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Aug 2, 2021

No rest for the….really, really good golfer

by Tom Cade, Editor

You must excuse Lara Tennant if she doesn’t respond immediately to texts, voicemails, emails, social media posts, LinkedIn messages, carrier pigeons, telegrams or Morse code.

Lara Tennant hits a shot during the first round of the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open. (Photo copyright Darren Carroll/USGA)

She’s been rather busy these two weeks.

Tennant, a three-time PNGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year (2017, 2018, 2019) from Portland, finished tied for 29th in last week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, held at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. She was one of seven amateurs who made the cut in the national championship.

Immediately after completing her final round on Sunday afternoon, she hopped in the rental car and headed south on I-95 to Rye, N.Y., about an hour’s drive, where Monday she teed it up in the first round of stroke-play qualifying in the 121st U.S. Women’s Amateur, being held this week at Westchester Country Club.

Tennant, who is 55 and a mother of five, is by far the oldest player in the field at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where the average age of the players is 20.2. The youngest player in the field, Cathy Zhang, is 12 (yes, 12). Just a bunch of teenagers and college kids, really. And Tennant will most likely school most of them.

And how, exactly, did Tennant get into these two national championships, which are being held on consecutive weeks? Well, she did what very few players have done – she successfully defended her title in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, winning back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019 (the 2020 championship was canceled due to COVID-19). Oh, she also won the 2019 British Senior Women’s Amateur.

Those kinds of credentials will get you exempted into a lot of national championships.

For added measure, three weeks ago she won the Oregon Senior Women’s Amateur for the fifth consecutive year.

In between capturing titles and polishing an increasing number of silver trophies, Tennant serves as the Junior Golf Chair on the executive committee of the Oregon Golf Association.

You can follow along with live scoring at the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Next month, the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur will be held September 10-15 at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Ala. Tennant will be there, trying for three in a row.

And that’s how you do it.