skip to main content

CURTIS CUP

Three 2016 USA Curtis Cup Players in ANA Inspiration

By David Shefter, USGA

| Mar 29, 2016 | Far Hills, N.J.

2016 USA Curtis Cup members Sierra Brooks (left), Andrea Lee (center) and Hannah O'Sullivan are competing in this week's ANA Inspiration in California.

Andrea Lee, 17, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., joined two of her 2016 USA Curtis Cup teammates in the year’s first women’s professional major championship by carding a 5-under-par 67 in Monday’s ANA Junior Inspiration on the Palmer Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Fellow 17-year-olds Hannah O’Sullivan, of Chandler, Ariz., and Sierra Brooks, of Sorrento, Fla., had previously been invited to the ANA Inspiration, set to begin at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills on Thursday. O’Sullivan, No. 2 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™, is the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and Brooks, No. 5 in the world, was the runner-up to O’Sullivan at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club.

“To be a part of the [ANA Inspiration] field and be able to compete against the pros, I’m really excited to have that opportunity and I’m really looking forward to this week,” Lee told the Southern California Golf Association after earning the event’s lone qualifying spot. “I really wanted to make it this year. I can’t wait.”

Lee, who will attend Stanford University this fall, topped a field of 39 juniors, which also included 2016 USA Curtis Cup competitor Mariel Galdiano, of Pearl City, Hawaii, and 2015 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier Muni He, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Lee also competed in the ANA Inspiration last year after receiving one of several amateur invitations.

“I got caught up a little too much in the score,” said Lee of her 2015 experience, in which she missed the cut by one stroke with rounds of 73-75. “This year, I’m just going to go in and try to have fun, play one shot at a time and see what happens.”

Lee competed in the inaugural ANA Junior Inspiration in 2012, which was won by current LPGA Tour player Alison Lee (no relation). Alison Lee went on to a runner-up finish in the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior and was a member of the victorious 2014 USA Curtis Cup Team.

More From 2016 Curtis Cup