Interesting Player Storylines

From The 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship

The average age of the contestants in the field at the 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur is 42.58.

Age breakdown of the 132 players in the field:

25-29: 12 players

30-39: 35 players

40-49: 56 players

50-59: 26 players

60-68: 3 players

The youngest player in the field is Lynette Duran of Lakewood, Colo., who just turned 25 on Sept. 24.

The elderstateswoman of the field is 68-year-old Salley Wessels of Mount Morris, Ill.

Two players in the field, Carol Semple Thompson and Toni Wiesner, have played in all 21 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships. Thompson had made the cut at all 21 championships.

There are 38 players for whom this is their first U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. For 20 of those, this is their first USGA championship.

There are 30 reinstated amateurs in the field.

There are several USGA champions, Curtis Cuppers and Women’s World Amateur Team players in the field:

Meghan Bolger, 29, of Haddonfield, N.J. – 2006 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion

Robin Burke, 45, of Houston, Texas – 1998 USA Curtis Cup team

Carolyn Creekmore, 55, of Dallas, Texas – 2004 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion

Virginia Derby Grimes, 43, of Meridian, Miss. – 1998 Women’s Mid-Amateur champion; 1998, 2000 and 2006 USA Curtis Cup teams; 1997 USGA Women’s State team champion (Alabama)

Leigh Klasse, 48, of St. Anthony, Minn. – 2001 USGA Women’s State Team champion (Minnesota)

Diane Lang, 52, of Weston, Fla. – 2005 and 2006 Senior Women’s Amateur champion

Martha Lang, 54, of Birmingham, Ala. – 1988 Women’s Mid-Amateur champion; 1992 Curtis Cup team; 1996 USA Curtis Cup team captain

Mary Ann Lapointe, 47, of Canada – 2005 Women’s Mid-Amateur. 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2006 Women’s World Amateur Canadian teams

Jamille (Jose) Lee, 34, of Lincoln, Calif. – 1988 Girls’ Junior champion

Noreen Mohler, 53, of Bethlehem, Pa. – 1978 USA Curtis Cup team

Claudia Pilot, 50, of Austin, Minn. – 2001 USGA Women’s State Team champion (Minnesota)

Ellen Port, 46, of St. Louis, Mo. – 1995, 1996, 2000 Women’s Mid-Amateur champion; 1994 and 1996 USA Curtis Cup teams

Anna Schultz, 52, of Rockwall, Texas – 2007 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion

Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 31, of Tempe, Ariz. – 2007 USGA Women’s State Team champion (Arizona)

Carol Semple Thompson, 58, of Sewickley, Pa. – 1973 Women’s Amateur; 1990 and 1997 Women’s Mid-Amateurs; 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 USGA Senior Women’s Amateurs; 1974, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004 USA Curtis Cup teams; 2006 and 2008 USA Curtis Cup team captain; 1974, 1980, 1988 1992 and 1994 USA Women’s World Amateur teams; 1995 USGA Women’s State Team champion (Pennsylvania)

Corey Weworski, 45, of Carlsbad, Calif. – 2004 Women’s Mid-Amateur

Selvaratnam, the 2006 Women’s Mid-Amateur runner-up, is one of three Desert Forest Golf Club members in the field this week (Lynn Simmons and two-time Women’s Mid-Amateur runner-up Kerry Postillion are the others). Selvaratnam is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest to win a national title (age 12), Sri Lanka Amateur Championship in 1989.

Selvaratnam, the assistant girls’ golf coach at Xavier College Preparatory, is also one of several coaches in the field. Lynne Cowan, 44, of Davis, Calif., is assistant women’s golf coach at UC Davis. Veronique Drouin, 26, of Athens, Ga., is the assistant women’s golf coach at the University of Georgia. Missy Farr-Kaye, 40, of Scottsdale, Ariz., is the associate head coach for women’s golf at Arizona State University. Shannon Rouillard, 35, of Eugene, Ore., is the head women’s golf coach at the University of Oregon.

Farr-Kaye was the runner-up at the 2001 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. Her late sister, Heather, won the 1982 Girls’ Junior and the 1984 Women’s Amateur Public Links.

Carrying the bag at the Women’s Mid-Amateur is truly a family affair. There will be nine fathers, four mothers, two sisters, one brother and 29 husbands serving as caddies this week at Desert Forest Golf Club.

One of the fathers on the bag this week, Wade Welch, is caddieing for his daughter Tracy. Wade has also caddied for his wife and Tracy’s mom, Jane Faxon Welch, in the 2000 and 2006 USGA Senior Women’s Amateurs.

State and regional golf associations are well represented at this week’s championship. Melanie Furuta, 26, of Studio City, Calif., is the assistant director of Rules and Competitions for the Southern California Golf Association. Leslie Green, 36, of The Woodlands, Texas, is the event coordinator for the Houston Golf Association. Hilary Howard, 30, of Pacific Grove, Calif., is the director of communications for the Northern California Golf Association.

Other interesting player storylines for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship:

Emily Ahn, 27, of Garden Grove, Calif., was a rower for the University of California-Santa Barbara during her four years in college.

Nancy Beck, 50, of Dallas, Texas is playing in her first USGA championship. Her family members are no strangers to success. Both her maternal and paternal grandmothers were city champions in the 1930s, and her daughter has qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in three swimming events.

Kristine Berger, 51, of Hilton Head, S.C., is one several family members who has aced the third hole at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, Calif. Her husband, brother, mother and father have all recorded holes-in-one there too.

Angela Collins, 42, of Glendale, Calif., is playing in her first USGA championship. It’s not her first national championship, though. In 1987, she played on the Cal-State Northridge’s women’s volleyball team that won the NCAA Division II crown. She was named the NCAA Player of the Year in and Honda Athlete of the Year for NCAA Division II.

Kim Eaton, 48, of Greeley, Colo., is a retired police officer. She is also an expert marksman with a pistol, having won seven gold medals at the World Police & Fire Olympic Games.

Nadine Elliott, 51, of Bermuda Dunes, Calif., is playing in her first USGA championship. Two years ago, she was a walking scorer at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, where she scored for Rush Limbaugh. The two struck up a friendship that continues to this day.

Katie Falk, 61, of Milwaukee, Wis., beat Nancy Lopez to win the 1973 Women’s Western Amateur.

Kristen Feil, 34, of Lakewood, Colo., credits her father Bill with helping her get to her first USGA championship – he traveled from Houston to caddie for her during her sectional qualifier. He is also on her bag this week at Desert Forest.

Karen Garcia, 45, of Cool, Calif., is a fraternal twin, as is her husband Ruben. They discovered this quirky similarity during their first date, as they walked down the fairway at Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Wash.

Mina Hardin, 47, of Fort Worth, Texas, was the 2001 Women’s Mid-Amateur runner-up. She was the first Mexican woman to play on the LPGA Tour, which she did from 1983 to 1989.

Jill Hardy, 26, of Canada, made it to the semifinals in the Mid-Amateur a year ago. She is a pharmacist for cancer care in Manitoba.

Marilyn Hardy, 45, of Houston, Texas, played volleyball and basketball for UC-Irvine, which won the NCAA Division III volleyball championship in 1981.

Patti Huxford, 49, of Cumming, Ga., quit playing golf from 2003-06 so she could serve as a traveling mechanic for her son Walker, who raced motocross.

There are three golfers in the field with multiple sclerosis. Debbie Jamgochian, 53, of Greenwich, Conn., was diagnosed with MS in 2001. Margaret Weder, 49, of Greenville, N.C., was diagnosed in 1997. And Rheba Mabie, 30, of Boulder Junction, Wis., was diagnosed in 1997. Mabie is a professional clown who was inducted into the Midwest Clown Association Hall of Fame in 2004.

Karla Kalian, 39, of Brush Prairie, Wash., is a high school math teacher. She has a good story for how she spent her summer vacation. Her husband runs a hay farm during the summer so Kalian drives a John Deere tractor to help him.

Kim Keyer-Scott, 39, of Bonita Springs, Fla., was a grandmother when she played golf for Northern Kentucky University. She was the Division II Freshman of the Year at age 34.

Brenda Knott, 50, of Las Vegas, Nev., is a financial executive for special projects at the Bellagio Resort and Casino.

Lisa Kraxner, 33, of Independence, Mo., played softball at Southeast Missouri State University, where she was named Woman of the Year in 1996. She was the 1996 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and an All-American.

Nancy Kromar, 47, of Austin, Texas, survived a seven-hole playoff to earn the final spot in this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur field.

Pamela Kuong, 46, of Wellesley, Mass., played in her first tournament, the Massachusetts Women’s Amateur, in July at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. She only entered because she wanted to play The Country Club, then she earned co-medalist honors. She entered the Women’s Mid-Amateur for the same reason, to play two rounds on Kittansett Club, and wound up qualifying for her first USGA championship.

Laura Ladden, 31, of Coatesville, Pa., was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 22. The side effects of the treatment made golf difficult for a few years but she is now back playing in her first USGA championship since the 1998 Women’s Amateur.

Jamille Lee, 34, of Lincoln, Calif., is playing in her first USGA championship since the 1992 Women’s Amateur. In 1988, she won the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Her sectional qualifier last month was her first competitive round since 1999.

Patty Moore, 57, of Charlotte, N.C., was on the bowling team during her days at Texas Tech University.

Sue O’Connor, 50, of Lake Bluff, Ill., is a golf club maker for Performance Fit Golf. In 1983, she rode her bike around the north and south islands of New Zealand. In 1986, she rode her bike from Seattle to Atlantic City, N.J., 4,600 miles in 46 days.

Lisa Schlesinger, 49, of Laytonsville, Md., has a varied athletic history. She played professional basketball from 1979 to 1981 for the Washington Metros and the New England Gulls of the Women’s Professional Basketball League. In 1985, she won the National Amateur Weightlifting Championship (Bench Press) in the 135-pound weight class. In 1996, she was inducted into the Greater Washington D.C. Fast Pitch Softball Hall of Fame.

Heidi Stark, 33, of Lincoln, Neb., is a pediatric dentist. She and her husband visit Honduras three times a year as part of a church-organized mission to provide medical and dental care and work on macroeconomics, agriculture, construction and education.

Marlo Stil, 49, of Solana Beach, Calif., spent three years after college packing salmon in Alaska.

Renee Theiler-Reichle, 46, of Fallbrook, Calif., is a driver for UPS. Her home course is along her route so she practices during her breaks. Everyone calls her “Brown” on the range.

Karen Veriato, 46, of San Marcos, Texas, has her husband Steve on the bag for this week’s championship. He’s returning the favor – Karen caddied for him for five years on the Champions Tour, including his victory at the 2001 Novell Showdown.

Susan West, 43, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., was a USTA national champion in doubles. She was ranked No. 1 nationally in doubles and No. 6 in singles.