Canada’s Shelly Stouffer, who was looking for her second U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title in three years, shot 4-over-par 144 in the stroke-play portion at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, Washington, to win the medalist honor by a stroke over Australia’s Nadene Gole in a preview of the match-play final.
Stouffer, of Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, never saw the 18th hole in her five-match run to the final before losing to Gole, 3 and 2.
Gole, 56, who was competing in her second U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur, advanced to the quarterfinals in 2023 before falling to eventual champion Sarah Gallagher of Canton, Georgia, 2 and 1.
At No. 116 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Gole is the highest-ranked senior amateur in the world. The Senior Women’s Amateur was her seventh significant victory in 2024, including the R&A Senior Women’s Amateur.
Lara Tennant of Portland, Oregon, who was seeking her fourth U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title, ran into another multiple USGA champion, Sarah Ingram, in the round of 64. The match was tied through six holes before Tennant won four consecutive holes to go 4-up with eight holes to play. Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion from Nashville, Tennessee, fought back with wins on Nos. 12, 13, 15 and 17 to trail by one hole and send the match to the 18th green. With nearly identical 60-footers from the front of the green, Ingram went first and turned up the pressure when she knocked her attempt within gimme range. Tennant then followed suit with a decent lag putt inside 5 feet before she rolled in the winning stroke.
Tennant defeated Julie Streng of Greensboro, North Carolina, 3 and 1, in the round of 32, but then ran into another North Carolinian, 2023 runner-up, Brenda Corrie Kuehn of Asheville, in the round of 16. Tennant got out to a quick 2-up lead after two holes, but after that it was all Kuehn. The two-time Curtis Cup player, with more than 55 USGA appearances, won four of the next seven holes and then closed out the match with four consecutive par-winning holes on the back side to end Tennant’s quest, 5 and 4.
The marquee match of the quarterfinals was a rematch of the 2023 Senior Women’s Amateur final between Kuehn and Gallagher. Kuehn got her revenge with a 1-up victory – the same score by which Gallagher won in last year’s final at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona – to punch her ticket to a semifinal match against Gole, the eventual champion. Kuehn seized the lead on the eighth hole against Gallagher and never trailed thereafter.
Competing in her 12th U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur and her 76th USGA championship, Ellen Port of St. Louis, Missouri, advanced to the semifinals before falling to Stouffer, the eventual runner-up.
Port was gunning for her fourth Senior Amateur title. She owns a 29-6 match-play record in the tournament. She also has four U.S. Mid-Amateur titles. With seven USGA championships, Port is tied with Carol Semple Thompson for second among female USGA champions, trailing only JoAnne Gunderson Carner, who has eight.
RESULTS
Staff and wire reports