’s squad the past three years. After six top-10 finishes in international events, including a third-place finish in the Canadian Women’s Amateur, she was named the 2022 PNGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year.
She has just finished her senior year at Earl Marriott Secondary, and is on her way this fall to the University of Texas to begin her collegiate golf career.
Angela Zhang sank a downhill 25-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a 4-for-2 playoff to earn a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open at a qualifier held at Shannopin Country Club in Pittsburgh, Pa. on May 9.
Later in May, Zhang and partner Alice Zhao co-medaled at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, held at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. Zhang and Zhao, both just 14 years old, then made it to the semifinals in that national championship.
In April, Zhang set a new women’s course record in the first round of the Washington Women’s Champion of Champions, also held at The Home Course, firing a 7-under 65, on her way to winning that state championship by 11 shots. She was still 13 years old at the time.
In 2019, at age nine, she made her way through the qualifying to make it to the Drive, Chip and Putt Finals, held at Augusta National Golf Club. In a dominant performance on a national stage, Zhang won the Girls 7-9 division with a final score of 29, one point shy of a perfect score.
In 2022, Zhang won seven Washington Junior Golf Association titles, including the WJGA State Championship, and earned more points on the WJGA season-long Player of the Year Points List than anyone else in WJGA history, with many of the points earned early in the season while she was still just 12 years old. Zhang also won three AJGA titles and had four top-10 finishes in other AJGA events.
In June 2022, Zhang won the Washington Women’s Amateur, becoming, at age 13, the youngest ever to win that state championship. In October 2022, she was named the Washington Golf Junior Girls’ Player of the Year.
At age 14, Zhang is the youngest player in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open field.
Pebble Beach has previously hosted six U.S. Opens (1972, 1982, 1992, 2000, 2010, 2019), five U.S. Amateurs (1929, 1947, 1961, 1999, 2018) and two U.S. Women’s Amateurs (1940, 1948).
Click here for more information on the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open.
