Timuquana Country Club, in Jacksonville, Fla., has been selected by the United States Golf Association as the host site for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The second USGA championship to be contested at Timuquana is scheduled for April 27-May 1, 2019.
“We look forward to returning to Timuquana Country Club for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship and sincerely appreciate the club’s enthusiasm for hosting this popular event,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “We’re confident Timuquana will provide a comprehensive test that will produce worthy champions while continuing to elevate the fun-spirited and competitive nature inherent to this team championship.”
Designed in 1923 by Donald Ross against the backdrop of the St. Johns River, the course was renovated in the mid-1950s by Robert Trent Jones Jr. with subsequent alterations by George Cobb and Dave Gordon. In 1996, Bobby Weed led another major renovation that improved drainage and irrigation. Among other changes, more than 800 trees were removed, helping to restore the course to its original design. Additionally, in 2011, the course was re-grassed and the No. 11 green was reshaped.
Timuquana hosted the 2002 U.S. Senior Amateur, won by Greg Reynolds, of Grand Blanc, Mich., who defeated Mark Bemowski, 4 and 3. Reynolds has since moved to Jacksonville and is an active Timuquana member. The club has also hosted several USGA qualifiers, including five U.S. Amateur sectional qualifiers. It will host its first U.S. Open sectional qualifier on June 6. Additionally, Timuquana has hosted the Southern Amateur and Florida State Amateur.
"Timuquana Country Club is once again honored to host a USGA national championship,” said Steve Melnyk, 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship co-chairman and 1969 U.S. Amateur champion. “By all accounts, the 2002 U.S. Senior Amateur at Timuquana was an overwhelming success and well received among all competitors. We now look forward to hosting some the game's finest female amateurs on our wonderful Donald Ross design for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball."
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship is open to two-player sides (or teams) of female amateurs with an individual Handicap Index® not exceeding 14.4. There are no age restrictions and partners are not required to be from the same club, state or country.
The championship begins with 18-hole sectional qualifying, which commences the previous August and is conducted by state and regional golf associations on behalf of the USGA. A total of 64 sides advance to the national championship, where each player plays their own ball throughout the round. Each side’s score is determined by using the lower score of the partners for each hole. After 36 holes of stroke play, the field is reduced to the low 32 sides for the championship’s match-play bracket, from which the eventual champion is determined.
The 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball will be the fifth U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, which was contested for the first time in 2015 and won by teenagers Mika Liu and Rinko Mitsunaga, who prevailed at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore. It also marks the 25th USGA championship contested in Florida. Upcoming championships in the Sunshine State include the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Streamsong Resort; the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples; the 2018 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Jupiter Hills Club in Tequesta; and the 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach.
Upcoming U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships will be contested May 21-25, 2016, at Streamsong (Fla.) Resort; May 27-31, 2017, at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and April 28-May 2, 2018 at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.
