Twenty additional amateurs have earned entry into the 75th U.S. Women’s Open Championship, which will be hosted by Champions Golf Club, in Houston, Texas, from Dec. 10-13, 2020. As previously announced, the 156-player field for the championship will be entirely comprised of exempt players due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 20 amateurs earned exemptions based on the World Amateur Golf Ranking® as of Nov. 4.
The top 20 points leaders not already exempt who applied to play before the Nov. 11 entry deadline are:
No. 1 Rose Zhang, of Irvine, Calif.
No. 2 Ingrid Lindblad, of Sweden
No. 3 Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, of France
No. 5 Linn Grant, of Sweden
No. 6 Emilia Migliaccio, of Cary, N.C.
No. 7 Alessia Nobilio, of Italy
No. 8 Ho Yu An, of Chinese Taipei
No. 11 Benedetta Moresco, of Italy
No. 12 Agathe Laisne, of France
No. 13 Maja Stark, of Sweden
No. 14 Lucie Malchirand, of France
No. 15 Beatrice Wallin, of Sweden
No. 16 Olivia Mehaffey, of Ireland
No. 17 Lily May Humphreys, of England
No. 19 Kaitlyn Papp, of Austin, Texas
No. 20 Emma Spitz, of Austria
No. 22 Caterina Don, of Italy
No. 23 Amelia Garvey, of New Zealand
No. 25 Auston Kim, of St. Augustine, Fla.
No. 27 Allisen Corpuz, of Honolulu, Hawaii
Among those now in the field is world No. 1 Rose Zhang, who in August won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, which earned her a spot in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Zhang is having an incredible season, which includes an 11th-place finish and low-amateur honors in the ANA Inspiration, a women’s professional major. Zhang also won the Rolex Girls Junior Championship and the Ping Invitational on the American Junior Golf Association circuit. Zhang was awarded the McCormack Medal by the USGA and R&A earlier this year for being the leading female in the WAGR.
Lindblad and Grant are among four natives of Sweden exempt into the field as amateurs. Lindblad, a sophomore at Louisiana State University, became the first player in program history to earn Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors in the same season. Grant is competing in her second U.S. Women’s Open, after contending in 2018 at Shoal Creek, where she was tied for fourth after 36 holes before finishing in a tie for 57th.
Roussin-Bouchard held the No. 1 spot in WAGR® for the first half of 2020. A standout sophomore at the University of South Carolina, she will be playing in her first U.S. Women’s Open. Last month, Roussin-Bouchard won the individual title at The Ally by five strokes at 1999 U.S. Women’s Open venue Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., while leading South Carolina to a seven-stroke team victory. She has two individual titles and five top-five finishes in nine career starts for the Gamecocks.
Migliaccio was a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Women’s Amateur this August. A senior at Wake Forest University, she is a three-time All-American and has earned five individual titles with the Deacons. She is competing in her second U.S. Women’s Open after qualifying in 2018 at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala. She also won a mixed team gold medal with Zhang, Brandon Wu and Stewart Hagestad at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.
Laisne, a senior at the University of Texas, located just 150 miles east of Champions Golf Club in Austin, was the Big 12 Conference individual champion and Player of the Year in 2019 with the Longhorns. The native of Paris, France, also won two events on the Ladies European Tour Access Series in three starts this fall.
Mehaffey and Humphreys both competed in the 2018 Curtis Cup as members of the Great Britain & Ireland Team. Mehaffey, who was also a member of the victorious 2016 GB&I Curtis Cup Team, is a four-time All-American at Arizona State University. She returned for a fifth year of eligibility with the Sun Devils this fall and will be playing in her third professional major of the year after making the cut at the AIG Women’s Open in August at Royal Troon and competing in the ANA Inspiration in September. Humphreys, who won the Welsh and Irish amateur championships in 2019, was the leading amateur on the Rose Ladies Series this summer with two top-five finishes.
Papp will join a slew of Texans playing the championship in their home state as well as Longhorn teammate Laisne. The top-ranked amateur in Texas and a University of Texas senior, Papp won a USGA title in 2016 when she teamed with Hailee Cooper at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. She was named a first-team All-American in the 2019-20 season, which was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thirteen of the 20 amateurs joining the field will be making their U.S. Women’s Open debuts. Corpuz, a senior at the University of Southern California, is the only amateur playing in her third U.S. Women’s Open.
With the addition of these players, 24 amateurs are currently in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open field. Gabriela Ruffels earned an exemption as last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur champion. Also in 2019, Lei (Angelina) Ye (U.S. Girls’ Junior) and Ina Kim-Schaad (U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) won USGA championships. Emily Toy won the 2019 Women’s Amateur Championship, conducted by The R&A.
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