By Conner Penfold
AmateurGolf.com
After 105 years as a men’s tournament, the Southwestern Amateur added a women’s championship in 2021. On Saturday, Camille Boyd became the second Southwestern Women’s Amateur champion.
In the inaugural event, the University of Oregon’s Ching-Tzu Chen battled unusually high temperatures and a difficult Cochise Course at Desert Mountain to put her name on the trophy with an even-par final score.
This year, the Southwestern Women’s Amateur contestants found some relief in the form of lower scoring on the Geronimo Course, and a cloud-covered final morning and afternoon at Desert Mountain Club, where there were 18 holes to play and a four-shot lead for the field to chase down. It was Boyd who started the day at the top, and it was Boyd that would stay there.
The soon-to-be junior at the University of Washington, who hails from Yorba Linda, Calif., carded a 69 on Saturday–her fourth consecutive score in the 60s–to seal a four-shot victory at 12 under par. She finished as the only player to break par in all four rounds.
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“It’s a pretty prestigious event, and it feels nice to put my name on the trophy as just the second woman,” Boyd said.
Saturday’s cooler temperatures had a caveat: wind. Players battled the blustery conditions, but Boyd said she didn’t notice until the back nine. A misjudged shot at the par-4 16th led to a double-bogey, shrinking her lead to two over a surging Katie Cranston.
The diabolical par-3 18th awaited, with the tee box set farther back and the pin placed delicately above a ridge in the center of the green. Cranston’s birdie try from above the hole rolled down the ridge and led to a three-putt. Two groups later, Boyd stuffed it to six feet and drained it with a first pump.
Boyd credited her iron play for a consistently strong week at the Southwestern–the first major amateur win of her career. Her signature collegiate performance in a brilliant sophomore campaign was claiming medalist honors at the Juli Inkster Meadow Club Collegiate, shooting a final-round 65 to tie the Meadow Club course record.
She appeared in all 12 events for the Huskies and led the squad in scoring average at 72.8. It earned her a spot in Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention.
“I’m excited to get back to Seattle and take a week off,” Boyd said.
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Cranston’s impressive week at Desert Mountain comes on the heels of her breakout victory at the Women’s Porter Cup. There, she defeated fellow Canadian Brooke Rivers in a four-hole playoff after birdieing 17 and 18 to force extra holes.
Here in Scottsdale, the tournament was never within her grasp until the back nine on Saturday when she stuck a 3-wood to five feet at the par-5 12th to set up an eagle that pushed her to 8 under for the round. She would bogey two holes coming in but she still backed up a 33 with a 32 and signed for 65. She trailed the leader by five or more shots at the conclusion of each day but rose up to solo second place.
“It was a really great day, I had a lot of fun,” Cranston said. “This is probably one of the best fields I’ve played in.”
Cranston, a recently-graduated high schooler from Oakville, Ontario, Canada, is planning to take a gap year before joining the Auburn Tigers in the fall of 2023.
Third place went to UNLV sophomore McKenzi Hall, who was right there towards the end but a bogey at the 15th and a double on 17 ended her chances of catching Boyd. Her third-round 65 earned her a spot in Saturday’s final grouping.
Northwestern junior Jennifer Cai was next on the leaderboard following a 67 in her final showing. Considering 75 is how the Irvine, Calif. native began her week, a fourth-place finish at 5 under par was redemptive.
Rounding out the top 5 were first- and second-round leader Grace Summerhays of Arizona State University and Seattle University senior Samantha Bruce, who matched Cranston’s 65 on Saturday to secure a notable finish.
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