Four amateurs, one a North Texas golfer, make LPGA field

For the fifth straight year, the LPGA’s Texas Shootout will welcome four amateur golfers to its field from the event’s High School/College Shootout, which was played Wednesday at Las Colinas Country Club.

Aledo graduate and current Alabama golfer Cheyenne Knight qualified for the LPGA tournament a year ago from this event and went on to finish in a tie for 29th, at 1 under par in the Texas Shootout. Knight withdrew from this year’s High School/College Shootout due to a scheduling conflict between the Texas Shootout and a team event.

This year’s Texas Shootout will still feature one of the best women’s amateurs on the planet, though, after South Korea’s Eun Jeong Seong won the 18-hole shootout with an even-par 71. The 17-year-old is No. 12 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and became the first player in USGA history to win both the Girls’ Junior and the Women’s Amateur Championship in the same year in 2016.

Knight, a sophomore at Alabama, is No. 10 in the same rankings.

Joining Seong at this year’s Texas Shootout will be Gina Kim of Chapel Hill, N.C., who shot a 1-over 72 Wednesday; Maddie McCrary of Wylie, a junior at Oklahoma State who shot a 2-over 73; and Anne Chen, who is just a freshman at Fort Bend Clements High School in Sugar Land and also shot a 73.

McCrary earned a third-place finish with a par on the first of a two-hole playoff, while Chen outlasted Hebron’s Jennie Park on the second hole of that playoff.

“It’s so valuable to me,” McCrary said. “I have aspirations of playing professionally when I’m done at Oklahoma State, so things like this get me one step closer to my dream.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 10:35 PM with the headline "Four amateurs, one a North Texas golfer, make LPGA field."