July 8, 2009 – The 12th WMGA/MGA Women’s Public Links Championship will be held on Thursday, July 9 at Patriot Hills Golf Course in Stony Point, N.Y. The last three editions of this championship have been won by two players: Daria Cummings of Sterling Farms in 2006 and 2008, and Allison Oakes, who also plays out of Sterling Farms, in 2007. Both are back to contend for the Women’s Public Links title again, and they will be up against a talented of field of Met Area public links players.

  Another serious challenger figures to be Laura Woolgar of Blue Hill Ladies, who won the title in 2004. Woolgar’s home course, Blue Hill, is less than 20 miles from the host site, Patriot Hills, and Woolgar will be paired with Oakes and Cummings in the championship’s final threesome. Karen Bouloucon of Crystal Springs, who won the Public Links title in 2005 and finished second behind Cummings last year at Bethpage Red, is another player who has enjoyed success in this championship. Bouloucon is paired with Melanie Kleiner of Villa Roma and January Romero of Spook Rock, which, like Patriot Hills, is also in Rockland County.

This is the first time that Patriot Hills has hosted the WMGA/MGA Women’s Public Links Championship. The six-year old course is one of the most scenic and popular public layouts in the Met Area, and is set on a series of hills and bluffs just two miles from the Hudson River. The course features huge rock formations on some holes and elevation changes that look more like northern New England than the Hudson Valley.

The WMGA/MGA Women’s Public Links Championship is open to female amateur golfers who reside in the MGA district, have a current USGA Handicap Index of 20.0 or less and do not hold playing privileges at a course at which the general public is excluded. All entrants are subject to MGA Rules and Regulations.