Kelsey Chugg initially was so excited about earning a berth in the U.S. Women’s Open that she told her friends she wouldn’t even care if she finished last.
That’s not exactly true. Chugg, a Salt Lake City resident and former Weber State golfer, remains thrilled to be playing this week at Shoal Creek in Alabama, but she clearly is hoping for a decent showing.
Teeing off Thursday morning, the Utah Golf Association staff member will become the first golfer with Utah ties to compete in the Women’s Open since 2007, when Lone Peak High School graduate Annie Thurman Young qualified while playing the developmental Futures Tour. Young also entered the ’03 event as an Oklahoma State golfer and played respectably, missing the 36-hole cut by two strokes. Carrie Summerhays Roberts, from Heber City, played in the 2000 and ’01 Women’s Opens during her BYU career.
Those golfers advanced through sectional qualifying; Chugg gained an exemption by winning the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship for golfers 25 and older in Houston in November. She also was invited to the South American Amateur in Argentina in January, an exhibition of United States Golf Association champions during the U.S. Open week in June and two national amateur events later this year.
The four-time State Amateur champion considers the Women’s Open opportunity her biggest prize from the Mid-Am victory. That’s the event she immediately thought about after winning the final match in Houston, completing a remarkable comeback from a first-round 85 in the stroke-play portion of the tournament.
“I’m still super excited,” she said last week. “I can’t believe it’s actually here. It’s what I’ve been looking forward to. … It’ll be a special experience in every way. I know how the USGA runs events.”
Chugg is among 17 first-time contestants and 29 amateurs in the 156-player field at Shoal Creek, the site of the PGA Championship in 1984 and ’90. In recent history, five or six amateurs usually have made the cut.
Her presence in the Women’s Open field is comparable to a club professional playing in the men’s PGA Championship, as several Utahns have done in recent years. Chugg said Tommy Sharp, who played in the 2016 PGA, advised her the atmosphere would be “a little overwhelming, but just to treat it as another event.”
The Women’s Open traditionally has been played in July; this year’s event marks a move to late-spring dates that are booked for at least the next five years.
The weather in Alabama has disrupted the tournament preparation, with Tuesday’s practice rounds canceled due to heavy rain. Chugg was scheduled to play a practice round Wednesday with LPGA Tour star Stacy Lewis, the wife of her junior college coach.
Chugg’s first-round pairing is with pro Julieta Granada and Sarah Kemp, teeing off Thursday at 7:19 a.m. MDT.
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