WCU's Mitchell qualifies for U.S. Amateur

WCU's Mitchell qualifies for U.S. Amateur

Print

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Kim Mitchell, a rising senior on the Western Carolina women’s golf team, qualified for the 115th annual United States Women’s Amateur Championship golf tournament. Mitchell placed third in the Middle Atlantic Golf Association’s qualifying event on Wednesday at the par-70, 6,069-yard Kenwood Club in Bethesda, Md., to earn her berth.

Mitchell is just the second WCU women’s golfer all-time to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, joining former Catamount Ashley Hovda, a member of WCU’s Athletics Hall of Fame who was the first to accomplish the feat back in the summer of 2005. Mitchell will now be in the 156-golfer field at the U.S. Women’s Amateur that will be held at the Portland Golf Club in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 10-16, 2015.

Mitchell carded a 2-over-par 72 to earn one of the six automatic qualifying spots into the U.S. Women’s Amateur field. She finished two strokes in arrears of medalist Erica Herr from New Hope, Pa., and was one stroke ahead of a four-way tie for fourth that resulted in a playoff to determine the remaining qualifiers.

A native of Woodbridge Va., Mitchell paced the Catamount women’s golf team in stroke average a season ago at 76.04 over 28 rounds, which ranked her 13th in the Southern Conference. She was WCU’s highest finisher in two tournaments with a pair of top-10 showings, including a seventh-place finish at the John Kirk/Panther Intercollegiate in late March and a fourth-place finish at the SoCon Women’s Golf Championship in mid-April.

Mitchell enters her senior season with three career top-10s and is ranked seventh on WCU’s all-time career scoring average list at 76.83 through 58 career rounds.

The U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship features 36 holes of stroke play over the opening two days on Aug. 10-11 with the low 64 players then competing in a match-play bracket. The champion will be determined in a 36-hole final match on Sunday, Aug. 16.

Television coverage of the tournament on Fox Sports 1 begins on Wednesday, Aug. 12 with the round-of-64 matches and continues through the championship match on Sunday, Aug. 16.