June 11, 2007

Tournament Information

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The nation's oldest golf association for women, the Women's Western Golf Association (WWGA), is staging its 107th National Amateur Championship this week, June 11-16, at Stone Creek Golf Club in Urbana, Ill. Top women Amateur players from 20 states, including the entire 2007-08 University of Illinois women's golf roster, plus players from Canada and the Philippines are gunning for the title.

Fighting Illini seniors Casey Burden, Kristine Cook, Kristin Kallergis, Stephanie Mory, and Seul Ki Park, juniors Nancy Featherstone and Kelsey O'Neal, and incoming freshman Raquel Hopton are among the over 120 players teeing it up this week at Stone Creek, the University of Illinois' home course.

Two 18-hole qualifying rounds will take place today and tomorrow (June 11-12), before players are placed into flights. The low 64 players will contend for the Championship title, while the other players will compete in subsequent fights based on their qualifying scores. Single elimination match play will be played each day starting Wednesday, June 13th. The 36-hole Championship Final will take place on Saturday, June 16th, while all other flight finals will be on Friday, June 15th. The public is invited to attend each day free of charge.

Past winners of this Championship include current LPGA members Cristie Kerr, Grace Park and Beth Daniel, as well as LPGA Hall of Famers Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, JoAnne Gunderson Carner and Nancy Lopez.

Last June, the WWGA's 106th National Amateur Championship was held at Fincastle Country Club in Bluefield, West Virginia. The Champion was Stacy Lewis, a member of the University of Arkansas golf team. She defeated Jennifer Hong of Northwestern University for the title. The WWGA last staged its National Amateur Championship at Stone Creek in 2003.

This week's tournament is one of many premier women's amateur events that Illini golfers will be playing in this summer. The summer schedule includes the Illinois Women's State Amateur Championship, June 19-22 in Decatur, Ill., U.S. Women's Amateur Championship Qualifying, July 10 in Franklin, Ind., and the Illinois Women's Open, July 26-28 in Romeoville, Ill, among others.