It has been a six-year wait for Walking Stick golf professional Mike Zaremba, but it has been worth it.
This week Pueblo’s most notable track will host the United States Golf Association’s Women’s Amateur Public Links, one of 13 events golf’s governing body puts on annually.
“It’s always a feather in your cap when you get to host one of these,” said Zaremba, who qualified for the U.S. Senior Open next month at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. “It elevates us for sure and is something we will cherish for a long time to come.”
Pueblo’s field of 144 players starts today with two rounds of medal play. The top 64 players then will play match play, including two matches for the winners both Friday and Saturday, until a champion is determined. Sunday’s championship match also will be a 36-hole ordeal.
On top of the already demanding USGA conditions that usually greet the players, Pueblo’s summertime heat could bring some players to their knees.
“This event is always the same time every year, and the heat is always a factor, whether we are in Florida, or like last year in Kansas City,” event director Teresa Belmont said. “There are medics on site, and there will be plenty of water for the ladies.”
The Walking Stick course, which will play to 6,262 yards, has received rave reviews from the players who have had a chance to play it. The rough, always a factor at a USGA event, already is upward of 3 inches in height and won’t be cut as the week wears on.
“The rough is thick, but most of these girls hit it straight,” Zaremba said. “They obviously don’t do what they did to those guys at the U.S. Open, but it is still a challenge.”
Eight Coloradans will be in the field, six of whom qualified last month at Lakewood’s Fox Hollow Golf Course. Ashley Tait (Littleton), Stacy Arnold (Westminster), Kelly Jacques (Longmont), Jessica McKay (Grand Junction), Dawn Shockley (Estes Park) and Chelsey Collins (Louisville) will be joined by Kelly Schaub (Greeley), who earned exempt status by qualifying for the 2003 U.S. Open, and former Heritage High School standout Ashley Anast, who qualified in Portland, Ore.
Two past champions are in the field, including 2004 winner Ya-Theng Tseng (Taipei), who defeated Michelle Wie. Lori Planos, the 1979 and 1980 champion, recently had her amateur status reinstated and will go for her third title at age 45. Defending champion Eun Jung Lee of South Korea turned pro and will not be in the field.
Of the 144 players in the field, 29 are under age 18. The youngest is 12-year-old Cyd Okino of Honolulu. For the first time, the USGA conducted a qualifier in Alaska. Mindy Stefanski, 51, of Palmer, Alaska, earned one of those two spots and is the oldest player in the field.
The winner and runner-up earn automatic trips to this year’s U.S. Amateur, to be played in August near Portland at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached
at 303-820-5446 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
