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Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur could be dangerous territory for the timid

One of the most famous shootouts in American history happened over 143 years ago at the O.K. Corral and featured Wyatt Erp and Doc Holliday. Valley Brook Country Club may just want to prepare for another barrage when Pennsylvania’s top female golfers get together for the 89^th playing of the Women’s Amateur. The event hosted by the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) and presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods will be held July 21-23 at the club in McMurray, Pa. and will include championships for the state’s Mid-Amateur, Senior and Super Senior titles as well.

The field has more than enough top guns to make for an exciting three days of competition over the 27-hole layout originally designed by James Harrison and Ferdinand Garbin. The 18 holes used for this competition will be the club’s red and gold nines. The eventual winner may just have to have her head on a swivel as the shots could be coming from all sides. Valley Brook has been the site for past Western Pennsylvania Golf Association (WPGA) events and hosted the PAGA 2022 Men’s Senior Open.

Angelina Tolentino (The 1912 Club), Rylie Heflin (Biderman Golf Club) and Jackie Rogowicz (Yardley Country Club) winners of the last three titles lead a pack of talented players expected to contend. Also returning is Natasha Kiel (Jericho National Golf Club), who has been the runner-up in each of the last two events. She is joined by Megan Meng (Jericho National Golf Club), who finished fourth a year ago and along with Tolentino, Kiel and Rogowicz were the only players under par for the 54 holes last year at Waynesboro Country Club.  

Throw into the mix Rhianna Gooneratne (The 1912 Club), a recent qualifier for the US Junior Girls’ Championship and former Pennsylvania state high school champion, Hannah Rabb (Susquehanna Valley Country Club), a three-time Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ runner-up, and Ava O’Sullivan (Applecross Country Club), who was a top-10 finisher last year and shots could be firing from all over the place. Along with all the aforementioned competitors, a handful of collegiate players coming off their recent seasons could have something to say about the result before it’s over.

Tolentino took command on the final day a year ago birdieing four of the first five holes at Waynesborough Country Club on the way to a final round 68 to break out of the pack and grab the top spot. The rising Vanderbilt University sophomore followed her PA Amateur triumph with a very good freshman season for the Commodores as her first three collegiate rounds were under par, she was the medalist at The Robbie at the Robert Trent Jones Hampton Cove course in Alabama leading to three top five finishes during the year. The win last summer qualified her for her second appearance in the US Women’s Amateur (2021 was the other) where she was joined by both Kiel and Rogowicz.

Kiel caught and tied Tolentino briefly through 15 holes in last year’s final round before missing a putt on the 18^th that would have sent the duo to a playoff. Kiel has the highest World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) entering this year’s PA Am at 335^th in the world followed by Tolentino at 424 and Rogowicz at 807. Heflin was at 456 in one of the recent ratings and currently sits at 1,040. At one point, all four players have been among the top 460 amateurs in those rankings in the past. Rogowicz qualified for both the US Women’s Amateur and US Women’s Mid-Amateur last season.  In the latter, she posted the third-best score in the two-round stroke play portion of the event before eventually falling in match play.

Meng enhances the top-heavy draw as she used her fourth-place finish to vault into her freshman season at Northwestern. She currently rates 670^th in WAGR points and after a 2023 appearance in the US Women’s Amateur she qualified for the 2024 US Junior Girls’ Championship. She had a solid freshman season for the Wildcats who ended up winning the NCAA championship this spring.

While the Amateur competition has no clear cut, odds-on favorite, the Mid-Amateur has one player all the others will have to go through to win that division. Katie Miller Gee (Green Oaks Country Club) has been dominant in the first five years since the category was added to PAGA’s schedule. Miller Gee has won four of the five crowns, sharing it one time in 2020. She was the low Mid-Amateur at Waynesborough by six shots ahead of Northampton Country Club’s Katrin Wolfe, who finished second in each of the five tournaments held since 2020.

Miller Gee, whose history includes a plethora of tournament experience, including multiple USGA events, also was a three-time Pa. State high school champion and has three Pennsylvania Amateur titles, those coming in 2007, 2015 and 2017. Wolfe also has plenty of experience in national events as she has played in 11 past US national championships, including the 2024 Women’s Mid-Amateur.

In the Senior championship, the title will go to a new winner. In the past 28 years, only 10 different women have won the championship, none of them are entered in this year’s event. Defending champion Lisa McGill (Sunnybrook Golf Club) has five titles to her credit including three of the last four. Louise Gebhart (Hanover Country Club), who finished third a year ago, is the lone top five 2024 finisher returning.

Flip that script for the Super Senior competition, as the champions from each of the last six years will look to enhance their trophy cases. Barbara Pagana (Huntsville Golf Club) will try to defend the title she won a year ago. For Pagana it was her third state super senior crown, including one shared with Merion Golf Club’s Liz Haines in 2021. Haines also has three championships, and the duo is joined by 2023 winner Alexandra Frazier (Gulph Mills Golf Club) in the hunt for the 2025 top spot.