NAPERVILLE, Ill. (July 18, 2023) – White Eagle Golf Club certainly suits the eye of Catherine Park.

The 19-year-old from Santa Ana, California, shot an 8-under 64 in the first round of the 123rd Women’s Western Amateur on Tuesday, setting a new course record. Park broke the old record – previously held by four players who competed in the 1993 and 1994 editions of the LPGA Tour’s Chicago Challenge – by one stroke.

“I definitely didn’t expect to walk away from today as a course record holder, but you won’t find me complaining,” Park said. “I like to hit a lot of cuts, and this golf course just sets up so well to score hitting those.”

Park, a rising sophomore at USC, birdied half the holes she played on the 6,325-yard, par-72 Arnold Palmer design. She jumped out to an early lead in the morning wave, needing only 31 strokes to navigate her first nine holes.

“After the front nine, I really started to see how it pleases my eyes and realized I had a chance to go really low today,” Park said.

It wasn’t just her tee-to-green play that set up the record-breaking performance.

“My shots were very consistent, and my putts were draining,” Park said. “I even rolled in a 40-footer on hole seven that probably would’ve gone 10 feet past, but it went in and that’s all that mattered.”

Park is coming off an impressive collegiate season in which she finished second in the NCAA Individual Championship, one stroke behind Stanford’s Rose Zhang.

A mere five minutes before Park signed for her 64, Jasmine Koo, Park’s future teammate at USC, tied the course record with a 7-under 65. Koo, a 17-year-old from Cerritos, California, matched Park’s 31 on her first nine holes en route to a bogey-free round.

“On my front nine I stuck five shots, but then on the back nine I was really scrambling to keep making pars with a few birdies,” Koo said. “Everything came together, and I can almost say it was a perfect round with no bogeys.”

Rising Texas senior Bentley Cotton, of Austin, Texas, fired a 6-under 66. Cotton played her first nine holes at even par but birdied six of her last nine, including each of the last four, to come home in 30 strokes.

Twenty-seven players shot par or better in the first round of stroke-play qualifying. After a second round of stroke play on Wednesday, the 120-player field will be cut to the low 32 players for match play. Five rounds of 18-hole matches – culminating with the final match on Saturday – will decide the Women’s Western Amateur champion.

Kelli Ann Strand (Nebraska), of Challis, Idaho, sits in fourth place after carding a 5-under 67. Tied for fifth at 3-under are Rylee Suttor (Louisville), of Shelbyville, Kentucky; Emma Schimpf (College of Charleston), of Charleston, South Carolina; and Morgan Miller (Colorado), of Austin, Texas.

Defending champion Taglao Jeeravivitaporn (Iowa State), of Thailand, is tied for eighth after a 2-under 70. Six players joined Jeeravivitaporn, including 2022 and 2023 Australian Women’s Amateur runner-up Justice Bosio.

Also in the tie for eighth is Australian Momo Sugiyama (Purdue), who recorded a hole-in-one with a 9-iron on the 135-yard 12th. Sugiyama’s Purdue teammate Natasha Kiel, of New Hope, Pennsylvania, used an 8-iron to record an ace on the same hole Tuesday.

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. The winner at White Eagle this week will join a list of past champions that includes legendary stars Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Nancy Lopez as well as modern standouts like Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn

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

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