Denton and Kano to meet in final match at 124th PNGA Women’s Amateur
Woodburn, Ore. – Raegan Denton of Beverley, Australia, and Gabriella Kano of Fullerton, Calif., will meet in the final match of the 124th playing of the PNGA Women’s Amateur Championship, being held this week at the OGA Golf Course in Woodburn, Ore. The championship is being administered by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association.
The scheduled 36-hole final match will tee off on Friday, July 17, at 7:30am on the first tee at the OGA Golf Course, with the match teeing off the afternoon round at 12:00 noon.
Championship Links:
Denton is the No. 1 seed of the match-play bracket, having earned medalist honors after 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying earlier in the week. She is ranked No. 47 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and is a member of Australia’s High Performance Program.
Kano is a recent graduate of University of Nevada-Reno and placed seventh in 2026 Mountain West Championship. She also qualified for the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open. Earlier this summer she competed in the North-South Amateur at Pinehurst and next week will compete in the California Women’s Amateur.
In this afternoon’s semifinal match, Denton squared off against her Australian teammate, Grace Rho, of Auchenflower, Australia. Rho had grabbed an early 2-up lead, but Denton overwhelmed the back nine, winning four of seven holes and closing out the match, 3 and 2.
Denton and Rho have competed against each other many times before, and are traveling companions this summer, rooming together this week during this championship. Prior to their afternoon semifinal match against each other, the two had lunch together in the clubhouse restaurant.
Kano had defeated Aamiya Koul of Singapore in this morning’s quarterfinal match, 3 and 2. In Kano’s semifinal match this afternoon, Jacinda Lee of Camas, Wash. had built a 3-up lead over Kano after 10 holes, but Kano remained unphased and won five of the final seven holes to win 2-up on the 18th hole.
Denton, 19, will be attending Louisiana State University as a freshman in the fall, playing for the women’s golf team. She has competed in the U.S. for the past five seasons, including at last year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior. In April, Denton finished T4 in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
This fall, Kano will be competing in the LPGA Qualifying School, attempting to earn a spot on the LPGA Tour.
The PNGA Women’s Amateur is a USGA Exemption Event, with this year’s champion earning an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn from August 4-9. This opportunity has led to an exceptionally strong field in this year’s PNGA Women’s Amateur, with Denton now leading the way.
This is the first PNGA championship to be held at the OGA Golf Course, which is owned and operated by the Oregon Golf Association (OGA).
First opened in 1993, the OGA GC was designed by Bill Robinson on sandy soils of what had previously been a hazelnut orchard some 30 miles south of Portland. Its affiliation with the OGA has allowed it to be an ideal destination for several of its championships, among them the Oregon Women’s Stroke Play in 2004, 2014 and 2024, as well as the Oregon Amateur Championship in 2003 and 2014. The venue has also hosted numerous USGA Qualifiers and high school championships.
First held in 1899, the PNGA Women’s Amateur is among the oldest amateur golf championships in the world. Past champions include Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Famers who made up the Golden Age of female golfers in the Northwest such as JoAnne Carner, Jo Ann Washam, Pat Lesser Harbottle, Edean Ihlanfeldt, Violet Pooly Sweeney, Marcia Fisher, and Betty Jean Hulteng, among others. Past champions also include many others who would later go on to the LPGA Tour, such as Gigi Stoll, Jimin Kang, Peggy Conley, Ruth Jessen and Shirley Englehorn.
The PNGA Women’s Amateur Championship is one of the 11 major, regional, amateur championships for men, women, juniors, and seniors conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
