UXBRIDGE, ON— The best female golfers in Ontario will be teeing it up next week, July 8-11, at the Brampton Golf Club for the Golf Association of Ontario’s (GAO) 2014 Investors Group Women’s Amateur Championship.
The first two rounds of the 99th edition of the tournament, which was also played at Brampton in 1985, will see the field of 87 cut down to 54, plus ties for the final two rounds.
The field will have numerous big names taking part, including 16-year-old Smiths Falls native and Canadian National Team member Brooke Henderson. Henderson is coming off a T-10 at the Women’s U.S. Open, June 22, where she also was the low amateur. In addition, Henderson won the Canadian Women’s Tour Ontario event just days later on June 25.
Henderson’s first and second round group will include the two most recent champions as she will play along side Seaforth’s Robyn Doig, the 2013 champion who is coming off of a win at the Match Play Championship earlier this season, and fellow Team Canada member Mono’s Brittany Marchand, the 2012 winner.
Five-time champion, Mary Ann Hayward, from Aurora, will also be part of the field, as will 2011 champion and current Team Canada member Bath’s Augusta James and 2004 champion Etobicoke’s Terrill Samuel.
The field also features two members of the GAO’s Team Ontario with Oakville’s Annika Haynes and Richmond Hill’s Monet Chun taking part. At 13-years-old, Chun is one of the youngest competitors only older than 12-year-old Isabella Portokalis from London.
Portokalis is part of the GAO’s Team Waterloo U17 regional team. In addition to her participation, four other regional team members will compete. Joining her from Team Waterloo is Ridgeway’s Madeline Marck-Sherk, from Team York are Thornhill’s Ellice Hong and Hornby’s Alexandra Naumovski, and Lilian Klekner-Alt is the lone representative from Team Ottawa.
Marchand and Naumovski are part of the local contingent in the field from the Brampton Golf Club that also includes: Sandy Byckowski, Meredith Fairbairn, Kayrn Lee Ping, Katelyn McMahon and Melissa Ramnauth.
Participants will be gunning for one of the qualifying spots for the Canadian Women’s Amateur, July 22-25 at Craigowan Golf & Country Club in Woodstock. The top three finishers will comprise Team Ontario for the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship’s inter provincial competition.
First round tee offs will begin on July 8 at 7:30 a.m. To stay up to date on the entire tournament visit the tournament site at: http://gao.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/gao14/event/gao1416/index.htm
About the Women’s Amateur
The Investors Group Ontario Women’s Amateur Championship was first contested in 1904. Past champions include: 1968 LPGA championship winner Sandra Post (1964), LPGA Tour player Alena Sharp (1989), Jennifer Kirby (2009, 2010), and World Golf Hall of Fame member Marlene Stewart Streit, who holds the record for the most number of titles with 11.
