USGA Completes U.S. Championship Map With Senior Women’s Am In Alaska

The United States Golf Association is officially checking the final box on its national map, heading to an Alaskan municipal course for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.

Alaska had indeed been the “Last Frontier” for the USGA, which had hosted one of its national championships in all 49 other states, not to mention the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

A total of 132 competitors will make the trip to Alaska for a tournament that stretches across six days at Anchorage Golf Course, a 35-year-old, tree-lined muni that overlooks the city of Anchorage and boasts views of three mountain ranges.

The remote nature of the 60^th U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship didn’t discourage participation, with a total of 415 entrants, in line with recent years (439 in 2021 and 434 in 2019). The 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The championship field includes players ranging in age from 50 to 75 and from 10 other countries outside the U.S.

While California has the most participants at 18, Florida is second with 12 despite the flight time of around 11 hours or more. Among those making the lengthiest domestic trips are 56-year-old Adrienne MacLean of Tequesta, Florida, a former Futures Tour professional who regained her amateur eligibility in the mid-1990s and the wife of former NHL All-Star and Stanley Cup champion John MacLean; and 58-year-old Susan Keane of Orlando, a former professional tennis player who was once the No. 1 ranked junior in the world and played in her first tennis U.S. Open at age 14.

While countries like Australia and Japan have multiple participants, there is only one player in the field from Alaska: Pamela Chesla, who lives about a 90-minute drive from the host course in a small town on the Kenai Peninsula called Hope and is in the lead group on the first day. Anchorage Golf Course is one of only six courses in the state of Alaska that have 18 holes or more, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The first two days are 18-hole rounds of stroke play that cut the 132-player field down to 64 who advance to the match play bracket. The first four days of August feature match play competition, with the potential of two matches for some players on both Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 before the championship match on Thursday, Aug. 4. Admission throughout the event is free.