95^th edition of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Women’s Kentucky Amateur begins at Cherry Blossom on Monday.

GEORGETOWN, KY (June 19, 2022) – Cherry Blossom Golf Club will host the oldest championship in women’s Kentucky golf for the third time this week. The Georgetown facility will be host of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Women’s Kentucky Amateur for this week’s event that will start on Monday and conclude on Wednesday. April Emerson won this title at Cherry Blossom in 2009 and Anna Moore did so in 2017. 32 players in the Championship Division are hoping it will be their turn in 2022.

For those ladies seeking the overall title, match play will be used to determine the champion. Each player is seeded based off their USGA handicap index. The round of 32 and round of 16 matches open the tournament on Monday. Both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will be contested on Tuesday before the championship match takes place on Wednesday morning. The players eliminated in either round of Monday’s play will be eligible to compete in a separate stroke play tournament taking place on Tuesday that will count gross and net scores.

Notable players in the Championship Division include these players:

• Ryan Bender – One of the key components to the Kentucky Wildcats’ women’s golf team, Bender is a past champion of the KHSAA Girls State Championship, earning victory in that event in 2017. She also helped Sacred Heart win three team titles during her high school career. Her brother Robbie finished in the top-five in last week’s Men’s State Am.
• Macey Brown – Brown won the 2020 KHSAA Girls State Championship at Bowling Green Country Club. This fall, she starts her collegiate career with the University of Indianapolis.
• Rylea Marcum – Last year’s winner of this event will have a home-course advantage as she attempts to repeat this week. The member of Eastern Kentucky’s women’s golf team has grown up playing Cherry Blossom and will attempt to go back-to-back in her backyard.
• MacKenzie Neal – Representing Morehead State, Neal won last year’s Kentucky Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship at her home course of Boone’s Trace National Golf Club.
• Ke’Asha Phillips – The Xavier product was the inaugural winner of the State Women’s Stroke Play, having won at Griffin Gate Golf Club in 2020.
• Rylee Suttor – The Centre College star has finished in the top-five of each of the last two Kentucky Women’s Opens. Having come close to scoring top titles in Kentucky, she enters hoping this will be the week she breaks through for a premier victory.

Click here to view first round matchups

In addition to the Championship Division, there are also brackets for the Mid-Am Division consisting of players aged 25 or older, plus multiple flights for the Senior Division containing players at least 50 years of age. The title for the Mid-Am Division will be determined on Tuesday while the top flight in the Senior Division will have its champion crowned on Wednesday.

Golf House Kentucky will have full coverage of the championship on its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Attendance of the tournament is permitted with spectators welcome free of charge.

FAST FACTS

About the Kentucky Golf Association:
The Kentucky Golf Association (KGA) is one of the three organizations encompassed under Golf House Kentucky, in addition to the Kentucky Golf Foundation (KGF) and Kentucky PGA Section (KPGA). The Kentucky Golf Association represents the amateur body of Kentucky’s golfers working in assistance with the United States Golf Association (USGA). The KGA provides a wide range of services, including handicapping, USGA course and slope ratings, and tournament management software to its Member Clubs. The KGA also operates the state’s premier amateur tournaments along with USGA National Championship qualifiers. Alongside the KGF and KPGA, the KGA strives to promote the benefits and enjoyment of golf while continuing to grow the sport across the Commonwealth.

Media Contact:
Ethan Fisher, PGA | Golf House Kentucky | efisher@kygolf.org | (502) 792-9703