EMILY OR NOT, CHALLENGES ARE PLENTY FOR WOMEN’S GOLF

BY ROB HERNANDEZ

If Emily Lauterbach doesn’t show up this summer to defend her titles at the Wisconsin State Women’s Open or Wisconsin State Women’s Amateur, don’t read too much into it.

The University of Wisconsin golfer isn’t suggesting that those events no longer provide enough competition for her. On the contrary, they were cornerstones of Lauterbach’s schedule over the last three summers as the senior from Hartland has become the Badgers’ No. 1 golfer, the 2022 Wisconsin women’s amateur of the year and someone with conditional status on the Epson Tour after she graduates UW in May and begins her pro career on the LPGA’s developmental tour.

There is no reason for the state’s other top women’s amateurs to take a pass on the gauntlet of courses lined up to host the three major in-state events on the 2023 calendar.

The State Women’s Open will be played June 12-14 at Blackhawk Country Club in Madison. It falls between the State Women’s Match-Play Championship (June 5-7) and the State Women’s Amateur (July 10-11) at a pair of former venues that recently hosted State Women’s Opens – Racine Country Club (2017) and Janesville Country Club (2018), respectively.

“They are all courses where we’ve run men’s championships whether the state match-play or the State Amateur,” said Thomas Fazio, the Wisconsin State Golf Association’s tournament manager in charge of administering women’s championships.

Here are five women’s events that belong on the 2023 schedule for any competitive golfer:

1. Wisconsin State Women’s Open, Madison (June 12-14)

Younger golfers in the field will be quite familiar with Blackhawk CC. Since 2014, it has played host to at least one round of the Sherri Steinhauer Girls Championship, a top junior event.

The WPGA played the last two State Women’s Opens at the Golf Courses of Lawsonia in Green Lake on layouts that measured about 6,100 yards. That would mean playing from the tips at Blackhawk, which held its own at U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifying last summer when just one of 31 golfers broke par.

2. Wisconsin State Women’s Amateur, Janesville (July 10-11)

Only 16 golfers of the 64 in the field broke 80 in both rounds of what was then a 36-hole State Women’s Open in 2018 at Janesville CC. Fazio expects the same challenge in July when the 54-hole Women’s State Am is contested at the state’s oldest club.

“That’s a second-shot golf course, for sure,” Fazio said of Janesville CC and its many dogleg par 4s and par 5s. There could be a changing of the guard atop the Women’s Am. Milton’s Mia Seeman, the 2022 runner-up, is wrapping up her collegiate career at Lipscomb University in May and could join Lauterbach in the professional ranks, but said recently she “isn’t sure what her plans are for golf” this summer.

3. Wisconsin State Women’s Match Play, Racine (June 5-7)

If Fazio and the WSGA had one wish for its women’s championships, it would be to grow participation in the Wisconsin State Women’s Match Play, its season-opening event.

The format is considered attractive to golfers looking to make the leap from junior to women’s amateur tournaments. The stroke-play qualifier guarantees golfers at least one, full 18-hole round while the match-play portion allows golfers to shake off the competitive rust in what, for many, is the first championship-level competition on the summer golf calendar.

4. Women’s Western Amateur, Naperville, Ill. (July 18-22)

Lauterbach, Abby Cavaiani and Seeman made the 70-minute drive south of the Wisconsin border last year when the 122nd Women’s Western Am was played at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Ill., but only Lauterbach (69-77) earned one of the 32 match-play berths, falling in the opening round. This year, it’s about a two-hour commute from Milwaukee to White Eagle Golf Club for the 123rd playing of an event now run by the Western Golf Association. The event draws top women’s amateur golfers from around the country.

5. Badger Mutual Women’s Amateur, Milwaukee (July 24-25)

With the end of the PHC Classic during the COVID-19 pandemic, a spot in the local Epson Tour stop is no longer a carrot for golfers entering this two-day amateur event at Brown Deer Park.

However, there is a perhaps greater motivation for golfers to enter the Badger Mutual Women’s Am: It is traditionally the last in-state women’s championship on the summer calendar besides a series of popular WSGA team events – the State Women’s Four-Ball, State Father-Daughter, the State Women’s Scramble and the Patti Pelischeck Memorial Solheim Cup.