14 minute read
Cascade Golfer Short Game
SHORT GAME 1
Sahalee is a ‘major’ backdrop again for the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship next June – tickets and volunteer opportunities available now
BY BART POTTER • FOR CASCADE GOLFER
Brooke Henderson will not be the defending champion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship June 20-23, 2024, when it comes to Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.
But on this golf course, she might as well be the reigning queen. For the record, 21-year-old Ruoning Yin of China claimed the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Yin, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer (as of this writing) will be far from an afterthought at the next Championship.
At Sahalee, Henderson is the player people know and remember. She was just 18 in June 2016, the first time the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship came to Sahalee, when her final-round 65 pulled her into a tie with Lydia Ko after 72 holes. Henderson won the tournament with a birdie on the first playoff hole.
It was the Canadian-born Henderson’s first major championship victory. Later in 2016, she repeated as champion at the Cambia Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater CC (after having won in 2015 as a 17-year-old Monday qualifier).
That same year, Henderson was a member of the Canadian Olympic golf team for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, where she placed seventh.
Since 2016, Henderson has remained among the world’s elite players. As of this writing, she ranks 13th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf rankings. She has 20 professional victories, including a second major — the 2022 Evian Championship, where she opened the Championship shooting two consecutive rounds of 64.
“Brooke’s memorable performance in 2016 stands as not only a highlight in her own career, but also in the history of this championship,” said Championship Director Jackie Endsley. “With the incredible support of KPMG and the LPGA, this event continues to grow and reach new heights. We are thrilled to return to Sahalee eight years later and provide a world-class experience for the players, spectators and community.”
The other half of that 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship playoff — Ko — was then the top-ranked player in the world. After a brief slide, Ko has regained top form. She has 19 LPGA victories, including two majors, and sits 10th in the current Rolex World Rankings.
The 2023 season belonged to Yin
Yin has ascended to the top of the Rolex list after winning the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol, where she birdied the final hole to best Yuka Saso by one stroke. Yin has one other victory in 2023, her first year on the LPGA Tour, and has amassed $2,683,616 in prize money.
2024 comes to Sahalee again
The 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will bring 156 of the best players in the world to the picturesque Sahalee course next June. The PGA of America has announced that general admission tickets and corporate hospitality experiences to the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship are available for purchase. Volunteer registration is also open for the 70th edition of the Championship.
“Sahalee Country Club has proven to be a tremendous host site for our Championships,” said PGA of America Chief Championships Officer Kerry Haigh. “The course and its intimidating tree line will once again provide a stern challenge to the best women players in the world. We are proud to return to Sahalee following a highly successful PGA Championship in 1998 and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2016.”
Visit kpmgwomenspga.com/tickets to secure your tickets today. If you are interested in hospitality options, contact Callum McLuckie, Corporate Hospitality Sales and Marketing Lead, at (425) 380-6274 or email cmcluckie@ pgahq.com for information.
If you would like to find out more about volunteer opportunities, visit kpmgwomenspga.com/volunteers.
SHORT GAME 2
Broadmoor Golf Club to host its fifth USGA event and Washington’s 29th national championship
Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle will host its fifth United States Golf Association (USGA) event next Sept. 21-26, when it stages the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship for the second time.
The A.V. Macan-designed course, four miles northeast of downtown, opened in 1927 and held its first Senior Women’s Am in 1996 when Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Gayle Borthwick beat fellow Canadian Hall of Famer Marlene Streit and former Olympic javelin thrower Karen Oldham by a single stroke, completing the 54 holes in 226.
Besides its USGA history (which includes the 1961 U.S. Girls Juniors won by Mary Lowell, the 1974 and 1984 U.S. Women’s Amateurs won by Cynthia Hill and Deb Richard, respectively, and the 1996 Senior Women’s Am), the Douglas fir-lined course laid out on 200 acres of former Puget Mill Company land — and most recently worked on by Canadian architect Jeff Mingay — has hosted several prestigious professional and amateur tournaments.
The Seattle Open — held at Broadmoor in 1945, 1961, 1962 and 1964 — produced four quality winners in Byron Nelson, Dave Marr, Jack Nicklaus and Billy Casper.
Nelson won 18 times in 1945, including 11 in a row. His win in Seattle, No. 17 that year, was not part of the famous streak. Nicklaus’ win in 1962 was his second as a professional and came just three months after he defeated Arnold Palmer in a playoff at the U.S. Open. He’d win his third just a week later at the Portland Open, played at another Macan design — Columbia Edgewater.
At Broadmoor, the Ohio State grad pocketed $4,300, while Casper would win $5,800 in 1964.
In 1952, a year after winning the first of her four U.S. Women’s Open Championships, Betsy Rawls won the Women’s Weathervane Tournament on the fledging LPGA Tour.
Broadmoor has also hosted several important collegiate events, including the 1999 Men’s Pac-12 Championships, where the individual title was won by Arizona State’s Paul Casey, who shot 60 in the final round. Eight years later, Tiffany Joh of UCLA was the top individual at the Pac-12 Women’s Championship.
This will be the 29th time the USGA has held one of its competitions in the State of Washington and the 51st
time the organization has visited the Pacific Northwest. The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, now an allmatch-play event, was inaugurated in 1962 for amateur women golfers aged 50 and older. Notable past winners include longtime Broadmoor member Anne Quast Sander, who claimed the trophy four times (1987, 198990, 1993), Alice Dye (wife of Pete Dye) who won there in 1978 and ’79, Carol Semple Thompson (1999 and 2002), and Streit in 1985, 1994, and 2003.
Georgia’s Sarah Gallagher won the 2023 championship in the first week of October, defeating Brenda Kuehn 1-up in the final at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. The winner of the Women’s Senior Am wins a spot in the
SHORT GAME 3
Duke’s Seafood Junior Golfer Scholarship winners in 2023 embody the best in spirit, character and citizenry
In the seven years that Duke’s Seafood has been awarding its Junior Golfer Scholarship, we’ve invariably felt a mix of curiosity, pride, and astonishment when reading the stories of our region‘s junior golfers.
Curiosity, because we wonder how and why they first got involved with the game and how we can ensure every young person gets a chance to experience it. Pride, because these kids are from our neck of the woods. Astonishment, because we’re frequently amazed at the lengths to which the winners have gone to continue playing and improving and serving their communities.
Our 2023 winners continued the trend, overcoming sizable obstacles to play the game they love or helping others who might not get the opportunity to play it themselves.
The most recent recipient, 17-year-old Kylie McGrath, told us in June about how she was helping to organize an event called The Washington Cup, to be played at Sahalee Country Club in October. Twenty-four junior golfers from across the state would compete in a Ryder Cupstyle event, with each player raising funds for the First Tee of Greater Seattle — which Kylie had first joined at age 7 — and the American Junior Golf Association’s Liberty National ACE Grant program, which provides financial assistance to young people who aspire to earn a college golf scholarship through competitive junior golf.
At the end of September, Kylie told us that not only had the tournament gone ahead as planned, but that it had also raised an incredible $43,000. Evan Johnson, the Director of Programs and Development at the First Tee of Greater Seattle, made it clear just how important a role Kylie had played.
“This event would not have been possible without Kylie’s vision, persistence, and leadership,” he wrote. “This work started back in 2019, and even through the COVID years when outside events were nearly impossible to schedule, Kylie remained optimistic and always looking forward. And during that time, she continued to raise (more than) $5,000 each year through the AJGA Leadership Links program. I’ve had the honor of knowing Kylie since she joined First Tee, and to see her grow into the motivational leader that she is now is just so amazing.”
May’s winner, the entire girls’ team at Inglemoor High School, likewise demonstrated the virtues of the driving force behind this quarterly philanthropic program, led by John Moscrip, CEO of Duke’s Seafood, and what he looks for when picking the scholarship winners.
Besides the team’s strong play, their camaraderie, sportsmanship (they won the King County Sportsmanship Award as voted by players from within the conference), and hard work (they also won the WIAA Academic Award for the Outstanding Scholastic Team with a 3.58 GPA) proved very hard to ignore.
Similarly powerful was First Tee coach Leslie Guzman’s description of 12-year-old Esli Choi in March.
“Esli will be a great junior golfer with time,” said Guzman. “But more importantly, perhaps, she’s becoming a really outstanding individual. We’re very lucky to have her in our program.” And we’re lucky to have Esli, the Inglemoor Girls’ team, and Kylie McGrath in the pages of Cascade Golfer.
Cascade Golfer and Duke’s Seafood congratulate this year’s winners
SHORT GAME 4
New champions take home 2023 Cascade Golfer Cup crowns in one of best title races yet
A total of 25 teams went to Chambers Bay on Sept. 30 for the Fall Classic, with several still hoping to capture a Cascade Golfer Cup Season Championship. In the end, however, only two teams could stake a claim to the title.
In the net division, the team of Kale Olson and Nick Oliver — with a great assist from John Costigan — took home the trophies. Olson and Oliver had three top finishes during the season, while Costigan stepped in nicely as the alternate at Chambers Bay to propel the team to a 2nd place finish, earning enough points for the season title.
In the gross division, it was seasoned veterans and brothers Tanner and Damon Parot, alongside plus handicap ace Michael Matson, who finished on top. Tanner and Michael won the gross division at both the Puetz Golf Shootout at White Horse in June, and the Michelob ULTRA Open in August at Oakbrook, while Tanner and Damon had three other top-three finishes. Packages to Bandon Dunes and PXG Clubs were just a few of the prizes the three of them won in 2023.
This year marked the 14th year of the Cascade Golfer Cup. The 2023 season began back in April at The Home Course and finished on the last day of September at Chambers Bay and included five other stops in between. Players and teams competed in a variety of two-person formats including best ball, Stableford, scramble and stroke play.
More than 150 players participated, competing for a massive prize pool that paid out the top 10 net and gross at each event, plus the overall. Prizes included stay-andplay packages and golf experiences to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pinehurst, Bandon Dunes, Circling Raven, Central Oregon and more.
Twosomes and foursomes of golf were handed out at Washington’s finest courses including Chambers Bay, Gamble Sands, Salish Cliffs, Apple Tree, Suncadia, and Port Ludlow. Additionally, Tour-quality drivers, putters, wedges, hybrids, balls, bags, push carts, and rangefinders were awarded.
The Parot Brothers and Matson had been working towards their win for many years. They’ve played in numerous CG Cup events — and have won multiple times. However, they had never been the season champs.
Would you like to be the 2024 champion and write your own history? Next year’s schedule is in the works and will be just as robust. Get a partner and check back at CascadeGolfer.com.
SHORT GAME 5
CG Match Play 64-player bracket culminated with an Elite Eight for the at Salish Cliffs
Every year, we enjoy watching the 64 golfers who are part of our Cascade Golfer Match Play event make their run through the bracket, hoping to make it to the Elite Eight at Salish Cliffs, which is a prize in itself.
In some instances, we see names of proven CG Match Play veterans who have been there and done that. Every year, though, we see many new faces who make their run to glory, and 2023 was no different.
Sixty-four players started off in May, playing matches against similar-handicap golfers in their geographic area. Win and advance, lose and it’s the end of the road. Win three matches, and you punch a ticket to the big time. After the dust had settled, the bracket battles arrived at Salish Cliffs on Aug. 25 with eight Northwest golfers — from Tumwater to Snohomish and points in between — who played to a range of handicaps, from low single digits to 18.
There was Nick Dammann, making his third appearance at the Elite Eight but still looking to make it to Saturday. We had our first female finalist, Tina Hillengass, make the Elite Eight, who joined 2022 CG Cup Champion Bryson Agnew. Alongside them were five others, all with hopes of taking home the trophy: Kyle Waltos, Michael Whittendale, Jon Rue, Nathan Dolejsi and David Clarke.
After a Friday firework show of great shots and white-knuckle finishes these players won’t soon forget, Waltos and Clarke were left standing for the Championship Match on Saturday morning.
Waltos brought his “A” game and jumped out early, with Clarke struggling to make a run. Waltos closed out the match on the 15th green, 4 & 3, winning both the Championship and a stay-and-play package to Maui.
The match of the weekend may well have been the quarterfinal encounter between the 3rd-place finisher Whittendale and the Cascade Golfer legend, Agnew. One hole down on the 18th green, Whitendale made a birdie to force extra holes. Then, playing the par 5 closing hole again, he threw a dagger with his second shot, leaving not much more than a tap in for eagle.
Agnew, who made birdie, could only watch. Whittendale then took Waltos to extra holes in their semifinal, but a six-foot putt slid by, capping a rollercoaster day Whittendale will surely never forget.
Memories are made from unique experiences, and more than a few were made at the CG Match Play. Congratulations to the 2023 Champion Kyle Waltos and thank you to all who participated.
For information on the 2024 Match Play Championship, go to CGMatchPlay.com.
