Jacqueline Setas and Sabrina Coffman tied for the stroke-play medalist honor last week at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, shooting 3-over-par 147 for 36 holes at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Massachusetts.
For Setas, 28, of East Lansing, Michigan, the week already had proved to be impactful.
“I’m really proud [to be medalist],” she said. “I kind of had a special perspective coming into this week. Seven years ago on Friday, I was getting a second opinion at Dana Farber [Cancer Institute, in nearby Boston]. I haven’t been back since that. Even when I was getting bad breaks out there, it really wasn’t that bad for me. I am just happy to be here.”
Setas eventually was diagnosed with stage II Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Beginning in 2017, she underwent six months of chemotherapy and 15 consecutive days of radiation. She was deemed cancer-free in 2018. The Michigan State University alumna made her championship debut in 2021 and has made match play in each of her four appearances. She advanced to the quarterfinals at Brae Burn, losing to 2015 champion Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Virginia, 2 and 1.
"Even when I was getting bad breaks out there, it really wasn’t that bad for me. I am just happy to be here.”
Jacqueline Setas
For Coffman, 26, of Toledo, Ohio, the strong play was a nice rebound from last year, when she missed the cut in her championship debut at Stonewall Links in Elverson, Pennsylvania. She works as an application engineer for GenomOncology, a software company that does cancer reporting, but the full-time job doesn’t seem to have slowed her down.
“It’s kind of funny. I think last year I felt better going into [the championship] because I had just come off a college season and I still had a lot of time to practice versus now I’m in a full-time job and getting out to practice and play can be a privilege,” said Coffman, who was the 2023 Horizon League champion as a graduate transfer at Cleveland State. Her even-par 72 in the second round was the low round of the day.
Coffman was unable to carry it through in match play, losing in the round of 64 to Raegan Bremer of Mont Belvieu, Texas, 2 and 1..
The stroke-play qualifying scores were unusually high because of strong winds as four players at 19-over 163 played off for the final spot in match play. Day two averaged 82.65, more than 10 strokes above par and 2.5 strokes higher than day one.
Meghan Stasi, who captained the recent U.S. Curtis Cup team, spent much of the second day hovering below the cut line. After signing for an 81 and a 16-over 160 total in the morning, she patiently waited for the field to come back to her, which it did. Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, advanced to the round of 32, losing to Ina Kim-Schaad of Jupiter, Florida, 1-up.
Alexandra Austin served as an inspiration for the week. She competed while six months’ pregnant with her first child, advancing to the quarterfinal round before falling to eventual runner-up Lindsay Gahm, 6 and 5.
Austin, 31, of Fairfax, Virginia, was competing in her fourth U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and had her husband, Josh Grove, as her caddie. She matched her previous best showing in the championship, having reached the quarterfinal round last year at Stonewall, where she lost to eventual champion Kimberly Dinh.
"I feel like that’s the key to golf, to just have fun and don’t put pressure on yourself."
Alexandra Austin
Austin posted the low score in the first round of stroke play, a 2-under 70, en route to the No. 4 seed. She beat Olivia Herrick of Hugo, Minnesota, 4 and 3, in the round of 64; defeated Catherine Matranga of Fort Worth, Texas, 2 and 1, in the round of 32; then held off good friend Clare Connolly of Chevy Chase, Maryland, 3 and 2, in the round of 16, avenging a 2021 first-round loss to Connolly at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, South Carolina.
“This was a fun match; we’re from the same area and play a lot of golf together,” said Austin, a two-time all-Big South Conference player at Radford University who works as an insurance agent. “The first [U.S.] Mid-Am I played in, Clare beat me, so this was a fun comeback match to play against her.”
A relatively carefree attitude seems to have helped Austin.
“I’m just having fun. I feel like that’s the key to golf, to just have fun and don’t put pressure on yourself,” she said. “My feet are definitely barking. They’re hurting, but I think everyone’s are.”
RESULTS
Staff and wire reports