Next May was already going to be a very busy month for Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster and Gillian Vance of Lakewood, but the fact that it just got even busier is just fine by the two Colorado golfers.
Previously on the docket for the two high school seniors were final exams, graduation, the regional state qualifying golf tournaments and the state meet.
Then last week, Kupcho and Vance added a trip to Bandon Dunes in Oregon for the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, set for May 9-13, 2015.
Kupcho and Vance earned a berth in the USGA national championship by sharing medalist honors in a qualifying tournament held Oct. 6 at Heritage at Westmoor in Westminster. The Coloradans posted a 3-under-par 69 best-ball total to share the top spot in the 11-team field with 16-year-olds Maria Fassi and Maria Balcazar, both golfers from Mexico. (Vance, in a black shirt, is pictured above with Kupcho.)
Those two teams claimed the available qualifying spots at Westmoor for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Four-Ball, the first ever held. The USGA announced in early 2013 that it was adding women’s and men’s Four-Ball Championships beginning in 2015, while discontinuing women’s and men’s U.S. Public Links Championships after this year.
“I think it’s extra special (to qualify for this event) because for 50 years and however long it will be going on, we’ll be able to say we played in the first one,” said Vance, who attends Dakota Ridge High School.
“It’s going to be fun to play in the first one, and to do it with Gillian is going to make it even better,” added Kupcho, a senior at Jefferson Academy.
The U.S. Women’s Four-Ball will be the sixth USGA championship for Kupcho and the second for Vance, who was the qualifying medalist in Colorado for the 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior.
Kupcho and Vance, friends who have known each other and competed for seven or eight years, had to bounce back after a best-ball bogey on the opening hole at Heritage at Westmoor. But a birdie on No. 2 led to them playing the final 17 holes in 4 under.
“We both struggled (at times), but we were good because we were playing together,” said Kupcho, the runner-up in this year’s HealthOne Colorado Women’s Open.
“We ham-and-egged it really well,” Vance said. “When she wasn’t playing well, I played well, and when I played bad she played really well.”
Both Kupcho and Vance will be playing NCAA Division I golf next year, with Kupcho committed to Wake Forest and Vance to the University of Colorado.
Fassi, who recently competed for Mexico in the World Junior Girls Championship, is no stranger to having played in Colorado. She qualified in the state for the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior (along with Kupcho).
Fassi and her fellow Mexico native Balcazar made four birdies and one bogey at Heritage at Westmoor, just as Kupcho and Vance did. Both teams birdied the 18th hole to post their 69s.
Coloradans Sydney Gillespie and Adara Pauluhn were the only other team to break par in the Oct. 6 qualifier as they earned the first alternate spot by shooting a 71 at Heritage at Westmoor.
For all the results from the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Qualifying, CLICK HERE.
