GLENVIEW, Ill. (July 18, 2022) – A field of 120 of the world’s best amateurs is set to compete in the 122nd Women’s Western Amateur Championship at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Illinois, on July 19-23.

Held without interruption since its inception in 1901, the Women’s Western Amateur is among the oldest and most prestigious annual championships in women’s amateur golf. The tournament is conducted jointly by the Women’s Western Golf Association and the Western Golf Association.

The championship features the top amateur and collegiate players from across the globe. Its list of past champions spans more than a century, from legendary stars Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Nancy Lopez to modern standouts like Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn.

This year’s field is one of the deepest in recent history, with players from 28 states and 12 countries. Marissa Wenzler, of Dayton, Ohio, is back to defend her title after winning the 2021 event at Park Ridge Country Club in Park Ridge, Illinois. If she succeeds, she will be the first player to win back-to-back Women’s Western Amateurs in more than two decades (Meredith Duncan in 2000 and 2001).

Wenzler will face a decorated and diverse field, including Kirsten Rudgeley of Perth, Australia. Rudgeley, the top-ranked amateur in Australia, finished in a tie for eighth at the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship. Lei Ye of Shanghai, China, also competed in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and recently helped Stanford win the NCAA Team Championship. Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, of Perth, was the runner up at the 2021 Women’s Western Amateur and earned Golfweek Third Team All-American honors after a stellar sophomore season at Oklahoma State. Golfweek All-American Honorable Mentions Brianne Bolden (Missouri) of Mokena, Illinois, and Taglao Jeeravivitaporn (Iowa State) of Thailand, are also in the field this week.

There are 13 local players from Illinois in the field, including Bolden, Lauren Beaudreau (Notre Dame) of Lemont, Megan Furtney (Duke) of St. Charles, Grace Curran (Minnesota) of New Lenox and Caroline Smith (Wake Forest) of Inverness.

The championship will start with 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which the field will be cut to the low 32 players for match play. Five rounds of 18-hole matches will decide the Women’s Western Amateur champion.

This will be Sunset Ridge’s fifth WWGA championship. The club was also the site of the 1935 Women’s Western Open (won by Opal Hill), the 1942 Women’s Western Amateur (won by Betty Jameson) and the 1953 and 1961 Women’s Western Juniors (won by Anne Richardson and Ann Baker, respectively).

Founded in 1923, Sunset Ridge was designed by Bill Diddel, a noted golf course architect and one of the founding members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Diddell was a protégé of legendary designer Donald Ross and a mentor to Pete Dye. His design at Sunset Ridge features signature elements like lightning-fast greens with subtle contours that create both challenging and beautiful putting surfaces.

The course was renovated by Rick Jacobson in 2006, when it was voted “No. 1 Private Course Renovation in the USA” by Golf Magazine.

In addition to its WWGA championships, Sunset Ridge has hosted three WGA championships – the 1936 Western Junior, the 1972 Western Open and, most recently, the 2018 Western Amateur won by Texas standout Cole Hammer.

Sunset Ridge has also been a dedicated supporter of both the Women’s Western Golf Foundation and the Evans Scholars Foundation for many years. The WWGF has awarded scholarships to young women who play golf since 1971, while the ESF is a nonprofit administered by the WGA that has awarded full college tuition and housing scholarships to more than 12,500 caddies since 1930.

Sunset Ridge’s youth caddie program has produced 48 Evans Scholars, beginning with John Murphy, who earned an Evans Scholarship to attend Northwestern University in 1948. Nine Sunset Ridge caddies are among the 1,070 Evans Scholars enrolled in 21 leading universities this year, and three more Sunset Ridge caddies were awarded Evans Scholarships for the fall.

Attendance and parking for the Women’s Western Amateur are free. For more information, visit www.womenswesternamateur.com.