Chang, Shipley Qualify for U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky women’s golf freshmen Josephine Chang and Sarah Shipley have qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship after winning a local qualifier Monday.

The freshman duo won the qualifier at Keene Trace Golf Club with a score of 4-under 68 to make the national tournament. By winning Monday, Chang and Shipley will move on to compete May 27-31 against some of the nation’s best four-ball teams at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, hosted by the United States Golf Association, is in its third season. The four-ball format consists of teams of two players with each golfer playing their own ball throughout the round. A team’s number of strokes for a given hole is that of the lower scoring team member. The format is typically used in match-play competitions between two teams of two players so that four balls are in play.

Chang and Shipley had a pair of veterans to help them around the course Monday with redshirt junior Ale Walker and redshirt freshman Zoe Collins caddying for them. 

Both Chang and Shipley are enjoying tremendous freshman seasons.

Chang has competed in eight of UK’s nine events this season and is second on the team with seven rounds of par or better. She’s posted four top-30 finishes in stroke-play tournaments, including tying for 16th place last month at the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona.

Shipley has appeared in every event for the Wildcats in her freshman season and adds a championship match-play résumé to the Shipley-Chang combination. The Hastings, Michigan, native won the individual bracket championship at the East & West Match Play Challenge in the fall.

The Wildcats hope to ride this four-ball momentum into this week’s Southeastern Conference Championship, which will begin on Friday at the Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.