Player Storylines

Emily Ahn, 25, of Buena Park, Calif., has a brother serving in Iraq.  She wears a “Livestrong” wristband, which she’ll continue to wear until he returns.  Her brother also wears one.  She received the Legacy Award from UC Santa Barbara for being on the rowing team for four years.

Leicia Alexandra, 47, of Stafford, Texas, is a self-employed CPA.  She won the 2002 Houston Women’s Amateur.

Lisa Anderson, 41,  of Middleton, Mass., is playing in her fourth Women’s Mid-Amateur.

Lynn Anderson, 40, of Hopkins, Mass., graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College.  She has won the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur twice.  She’s in the Edina, Minn., High School Hall of Fame.

Jin Son Antoskow, 44, of Phenix City, Ala., is a native of South Korea. She came from eight strokes back in the third and last round to win the Women’s Military Golf Championship in 2000.

Adrienne Arnold, 27, of Dallas, Texas, has her dad Paul Mucci, a scratch golfer, as her caddie.  She made the SEC All Academic Honor Roll from 1997-2000 at the University of Kansas.

Desiree’ Banlowe, 37, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., the day after qualifying for this championship, Desiree and her husband Rick flew to Orlando where she had an audition for the Golf Channel’s reality show, The Big Break.  She went back to college for two years when she was 34 to play college golf.  She won the Western State Conference Player of the Year honors in 2003 and 2004 while playing for College of the Canyons, Valencia, Calif.  She uses her poker winnings to finance her competitive golf.

Sharon Barham, 41, of Wake Forest, N.C., has a son, Will,14, and a daughter, Samantha (Sam) 18.  She’s a real estate broker.  She ran a marathon and a half-marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, raising $17,000 for cancer research in one year.  The largest part of her fund raising came from a golf tournament at her home course.

Tina Barker, 46, of Castro Valley, Calif., is an air traffic controller.  She played on the California team in the 1995 USGA Women’s State Team Championship and was in the 2004 USGA book, That Championship Year, because of her career.

Elizabeth Breta, 41, of San Diego, Calif., is a Commander in the U.S. Navy Nurses Corps.  She’s the officer-in-charge of Fleet Hospital Operations and Training Center.   She won the All-Navy Championship in 2001.  She’s been in the Navy for 19 years and graduated from the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College in 1999.

Lea Ann Brown, 45, of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., is the Membership Director at Bulls Bay Golf Club.  She’s the first woman to win both the S.C. Match Play and S.C. Stroke Play Championships.  Her husband, Hart, surprised her with a trip to Scotland for their 20th wedding anniversary.  She has an antique business as a hobby.

Michelle Burgess, 42, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., qualified for this championship despite making a 10 on the last hole.  “I felt like Roy McAvoy in ‘Tin Cup’ but I’m here,” she wrote.  She says, “I’m funny.  Nothing else is really remarkable about me.”  She has a lucky pig in her golf bag.

Robin Burke, 42, of Houston, Texas, is the wife of PGA Tour great Jack Burke Jr., a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.  She was a member of the USA Curtis Cup team in 1998, runner-up in the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur and won the Women’s Southern Amateur and the Ione D. Jones/ Doherty in 2001.  Her daughter Meghan Burke is 17.

Barbara Byrnes, 51, of Mesa, Ariz., is a retired financial executive.  She won the Arizona Senior Women’s Amateur in 2004.  She’s a director and treasurer for the Arizona Women’s Golf Association.

Lisa Chalmers, 36, of Farmington Hills, Mich., did not begin playing golf until she was 22.  She had been a good athlete, competing in cross-country track, gymnastics and tennis.  Says she’s a fanatic about knowing where her keys are and she likes Karoke contests.

Camille Clay, 46, of Austin, Texas, is playing her third Womne’s Mid-Amateur.  She was a runnerup in the 1983 Arkansas Women’s Amateur.

Beth Cleckler, 42, of Austin, Texas, is playing in her 7th Women’s Mid-Amateur.  She was runner-up in the Women’s Texas Amateur in 2003 and has had seven holes-in-one.  She says what she likes to do when not playing golf is “eat.”

Laura Coble, 41, of Augusta, Ga., is independent insurance sales.  This is her seventh Women’s Mid-Amateur.  She also qualified for the 2001 Women’s Open.  She won the Georgia Women’s Amateur in 1999, 2003 and 2005.

Brooke Cooper, 28, of New York, N.Y., was a Harvard graduate (1999).  She’s an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

Pat Cornett, 51, of Mill Valley, Calif., has two teen-aged children.  She’s a physician.  She reached the semifinals in the U.S. Women’s Amateur on two occasions, 14 years apart (1976 and 1990).  She was 1990 Women’s Western Amateur Champion and a USA Curtis Cup player.

Carolyn Creekmore, 53, of Dallas, Texas, is the 2004 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Champion.  Her caddie is Donny Anderson, former Green Bay Packer.  She won the Women’s Texas Amateur in 1995 and ’97.

Kathy Crumley, 36, of Dallas, Texas, is playing in her fifth Women’s Mid-Amateur.  Her husband John is caddieing for her for the fourth straight year.  She’s pregnant (20 weeks).  She was an AJGA All-American in 1986 and ’87.

Daria Cummings, 29, of Monroe, Conn., has her dad, Tom Cummings, caddieing for her.  She won the Southern New England Women’s Golf Association Championship this year.  She likes to play roller hockey.

Kay Daniel, 34, of Mandeville, La., is an orthodontist.  Her home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and she’s living in a rental house with her husband Chuck and two children.  She was Louisiana Women’s Amateur Champion this year.

Geraldine Doran, 32, of Lewisville, Texas, was born in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, and was Irish Junior Girls’ Champion and Irish Junior Golfer of the year in 1990.  She just became a citizen of the USA, on September 8th.

Michelle Doyle, 25, of LaGrange, Ga., is the daughter of Allen Doyle, winner of the 2005 U.S. Senior Open.  She caddied for him when he won the Ford Senior Players Championship, her most memorable experience in golf.

Gail Flanagan, 43, of Rye, N.Y., won the 1996 and ’97 New York Women’s Amateur and the 1991 Bermuda Women’s Amateur.  She’s going to carry her own bag.

Heidy Ford, of La Quinta, Calif.,  has her ex-husband, John Ford, as her caddie.  Her wish is to help a friend in South Africa help raise baby rhinos who have been abandoned by their mothers.  She participated in the Amazing Race.

Cynthia Friend, 50, is a chemistry professor at Harvard.  She’s chair of the chemistry department and has been written  about in the New York Times.

Rebecca Gard, 27, of Tulsa, Okla., graduated from the University of Arkansas where she won a scholarship for the horticultural department in her senior year.

Kathy Glennon, 39, of St. Albans, Mo., has her father Marhshall Lutz caddieing for her.  She’s had holes-in-one on three different holes at her club.

Virginia Derby Grimes, 41, of Meridian, Miss., reached the round of 16 in this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur.  She won the Women’s Mid-Amateur in 1998 and played on the Curtis Cup Team in 1998 and 2000.

Wallace Hamerton. 44, of Bluffton, S.C. is a pastry chef.  She was runner-up in the 2003 Arizona Women’s Amateur.

Mina Hardin, 45, of Fort Worth, Texas, was runner-up in the Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2001.  She says she was the first Mexican on the LPGA Tour, in 1983.  She’s a fine tennis player.

Pam Harnack-Farraday, 36, of Winnetka, Ill., trains dogs in obedience and agility with her six-year-old Wheaton Terrier.

Kathy Hartwiger, 39, of Birmingham, Ala., won the 2002 Women’s Mid-Amateur.  She has two children.  She’s in the Birmingham Sports Hall of Fame.

Kelly Heffer, 30, of Denver, Colo., just received a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

Mary Jane Hiestand, 46, of Naples, Fla., asked her friend Jeff to come to the 2002 Women’s Mid-Amateur with her and he proposed marriage.  They’ve been married for three years.  She’s a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

Jean Higgins, 49, of Glendora, Calif., is a director of both the Glendora American Little League and Glendora Youth Basketball.

Marilynn Hardy, 43, of Houston, Texas, is the wife of noted teaching professional Jim Hardy, who is caddieing for her.  She won the Texas Women’s Amateur in 1995, ’97.

Taray Joy-Connelly, 32, of Duxbury, Mass., says she has lost 110 pounds since February of 2004.  She says a balanced diet and exercise helped her do it.  She won the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts Amateur in 2005.

Louella Kanew, 43, of Los Angeles, Calif., played on the tennis team at the University of Texas.  She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Karen Killpack, 44, of Draper, Utah, is the first female to be president of the Alpine Country Club since it opened in 1958.  She was president in 2004.  She has 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Kim Keyer-Scott, 37, of Mason, Ohio, didn’t begin playing golf until she was 30.  She shot 77 with two balls in the water in qualifying to qualify for her first Women’s Mid-
Amateur.

Akemi Khaiat, 41, o9f Costa Mesa, Calif., is a native of Japan.  She is playing in her 13th Women’s Mid-Amateur.  Her husband is French.  Her four-year-old son speaks French, English and Japanese.

Andrea Kraus, 44, of Baltimore, Md., is playing in her ninth Women’s Mid-Amateur.  She was a quarterfinalist in 2003.    With her husband she recently joined Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Md., where she is invited to play in all of the men’s tournaments, including the club championship.

Jeanne Anne Kritzman, 31, of Tucson, Ariz., is playing in her first Women’s Mid-Amateur but she was a two-time national collegiate champion in the triathlon.  She’s trying to enter medical school.

Mary Ann Lapointe, 45, of Georgetown, Ontario, Canada, won the Canadian Women’s Amateur four times, 1993, ’96, ’99 and ’04.

LeeAnn Lewis, 42, of Great River, N.Y., has played in Women’s Amateur Championships of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Britain and Bermuda.

Andrea MacLean,40,of Verona, N.J., is married to former NHL player John MacLean.  She won the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association Match Play tournament in 2003, the same hear her husband’s team won the Stanley Cup.  She wants to train for a triathlon this winter.

Shannon Ogg, 28, of Seattle, Wash., was runner-up in the 2003 Women’s Mid-Amateur.

Ellen Port, 43, of St. Louis, Mo., a teacher and coach, won the Women’s Mid-Amateur three times, in 1995, ’96 and 2000.  She was runner-up in 2002.

Martha Redfearn, 44, of Newport Beach, Calif., was 1st runner-up in the 1990 Mrs. America contest and was Miss Rodeo California in 19080.

Lori Castillo Planos, 44, of Lahaina, Hawaii, won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 1978 and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in 1979 and 1980.  She was a member of the 1980 USA Curtis Cup team.

Anne Sander, 68, of Pauma Valley, Calif., has won the U.S. Women’s Amateur three times (1958, ’61 and ’63) and four USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championships (1987, ’88, ’90, ’93.  She won the British Women’s Amateur in 1980 and was on eight USA Curtis Cup teams. She is competing in her 93rd USGA championship, second all-time behind Carol Semple Thompson, who is competing in her 101st.

Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 29, of Tempe, Ariz., is a native of Sri Lanka.  She was the youngest national women’s amateur champion in history when she won the Sri Lanka Amateur at age 12 and still holds the record.

Maria Sera, 45, of St. Paul, Minn., was born in Cuba.  She’s a professor at the University of Minnesota, (developmental psychology).

Laura Waits, 43, of Tyler, Texas, played on the tennis team at the University of Texas.

Tracy Welch, 34, of Boston, Mass., got her MBA from Harvard in 2000.  Her first cousin is Brad Faxon.

Corey Wewortski, 43, of Carlsbad, Calif., is the defending champion.

Laurie White, 42, of Carmel, N.Y., is a television sports producer.  She has freelanced on ABC’s fall golf schedule and co-produced the documentary, “100 Years of the U.S. Open” for the USGA.