SHORT GAME The Home Course to host fourth USGA Championship this May

The Home Course, opened just 16 years ago, has become one of the country’s go-to venues for USGA competitions, and will host the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship event in May.

The DuPont, Wash. facility was built for championship golf and has already co-hosted stroke play rounds for the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship and 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship alongside Chambers Bay. It also hosted the 2014 Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, an event that had begun in 1922 but which ended at the Home Course after the USGA decided to replace it with the Four-Ball championship. This year’s edition of the tournament will therefore be the eighth.

“When we held the Men’s Four-Ball with Chambers Bay, we showed the USGA what we were able to do,” says Justin Gravatt, the course’s general manager. “I think that event pushed our name toward the top of their list. We enjoy hosting USGA events. We also host the Canadian Tour Q School annual event, and we’ll stage the PGA Northwest Open the week after the Four-Ball.”

The reason The Home Course is an ideal venue for tournament play is partly because of the perception that it’s playable. The fairways are wide, it rolls well, and the greens are ample and receptive. But it can become championship-tough and show its teeth with tight pin positions and by pushing the tee markers back.

How the USGA will set up the course isn’t certain, but it will be long — somewhere around 6,900 yards (the men played it at around 7,400 yards). That’s plenty of golf course for the women who’ll play in this year’s tournament and who likely average around 260 yards off the tee.

“Instead of hitting a mid or long-iron to the green, they may need to hit a hybrid,” says Gravatt. “That brings the bunkers more into play. It’s the green complexes, not the tee shots, that will be their main challenge. It’s a different perspective when you take a step back. It’s more of a challenge.”

Twenty-six qualifiers were held across the country between August 22 and December 7 last year when entrants could not have a USGA Handicap Index exceeding 14.4. Seven-hundred-and-thirty-two players participated (366 pairs) with 128 (64 pairs) making it through to May’s event to be held from the 13th to the 17th.

The format is essentially two-player best ball. For the first two days it’s stroke play, as each golfer plays her own ball with the best team score recorded for each hole. After stroke play, the field is cut in half with the top 32 teams proceeding into a match play bracket.

As is so often the case these days, many the players who qualified are teenagers. In fact, 80 of the qualifiers are aged 18 or younger. The reason for that might be because the event, generally held in late spring, presents a conflict for many of the top collegiate golfers. Those women are deep into their college schedules and don’t have the opportunity to qualify or play in this event.

High-Schoolers Angela Zhang of Bellevue and her partner Alice Ziyi Zhao of California were among the top qualifiers at the Home Course last September and will start among the favorites. “Angela has been out here at different times for other events,” says Gravatt. “She came through here for the Drive, Chip and Putt event then went on to Augusta National. She played PGA Junior events here too.”

Zhang and Zhao will no doubt be hoping their familiarity with the course proves crucial.