Meet the 2016 USA Curtis Cup Team
Sierra Brooks, 17, Sorrento, Fla.
No. 5 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
Brooks was runner-up in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club, falling to fellow USA Curtis Cup teammate Hannah O’Sullivan, 3 and 2. In 2015, she won the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur (the Sally) and Women’s Southern Amateur, and was a semifinalist in the American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Golf Junior Classic, an event she won in 2014.
Brooks was a member of the victorious 2015 USA Junior Solheim Cup and 2014 USA Junior Ryder Cup teams, and competed on the winning USA team in the 2015 Trans-Pacific Junior Golf Match, conducted in the People’s Republic of China. Brooks won the Florida State 1A individual title and helped lead Lake Mary Preparatory School to the team title. She was named Florida State Golf Association Girls’ Junior Player of the Year for 2015, as well as USA Today National High School Player of the Year.
Brooks will enroll at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the fall.
Mariel Galdiano, 17, Pearl City, Hawaii
No. 6 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
Galdiano won the 2015 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship and 2014 Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championship. She finished runner-up to 2015 U.S. Women’s Open competitor Muni He in the 2015 American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Golf Junior Classic, and also finished second in the 2015 Junior PGA Championship.
Galdiano qualified for the 2011, 2013 and 2015 U.S. Women’s Open Championships, with her best finish coming in 2015, when she tied for 42nd. She was also a member of the victorious 2015 USA Junior Solheim Cup team, and is a three-time Hawaii state high school champion (2013, 2014, 2015).
Galdiano will enroll at UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif., in the fall.
Andrea Lee, 17, Hermosa Beach, Calif.
No. 26 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
In 2014, Lee claimed the American Junior Golf Association’s Tournament of Champions and Yani Tseng Invitational titles, and was runner-up in the Thunderbird International Junior. That same year, she advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship (losing to eventual champion Kristen Gillman), the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and tied for 69th in the U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club’s Course No. 2.
Lee earned a silver medal for the USA in the 2015 Pan American Games, and the next week she again reached the U.S. Girls’ Junior quarterfinals. She has twice competed in the ANA Inspiration, receiving a sponsor’s exemption in 2015 and winning the 2016 ANA Junior Inspiration to earn a second berth. Lee was a member of the victorious 2015 USA Junior Solheim Cup and 2014 USA Junior Ryder Cup teams.
Lee will enroll at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., in the fall.
Mika Liu, 17, Beverly Hills, Calif.
No. 19 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
Liu teamed with Rinko Mitsunaga to win the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in May 2015 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. Liu and Mitsunaga earned a 4-and-3 victory over fellow USA Curtis Cup teammate Hannah O’Sullivan and Robynn Ree.
Liu started her 2016 season by winning the South Atlantic Ladies Amateur (the Sally). Her other victories over the last two years include the 2014 Women’s Southern Amateur, the 2014 Women’s Western Amateur and the 2015 Thunderbird International Junior, and she notched runner-up finishes in the 2015 Ione D. Jones/Doherty Amateur, the 2015 Women’s Eastern Amateur and the 2015 Rolex Tournament of Champions. Liu, who reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Girls’ Junior, was a member of the victorious 2015 USA Junior Solheim Cup Team.
Liu has verbally committed to attend Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., in the fall of 2017.
Hannah O'Sullivan, 18, Chandler, Ariz.
No. 1 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
O’Sullivan claimed four significant victories in 2015. In August, she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship with a 3-and-2 victory over fellow USA Curtis Cup teammate Sierra Brooks at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club. Earlier in the year, she won the Symetra Tour’s Gateway Classic, becoming the first amateur winner since Kellee Booth in 1999 and the youngest since Cristie Kerr in 1995. O’Sullivan also earned victories in the American Junior Golf Association’s Rolex Girls Junior Championship and Rolex Tournament of Champions.
In May 2015, O’Sullivan partnered with Robynn Ree to finish runner-up to fellow USA Curtis Cup teammate Mika Liu and Rinko Mitsunaga in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. In the first round of match play, O’Sullivan and Ree recorded the first 10-and-8 victory in an 18-hole USGA match since 1955.
O’Sullivan has played in three U.S. Women’s Open Championships, first qualifying in 2012 at age 14. She missed the cut in 2012 and 2014, and tied for 53rd in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club. She was a member of the victorious 2014 USA Junior Ryder Cup and 2015 USA Junior Solheim Cup teams.
Bailey Tardy, 19, Peachtree Corners, Ga.
No. 9 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
Tardy rallied from 2 down with two holes to play to defeat fellow USA Curtis Cup teammate Bethany Wu in 20 holes in the championship match of the 2015 North & South Women’s Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2. She advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open Championship. She also qualified for the 2016 U.S. Women's Open at CordeValle by being the medalist in the Butler, Pa., sectional. Tardy was the stroke-play medalist in the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.
Tardy is a freshman at the University of Georgia. She earned her first collegiate win in just her fourth start, in the 2015 Windy City Collegiate. She followed it up by sharing medalist honors with Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup competitor Bronte Law in NCAA Bryan (Texas) Regional.
Monica Vaughn, 21, Reedsport, Ore.
No. 17 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™
Vaughn is a junior at Arizona State University. She earned collegiate victories in the 2015 PING/ASU Invitational and the 2016 Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, shooting a career-low 65 in the final round of the latter. In 2015, she tied for fifth in the 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship and earned first-team All-America honors from the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.
In 2010, Vaughn became the youngest winner of the Oregon Women’s Amateur at the age of 15. That same summer, she also won the Oregon Girls’ Junior, the Oregon Public Links and Pacific Northwest Girls’ Junior, and was named Oregon Golf Association Player of the Year.
