A Second Calling to Compete: The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur gives a chance to continue the game

by Kim Shek

(Kim was the medalist in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Qualifier held August 10 at Portland Golf Club. She will now compete in the championship proper, to also be held at Portland GC on Sept 26-Oct 1.)

Look around your home course. You will see early morning dew sweepers, the regulars in the ladies’ league, the 9-holers, the T-League players, the women who’ve been shooting in the mid-80s on a regular basis but still not sure they’re “good enough” to enter anything beyond their own Sweeps or club championship.

If that is you, or someone in your foursome, there is probably a national championship for women in which you may be closer to the field than you think.

In 2025, the National Golf Foundation reported that total on-course female golfers reached a record 8.1 million. Golf is picking up new players and welcoming back old ones at every stage of life, and that wave includes plenty of golfers who never imagined they would tee it up in a USGA championship.

I picked up golf later in life, playing friendly matches with my brothers back in England. This was nothing more ambitious than bragging rights over a cup of tea afterward. There was no junior golf, no college team, no swing coach until I was well into adulthood. My handicap kept dropping and somewhere along the way the inner competitor in me woke up and said, “Why not try tournament golf?”

The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur returns to the Pacific Northwest

In 2024, Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle hosted the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. Two players from Washington state qualified, and I was one of them. When the tee times were published, I learned that as the local medalist qualifier, I would get to hit the first tee shot on the first hole to start the championship. Excitement over nerves kicked in and off the ball flew into the fairway. My caddie, Adithi Anand, a former University of Washington women’s golf team player, looked at me and nodded approvingly. I was, for one week, playing in the same field as some of the best senior women amateurs in the world, not because I was one of them my whole life, but because I entered.

In 2026, the championship returns to the Pacific Northwest at Portland Golf Club in Portland, Oregon running September 26 to October 1. This course promises to deliver the championship conditions to test the best of the best senior women amateurs.

What’s the attraction in playing the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur

• This championship brings together the best senior women amateurs, to compete for the opportunity to have their name cemented in history. Pacific Northwest local notable winners include Lara Tennant of Portland (2018, 2019, 2021), and Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay, B.C. (2022). Shelly made it to the final match in 2024 at Broadmoor, while I made the quarterfinals.
• The friendships made during these events are priceless. Every player has a different story and path into the game of golf, but the same obsession for it.
• This is not just a U.S. event, but truly an internationally recognized championship. Of the 132 players last year, there were players from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, France, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico and the U.S.
• This championship combines stroke play with match play. Two rounds of stroke play, followed by a cut to the low 64 scorers who then advance to match play. It’s a genuinely different test than the medal-play events most club golfers are used to.

The eligibility bar is lower than most everyday golfers assume. The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur is open to any female amateur golfer who will be 50 years old or older by the start of the championship and who carries a Handicap Index of 14.4 or lower.

The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur is a calling to compete against the best senior women amateurs in the world, and increasingly that field includes women who spent decades as club golfers before they ever considered themselves tournament-level players. If you’ve been telling yourself this kind of event is for someone else, check your handicap, find your nearest qualifying site, and consider answering that calling yourself.

It is, after all, a game for everyone.

Paths to the Game

Some players came from other sports and simply transferred their competitive drive to golf.

• Babe Didrikson Zaharias: A 1932 Olympic gold medalist in track and field who took up golf in 1933, she became a founding member of the LPGA, won 10 major championships, and is considered one of the greatest all-around athletes in history.
• Althea Gibson: After breaking the color barrier in tennis and winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in that sport, she became the first African American woman to join the LPGA Tour in 1964.
• Troy Mullins: A former heptathlete at Cornell University, she took up golf after a hamstring injury and became a professional long-drive competitor, setting a record for the longest drive by an American woman (402 yards).

Others came to the game later, with no athletic pedigree at all, just curiosity and, eventually, an itch to compete.

• Condoleezza Rice: The former U.S. Secretary of State and accomplished pianist took up golf later in life and became one of the first female members of Augusta National Golf Club.
• Halle Berry: Actress who has taken golf lessons from David Leadbetter to master the game.
• Cameron Diaz: Actress who took up the game seriously in her later years after initially learning to swing for a movie role.

Kim Shek has a distinguished record competing in USGA national championships. A three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Open participant (2022, 2024, 2025) and three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur competitor (2023–2025, being a quarterfinalist in 2024), she brings first-hand knowledge of what it takes to perform under USGA conditions. Kim was named the WA Golf Senior Women’s Player of the Year four consecutive years (2022–2025), and won the 2026 Washington Senior Women’s Champion of Champions.