The US Golf Association will bring a national championship to New Hampshire for the first time with next week’s US Junior Amateur, scheduled for the Golf Club of New England in Stratham.
A field of 156 will be participating, including a handful from New England. James Park of Deerfield qualified at Longmeadow Country Club, while David Thompson of Shrewsbury and Jake Shuman earned their spots at a qualifier in Oxford, Conn. Chelso Barrett from Keene, N.H., who lost to Jordan Spieth in last year’s championship match, was exempt from qualifying and will be playing near his hometown. So will Connor Greenleaf of Windham, N.H., who qualified in Atkinson, N.H.
Other notables scheduled to compete include Beau Hossler, who has played in the past two US Opens; Andy Zhang, who became the youngest player in US Open history last month at age 14; and Clancy Waugh, son of Seth Waugh, the CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas who has been instrumental in sponsoring the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston.
Stroke-play rounds are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, with match play starting on Wednesday and concluding Saturday.
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Going back to Cali
Megan Khang of Rockland and Isabel Southard of Sharon have qualified for the US Girls’ Junior, which is in Daly City, Calif., next week, also starting on Monday . . . Top juniors who haven’t qualified for either the US Junior Amateur or the US Girls’ Junior might be playing in East Falmouth next week. The American Junior Golf Association will conduct the Deutsche Bank Partners for Charity Junior Shoot Out at the Golf Club of Cape Cod. The three-day, 54-hole stroke-play event will feature 96 juniors, including both defending champions: Nick Rodriguez of Shrewsbury won the boys division last year, while Samantha Marks of Maitland, Fla., took the girls.
Oldies are goodies
Brian Secia, a 54-year-old living on Nantucket, is making his US Senior Open debut this week. Secia, along with Mark Morse of West Roxbury, qualified last month at Vesper Country Club, and will be among the 156 starters at Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion, Mich. Morse has played in three US Opens (1996, 1997, 2006), and won a tournament in 2000 on what’s now the Web.com Tour. He’s also making his first start at the US Senior Open . . . Two players exempt into the British Open may miss it because of recent or expected arrivals. US Open champion Webb Simpson, also the reigning Deutsche Bank Championship winner, has strongly hinted that he won’t be at Royal Lytham & St. Annes next week because his wife, Dowd, is expecting their second child later this month. He has not officially withdrawn yet, however. Jason Day, though, has withdrawn. Day’s wife, Ellie, gave birth to the couple’s first child on Wednesday, a son they named Dash . . . Na Yeon Choi won last week’s US Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run, site of Se Ri Pak’s win in 1998, a victory that sparked a golfing revolution in South Korea that included Choi. Wondering about Jenny Chuasiriporn? Back then, the unknown 20-year-old amateur from Baltimore holed the unlikeliest of 40-footers on the final hole to force a playoff, which she lost the next day to Pak in 19 holes. What happened to Chuasiriporn? During last week’s NBC broadcast, Dan Hicks found her and told her story, including how close she came to becoming the youngest amateur champion in US Women’s Open history (she had a mid-range putt to win on the 18th hole of the playoff, missed it, then lost when Pak rolled in a birdie on the first hole of sudden death). Chuasiriporn eventually turned pro, but only briefly, coming to the conclusion that professional golf wasn’t the career path that would make her happy. She’s living in Richmond, Va., now, and has been a nurse working with cardiac patients for six years. Married, expecting her first child, Chuasiriporn doesn’t play golf anymore, telling Hicks she’s played just nine holes — total — since 2007. Pak, who was also 20 when she beat Chuasiriporn, has 25 wins in her LPGA Tour career, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.
They take flight
Marcia Veale (Wenham Country Club) and Carmen Madore (Beverly) teamed to win the A&B Flight of the Cris Eaton Foursomes at Wollaston, a tournament on the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts schedule. The Wenham team of Gretchen Oehme and Marie Grondin captured the C,D&E Flight in a one-hole playoff over Martha Mahoney and Barbara Stella, both of Andover Country Club . . . Winners in the WGAM’s Mother & Daughter Championships included Lise Baker and Kelsy Baker of Hopkinton Country Club (Division 1, daughters 19 and over); Jenny Ceppi and Milan Ceppi of Bass Rocks (Division 2, daughters 14-18); and Susan Elliott and Kathryn Elliott of Brae Burn (Division 3, daughters 13 and under). In the member-junior competition, Veale and Julia Derendal (Bear Hill) won Division 2, while Christine Veator and Gabrielle Shieh, both of Ferncroft, won Division 3.
Start scrambling
Robert T. Lynch Municipal Golf Course will host the 12th Ouimet/Lowery Tournament July 29, a fund-raiser for the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund. Cost for the scramble event is $100 per player. For information, or to register, visit www.brooklinegolf.com or call 617-730-2078 . . . Kazuo Noda, a performance coach at Wayland Country Club, is offering eight 40-minute demonstration sessions at no charge this weekend. The purpose of the sessions, Noda said, is to assist players in discovering or rediscovering the key to playing better golf. Sessions are available on Saturday and Sunday, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. each day. Registration is required; if you’d like to sign up, call 508-358-3587 . . . Anyone wishing to play in the US Mid-Amateur needs to have their application in by July 18. Players must be at least 25, with a handicap index of 3.4 or better. This year’s US Mid-Amateur is Sept. 8-13 at Conway Farms Golf Course in Lake Forest, Ill. There are two local qualifiers, both on Aug. 6, at Springfield Country Club and Wellesley Country Club. For information, or to apply, visit www.usga.org . . . Dozens of Massachusetts courses, both public and private, are participating in Family Golf Month, a national initiative in July spearheaded by the PGA of America. To locate a participating facility near you, and to learn more about Family Golf Month, visit www.playgolfamerica.com.