The arrival of August means one thing in the competitive golf community: it’s time for the USGA to conduct its two marquee amateur championships. One hundred fifty-six of the world’s best female players have descended on Metropolitan New York this week to compete in the 121st U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship on Westchester Country Club’s West Course.

One of only four USGA championships held last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s iteration returns to its fundamental roots, with qualifying held at 26 sites over 3½ weeks to complement the 29 players who were fully exempt.

Westchester Country Club has a deep history of hosting major events, including the 1923 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won by Edith Cummings. For many years, it was an annual PGA Tour stop with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Hale Irwin and Curtis Strange emerging victorious. Two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Inbee Park won the last major event here in 2015, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

These talented females will have to first navigate two rounds of stroke play, with the low 64 advancing to match play. The player who hoists the Robert Cox Trophy will need to win six match-play rounds over five days, including the 36-hole final on Sunday.

Here are 3 Things to Know for the stroke-play rounds:

Doubling Up

Three weeks ago, Rose Zhang, 18, of Irvine, Calif., became the eighth player to claim the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior titles, but the first to win the Women’s Amateur first. Now the incoming Stanford University freshman can join Eun Jeong Seong as players to have won three USGA titles in a span of 12 months, and the 13th to capture consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateurs, while hoping join Seong, Jennifer Song and Pearl Sinn as the only female players to win multiple USGA championships in the same year.

The No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® is also looking to capture her first USGA title outside the state of Maryland. Last August, she defeated defending champion Gabriela Ruffels, of Australia, in an epic 38-hole championship match at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville. Last month, she defeated Baily Davis, of White Plains, Md., 6 and 4, in the U.S. Girls’ Junior final at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase.

If anyone has the intestinal fortitude and physical game to accomplish this rare feat, it’s Zhang.

Bringing the Mojo

It’s always a good thing to come into the biggest championship of the summer with a little momentum. One player arrives at Westchester Country Club fresh off a major victory. Two weeks ago, University of Kentucky standout Marissa Wenzler was both the medalist in the Women’s Western Amateur and the match-play victor, defeating Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, of Australia and Oklahoma State, in a thrilling 20-hole final at Park Ridge (Ill.) Country Club. Wenzler lost her Round-of-64 match last year at Woodmont Country Club in 19 hole.

While Rachel Heck hasn’t played any amateur events since the college season concluded, the rising Stanford University sophomore had arguably one of the greatest springs in NCAA history, becoming just the third player to sweep individual conference (Pacific 12), regional and NCAA honors in the same year. Heck, of Memphis, Tenn., received the Annika Award for being college golf’s top player. Heck went on to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open (T-35), then missed the cut in two ensuing LPGA Tour events.

All of this led to Heck’s fast rise up the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® to the No. 2 spot, which locked up her place on the 2021 USA Curtis Cup Team, which will travel to Wales for the Match later this month. Last year, Heck was the medalist at Woodmont before being eliminated, 1 up, by Zhang in the Round of 16.

And don't forget Megha Ganne, the Holmdel, N.J., teenager who wowed fans at The Olympic Club in June by playing her way into the final grouping on Sunday with Lexi Thompson and eventual winner Yuka Saso. Ganne, 17, wound up finishing tied for 14th.

Unique Start

It’s extremely unusual for a championship layout to start or conclude with a par 3. Only a handful of courses finish with this feature – the Greenbrier (Old White), Pasatiempo or Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course prior to its renovation, to name a few – but it’s even more rare for a course to start with one. Royal Lytham & St. Annes in Lancashire, England, site of 11 Open Championships, five Women’s British Opens and the 2015 Walker Cup, begins with a challenging one-shotter.

Westchester Country Club’s West Course, when used for competitions, also opens with a par 3.

Normally the layout’s 10th hole for member play, the nines are reversed for championship events. During stroke play, each competitor will start one round on the 176-yard hole, and all matches will start there, beginning on Wednesday. Players will need to be laser-focused as the two-tiered green penalizes shots that carry too far.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org