UPDATED: 3:55 p.m., August 6 - In a match that needed the last hole to be decided, Taylor Totland of Tinton Falls, N.J. came up just short in her first round match at the U.S. Women's Amateur. Totland lost 1 down to Kristen Gillman of Austin, Texas. The match was all square through 16 holes and then Gillman birdied the 17th, and both players parred the 18th.

 

ELMSFORD, N.Y. (July 30, 2014) – The top female amateurs in the world will be right here in the Met Area when the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship returns to the Met Area at historical Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, N.Y., on August 4-11.

This year’s championship marks a century since Katherine Harley had her 1-up victory over Elaine Rosenthal at Nassau in 1914. Not only that, but 2014 also marks the 100th anniversary of the club's current 18-hole layout designed by the famous Seth Raynor - the layout that earned the club its established and respectable reputation. 

The USGA’s third oldest championship will feature some of the top players in female amateur golf, who will compete in 36 holes of on-site stroke play qualifying after which the top 64 will be seeded into a match play bracket to determine the ultimate champion.

Defending champion Emma Talley of Paducah, Ky. hopes to win the Robert Cox trophy a second time, but she has plenty of challengers, including a few locals hoping to make their presence felt.

Long Island native Annie Park of Levittown, N.Y., will not have to travel far from home next week to compete. Ranked as the 11th golfer in the Women’s World Amateur Golf rankings and a staple member of the 2014 USA Curtis Cup Team, Park, a member of the 2012 MGA French-American Challenge team, won the 2013 NCAA Individual Championship and plays for USC. She played in last year's U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack. She advanced to the quarterfinals at last year's Women's Am, and was exempt into this year's championship.

Three players from New Jersey qualified for the event at a qualifier held at Montammy Golf Club in Alpine, N.J.: Karen Chung of Livingston, Taylor Totland of Tinton Falls, and Noelle Maertz of Clark, N.J. 

Chung plays with Park at USC, where she will be a sophomore this fall. She made an appearance at last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur but failed to make the 64 player match play field, but she did reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in 2013.

Totland just completed her freshman year on the golf team at Furman University. This past collegiate season she won the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year award and was named to both the All Southern Conference Team and the SoCon All-Freshman team. Totland’s 74.9 stroke average also earned her team MVP. More recently, Totland won the 89th NJSGA Womens' Amateur at Spring Brook. She needed to defeat a future Furman teammate, Alice Chen, to earn her way into the final match, which she would go on to win.

Maertz, 2012 NJSGA Women’s Public Links Champion, plays her college golf at Wagner University where she will be a junior this fall. Maertz recently played in the final U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, but failed to make the cut. At this year’s NJSGA Women’s Public Links she earned a runner-up finish, coming up just short of winning the event a second time in a playoff against Alice Chen.

Nassau Country Club holds a rich history throughout its fairways and is home to several USGA Champions, including 1915 U.S. Open Champion Jerry Travers, who won the 1907 Met Amateur at Nassau, and 1910 U.S. Open Champion Alex Smith, a four-time Met Open winner, who was one of the club’s earliest professionals. It’s no wonder that Nassau Country Club’s motto is “Where Champions Play.”

With Nassau’s striking motto in the back of their minds, competitors will surely be looking to add themselves to that list.

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