LOS ANGELES – Auburn's Megan Schofill, Casey Weidenfeld and Katie Cranston will tee it up at the 123rd U.S. Women's Amateur Championship beginning on Monday at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Auburn has now had seven players participate in the event since 2019.
Schofill earned an exemption into the field thanks to her top-25 World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and will make her third appearance in the prestigious event since coming to Auburn. The Auburn fifth-year senior made it to the match play round of 16 in her first appearance in 2019. Schofill enters the U.S. Women's Amateur after being named a WGCA first team All-American and a first-team All-SEC selection in 2023.
Casey Weidenfeld will being making her second consecutive appearance in the tournament, as she qualified for the event after firing a 64 to take the top spot at the qualifying event in Salisbury, North Carolina. The redshirt sophomore finished the stroke play portion of the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur at 6-under (140), which placed her in a tie for 7th which advanced her to match play. The Penbroke Pines, Florida native earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors last season after playing in all 10 team events for the Tigers.
Katie Cranston is set to make her second career appearance at the event on Monday. The Oakville, Canada native punched her ticket to Los Angeles by shooting a 70 (-2) at the qualifying event at Hawk Point Golf Club in Washington, New Jersey. Cranston will be one of nine Canadians in this year's field this year and advanced to the match play round of 16 in 2021.
Cranston, who joined the program in January last season, tied the second lowest round in program history with a 65 (-7) during the second round of the Moon Golf Invitational and recorded a top-5 finish at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic.
The first two rounds of the tournament, which will be played on Monday and Tuesday, will be stroke play. After 36 holes of stroke play, the top 64 players will advance to the match play portion of the event and a playoff will be conducted to trim the draw to exactly 64 players if necessary. The six rounds of match play will be played Wednesday through Sunday.
The U.S. Women's Amateur will mark the third major USGA event to be played at Bel-Air Country Club, which will be played at 6,187 yards this week.
Golf Channel will provide coverage of match play rounds beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday and beginning at 6 p.m. for the championship match on Sunday. Live scoring for each round of the event will be available at USGA.org.
Auburn opening round tee times:
Megan Schofill- 10:24 a.m. CT (10th tee)
Casey Weidenfeld- 10:55 a.m. CT (10th tee)
Katie Cranston- 3:44 p.m. CT (10th tee)
Three Tigers set to play 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur
Bill Hornstein/USGA