The 21-year-old Westminster resident competed for the third time in an LPGA Tour event, and it’s no doubt obvious by now why this is the top women’s golf circuit in the world. Kupcho (left) played very good golf at the LPGA Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, and she now has an additional standard by which to measure herself.

The senior-to-be at Wake Forest (left, with dad and caddie Mike; photo courtesy of the Kupcho family) never shot a round over par for the four days, and made just two bogeys on the weekend, but with stellar competition, she lost some ground on Sunday. Nevertheless, her 16th-place finish was her best in an LPGA Tour event, surpassing the 21st-place showing at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open.

Kupcho, the Women’s NCAA Division I individual champion and now the top-ranked women’s amateur in the world, received a good bit of air time on the Golf Channel during Sunday’s final round. She started the last day in fifth place, three strokes out of the lead, and was hoping to become the first amateur to win an LPGA Tour event since Lydia Ko in 2013. But a 1-par 70 on Sunday dropped her out of the top 10.

Kupcho, who had her dad Mike caddying for her this week, made a nice pitch to within a foot for a birdie on her final hole to check in at 9-under-par 275, five strokes behind champion Thidapa Suwannapura. Kupcho finished the final round with three birdies and two bogeys. Before bogeying the 13th hole with a three-putt on Sunday, she had gone 30 straight holes on the weekend with no score worse than a par.

“It’s been a great week,” Kupcho said on Saturday. “It’s fun to be around all the pros and have all these fans out here watching us. It’s just a great experience.”

For all the scores from the Marathon Classic, CLICK HERE.

Stacy 28th in U.S. Senior Women’s Open: Part-time Colorado resident Hollis Stacy was remarkably consistent in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club. The three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion posted scores of 77-76-77-76, leaving her with a 14-over-par 306 total.

A final-hole birdie on Sunday gave Stacy a 28th-place finish. Laura Davies, like Stacy a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, cruised to a 10-stroke victory over Juli Inkster in the event, ending up with a 276 total.

Here are the scores for all the Coloradans who competed in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open:

28. Part-time Lakewood resident Hollis Stacy 77-76-77-76–306
Missed 36-Hole Cut
Part-time Gunnison resident Marilyn Hardy 82-77–159
Janet Moore, Centennial 80-81–161
Sherry Andonian-Smith, Centennial 80-81–161

For all the scores from the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, CLICK HERE.

Stacy, a World Golf Hall of Famer who has won three U.S. Women’s Opens and six USGA championships overall, survived the 36-hole cut on Friday and moved into 27th place after Saturday’s third round at Chicago Golf Club, leaving her in the middle of the pack for the 55 players who made the cut.

So far, she’s gone 77-76-77, leaving her at 11-over-par 230, 22 strokes behind leader Laura Davies, a fellow World Golf Hall of Famer.

On Saturday, Stacy made three birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey in round 3.

The other Coloradans — full-time or part-time — in the field missed the cut to the low 50 and ties on Friday evening. But it wasn’t by much.

Part-time Gunnison resident Marilyn Hardy (159) missed advancing by one, and Centennial residents Janet Moore and Sherry Andonian Smith (both 161) by three.

Here are the scores for all the Coloradans in the starting field for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open:

27. Part-time Lakewood resident Hollis Stacy 77-76-77–230

Missed 36-Hole Cut
Part-time Gunnison resident Marilyn Hardy 82-77–159
Janet Moore, Centennial 80-81–161
Sherry Andonian-Smith, Centennial 80-81–161

For all the scores from the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, CLICK HERE.

Stacy (pictured), winner of six USGA championships including three U.S. Women’s Opens, shot a 4-over-par 77 to share 29th place. A round which featured three birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey left her seven strokes behind leader Elaine Crosby.

Meanwhile, a couple of the the other full- or part-time Colorado residents also competing at Chicago Golf Club are in position to make the 36-hole cut, which will reduce the field from 120 to the low 50 and ties on Friday evening.

Colorado PGA professional Sherry Andonian-Smith and amateur Janet Moore, a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer likewise from Centennial, posted first-round 80s, which put them in 58th place. Andonian-Smith was even-par through 11 holes, but played her last seven in 7 over, including making a triple-bogey 8 on No. 4, her 13th hole. Moore likewise had one big number on her card, a double-bogey 7 on her ninth hole after making birdie on her eighth.

Amateur Marilyn Hardy, who lives in the Gunnison area during the summers, carded an 82 after closing with a birdie on Thursday, which left in her 77th place.

Here are the scores for all the Coloradans competing:

29. Part-time Lakewood resident Hollis Stacy 77
58. Janet Moore, Centennial 80
58. Sherry Andonian-Smith, Centennial 80
77. Part-time Gunnison resident Marilyn Hardy 82

For all the scores from the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, CLICK HERE.

Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Janet Moore and part-time Gunnison resident Marilyn Hardy have each competed in dozens of USGA national championships over the years.

They’re all special, but the one they qualified for on Tuesday at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora really sets itself apart.

The two, along with fellow Coloradan Sherry Andonian-Smith and Texan Patricia Beliard, earned spots in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Years from now, they’ll all be able to reminisce about being part of the field for a first-ever national championship. (Andonian-Smith, Hardy and Moore are pictured at left.)

And it’s an added bonus that the event will be contested at one of the oldest and top-ranked courses in the U.S., Chicago Golf Club, which will host the competition July 12-15.

“This one is very special for me,” said Moore, a Centennial resident who will be playing in her 26th USGA championship. “Normally I don’t get too nervous for qualifiers. I was nervous for this one, and already I’m nervous for the tournament and it’s a month away. This is very special to play in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. It’s the biggest (USGA event) I’ve played in.

“My friend Ellen Port (a seven-time USGA champ) is exempt. And she said, ‘Janet, I want you to come out and watch.’ I said, ‘Ellen, I’m going to try to play.’ She’s like, ‘I’m sorry. I forgot.’ I’m anxious to text her and say, ‘Hey, I’m playing too.'”

Added Hardy, a veteran of roughly 36 USGA championships, including two U.S. Women’s Opens: “This is huge. I’m so excited about it. It’s fantastic that they got around to (creating this event). It’s way overdue.”

Andonian-Smith, a Colorado PGA professional from Centennial who’s an instructor at Valley Country Club, earned medalist honors Tuesday at CommonGround with a 1-under-par 71. The 55-year-old played her final seven holes in 3 under par and made four birdies and three bogeys on the day.

That left her with a big smile on her face.

“Honestly I thought my USGA tournaments were done,” said Andonian-Smith, who last competed in a USGA national championship as an amateur — at the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links — twice each. She was twice a first alternate for the U.S. Women’s Open. “I’m 55 and I’m not going to do the U.S. Open anymore. So when they did this event, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have another chance.’ So I was very excited.

“This is pretty high (on my list of golf accomplishments) because I thought I was done with them. I haven’t slept much the last few nights.”

Andonian-Smith will also play this year in the Senior LPGA Championship, in October in French Lick, Ind.

Moore, winner of five CWGA Stroke Play Championships in the 1990s, tied for second at 74 on Tuesday despite a double bogey on the final hole. The 53-year old finished with three birdies, three bogeys and the double. Sarah Moore, Janet’s daughter, helped Arapahoe win a 5A girls state high school team title at CommonGround in 2010, and she caddied her for mom on Tuesday.

Speaking of Sarah Moore, she played golf at Wheaton College in Illinois, which is about a 10-minute drive from Chicago Golf Club. Janet Moore coached the Wheaton women’s team for several years, and during that time she had the opportunity to play Chicago Golf Club once.

“It was really hard,” Janet Moore recalled of the historic course. “I think that’s part of my being nervous. Just playing it for fun, it was hard. But it’s a great course, and the history of it is impressive. I’m thrilled to be part of it. It will be a really good challenge.”

Hardy, 56, who has advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, matched Moore’s 74 on Tuesday after parring her last 15 holes of the day. Hardy and her husband, renowned golf instructor Jim Hardy, live in Colorado during the summer and in the Houston area during the winter. Jim Hardy served as Marilyn’s caddie on Tuesday, and he does likewise in all USGA championships in which she competes. (The two are pictured above.)

Not surprisingly, Marilyn also works considerably with Jim on her swing and her game.

“How could I not?” she said with a smile. “And he’s always right. I keep that in mind. It’s very comforting having him on the bag.”

And Beliard, a native of France who lives part-time in Houston and has played on the Ladies European Tour for most of the last two decades, earned the fourth and final U.S. Senior Women’s Open berth out of Tuesday’s field of 24. Beliard, 54, birdied the last hole of regulation for a 75, then defeated former LPGA Tour players Lori West of Glenwood Springs and Dede Cusimano of Aspen on the first hole of a playoff. Beliard two-putted from the back fringe for par from 30 feet to advance.

Cusimano and West missed the green short on the extra hole, the par-4 first, and neither could convert their 20-foot par putts. Cusimano ended up two-putting for bogey to earn the first alternate spot, while West three-putted for double bogey, leaving her with the second alternate position.

Beliard (left), like the other qualifiers, relishes the fact that she’s part of the first field for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

“It’s something that it’s great we have it for the first time and I really want to be part of it,” she said. “It was about time we have the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. I think it’s great. I’ll be very, very happy to play in the first one for sure.”

U.S. Senior Women’s Open Qualifying

At Par-72 CommonGround GC in Aurora
ADVANCE TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Sherry Andonian-Smith, Centennial 71
Janet Moore, Centennial 74
Marilyn Hardy, Gunnison 74
Patricia Beliard, Katy, Texas 75

ALTERNATES (In Order)
Dede Cusimano, Aspen 75
Lori West, Glenwood Springs 75
Kathy West, Tulsa, Okla. 77

For complete scores, CLICK HERE.
 

At least that’s the case for golfers trying to qualify in Colorado for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

When CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora hosts the Colorado-based qualifier for the event on Tuesday, four players out of a field of 24 will advance to the first U.S. Senior Women’s Open ever held. And there will be three alternates — a change from the typical two for most USGA qualifying events.

The inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open is scheduled for July 12-15 at Chicago Golf Club, which is currently ranked No. 14 among Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Chicago GC is one of the nation’s oldest 18-hole courses.

The field for Tuesday’s qualifier at CommonGround features many accomplished competitors: Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Janet Moore; Denver native Lori West, who posted six top-10s on the LPGA Tour; former Colorado Women’s Open champions Dawne Kortgaard, Shelly Rule and Shannon Hanley; Coloradan Sherry Andonian-Smith, who finished second in the senior division of the LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals National Championship in September, earning a spot in the 2018 Senior LPGA Championship in the process; Elena Callas King, longtime instructor at CommonGround who was named among the top 50 LPGA teachers worldwide by the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals membership; part-time Colorado resident Marilyn Hardy, a past semifinalist in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur; former CWGA Stroke Play winner Kristine Franklin; and past CWGA Senior Match Play and Senior Stroke Play champion Deb Hughes.

Already in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open field is part-time Colorado resident Hollis Stacy, a World Golf Hall of Famer and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion. The 64-year-old has a 10-year exemption by virtue of winning a U.S. Women’s Open title. Only four women have won more USGA national titles than has Stacy (6): JoAnne Gunderson Carner (8); Anne Quast Sander (7); Carol Semple Thompson (7); and Ellen Port (7).

“I will be playing, (trying) not to make a mess of it,” Stacy wrote to coloradogolf.org in an email earlier this year.

For Tuesday’s pairings at CommonGround, CLICK HERE.