U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Home

What Happened

It is just over 2,300 miles from Midtown Manhattan to the high terrain of Forest Highlands Golf Club. Yet the 33rd U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship has become a battle of two New York City residents – Talia Campbell and Ina Kim-Schaad – who on Wednesday each won two matches to earn their place in Thursday’s championship match.

The 18th hole of the Meadow Course proved pivotal, and 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Lauren Greenlief was at center stage in both the morning quarterfinals and afternoon semifinals.

Greenlief rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt to extend a quarterfinal match she would win in 21 holes over No. 57 seed Andrea Kosa. Coming to the hole tied in the afternoon semifinals, she flew the green with her approach shot and made bogey to Campbell’s par to lose, 1 up, in a match that featured six holes out of seven holes won with birdies on the back nine. Five times in the match Greenlief won a hole, only to lose the next hole to Campbell, and it happened for the final time when Greenlief birdied the par-3 17th, only to lose the match on the home hole.

“I hit it exactly how I wanted to, a little cut, and we just misjudged the wind,” said Greenlief, 29, of Ashburn, Va., of her approach shot on the 395-yard 18th. “It put me in a really bad spot, and she made a great up-and-down.”

Like Greenlief in 2015, Campbell, 25, is hoping to capture this championship in her first try, having made a 4-footer for her scrambling par on No. 18 to earn a berth in the final after notching a 3-and-2 win over No. 5 seed Megan Buck in the morning.

“It was a dogfight,” said Campbell, who grew up in Dallas and works with noted instructor Cameron McCormick. “I think it’s a testament to her, too. She’s such a great player. You see her picture hanging up around here [as 2015 champion]. I’m very glad to have survived.”

Campbell qualified as the No. 20 seed and survived a 19-hole match in the Round of 64 with Marissa Mar, then reeled off three more wins before ousting Greenlief. Campbell’s semifinal victory marked the first time she played holes 17 and 18 since the first round.

Campbell will square off on Thursday at 9 a.m. Mountain Standard Time in the 18-hole final against Kim-Schaad, 35, the No. 11 seed, who eliminated four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi, 3 and 2, in the afternoon after defeating No. 3 seed Michelle Butler, 4 and 3, in the quarterfinals. Kim-Schaad, a Los Angeles, Calif., native, returned to the game after an 11-year hiatus in 2016 when she moved to New York City from Hong Kong.

“If I had let myself think about it for a nanosecond, I would have been absolutely intimidated,” said Kim-Schaad, who also defeated defending champion Shannon Johnson in the Round of 16. “I just tried to play my own game and not worry about what the other person was doing or who they were or who they beat or how they did last year. It’s just way too much. I literally was just in my own bubble.”

“Ina got off to an incredible start,” said Stasi, 41, who defeated Katie Miller, 5 and 4, in the morning. “She had four birdies on the front nine, and I was just trying to hang in there by making par putts. She just hit the ball solid, which you have to, because the wind is swirling and it’s mentally and physically draining.”

Players who reached the quarterfinals earn an exemption into next year’s championship at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C. Semifinalists earn a two-year exemption, and the runner-up receives a three-year exemption.    

What's Next

The 18-hole championship match will begin at 9 a.m. MST on Thursday. The winner will receive:

• A gold medal and custody of the Mildred Prunaret Trophy for one year
• Exemption into the next 10 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships
• Exemption into the next U.S. Women’s Open Championship
• Exemption into the next two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships

Notable

• The last time Meghan Stasi advanced to the semifinals was in 2014 when she was defeated by eventual champion Margaret (Shirley) Starosto, 5 and 4. Stasi, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., now has a 52-10 record in her 14 starts in this championship. Her match-play win total is third to Ellen Port (60, including one in 2019), and Carol Semple Thompson (56).
  
  
• Lauren Greenlief’s 21-hole quarterfinal victory over Andrea Kosa marked the fifth time that a quarterfinal match went 21 holes. The most recent previous occurrence was at The Kahkwa Club in Erie, Pa., in 2016, when two-time champion Julia Potter-Bobb, this year’s medalist, defeated Katie Miller on the way to her second title.
  
  
• Defending champion Shannon Johnson, who lost to Ina Kim-Schaad in the Round of 16 on Tuesday, caddied for Megan Buck in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round. Buck, who reached match play for the second straight year, had served as the caddie for her U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball partner Johnson in the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs.
  
  
• Martha Leach, 57, of Hebron, Ky., who lost in the Round of 32 on Tuesday to Erin Houtsma, 2 up, extended a pair of records in this championship, for most starts with 31 and for most times advancing to match play with 29. Leach failed to qualify for match play in 2018 at Norwood Hills Country Club.    
  

Quotable

“This was my first time being eligible. I feel like I’ve been waiting five years or so to finally play in this thing. I turned 25 in October 2018, so I missed it by like a month or so. It's nice to finally be here.” – Talia Campbell, 25, on her championship debut

“I know you’re supposed to expect them to make it, but that was a tricky putt that she had. My husband called [after the round] and asked, how did she birdie 18? I told him, 30 feet off the fringe, slam-dunked it.” – Andrea Kosa, of Canada, who made a stellar up-and-down on 18, only to have Lauren Greenlief birdie to force extra holes

“The best way to describe this is it’s the biggest championship for someone over 25 who’s not professional. This is the biggest one in the world. I don't know of any other tournaments that are as spectacular as this and have such history – this is what I remember from 2011. I was fortunate to play with Martha Leach and Ellen Port in the practice rounds. It’s such an honor to be part of that and that’s why I wanted to come back, to be with the best.” – Andrea Kosa, who reached the quarterfinals this year after only playing in the championship once before

“I think today was a big step forward in my game. The rust is definitely off and I’m starting to play Talia golf again, so I'm excited for tomorrow. I hope the wind blows again.” – Talia Campbell, a Texas native who prefers to play in breezy conditions

The Social Scene

Ron Driscoll is the senior manager of editorial services for the USGA. Email him at rdriscoll@usga.org.