Marissa Wenzler Completes Western Women’s Amateur Sweep
PARK RIDGE, Ill. – Kentucky women’s golfer Marissa Wenzler completed a dominant run at the 121st Western Women’s Amateur this week by winning the championship on Saturday.
Wenzler came out on top of the 32-player match-play bracket with a sudden-death victory on the 20th hole over Oklahoma State’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard on Saturday at Park Ridge Country Club in Park Ridge, Illinois. Wenzler was one of 32 players to qualify for the match-play bracket after finishing in first in the two-round stroke-play portion of the event earlier in the week with a score of 8-under par.
The rising junior was dominant week. After finishing atop the 120-player field in stroke play, she cruised through her five matches with victories of 5 and 4, 3 and 2, 1 up, 2 and 1, and 20 holes.
Building off the momentum from earlier in the week, Wenzler came out on fire in Saturday’s championship match with a 3-up lead through four holes. Hinson-Tolchard rallied but Wenzler eagled the par-5 15th to take a two-hole lead with three to go. Hinson-Tolchard won the next two holes and the two remained step for step until the 20th hole of the day.
Wenzler sunk a 4-foot putt for par on No. 2, but Hinson-Tolchard was unable to match as she lipped out her par putt.
Wenzler, who helped Kentucky this past spring to its first NCAA Championship finals appearance in 29 years, is the second Wildcat to win the event in the last three years. Recent UK graduate Sarah Shipley won the tournament in 2019 as the No. 5 seed at Royal Melbourne Country Club in Long Grove, Illinois.
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 and features the top amateur and collegiate players from across the globe.
The list of past champions spans more than a century, from legendary stars Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Nancy Lopez to modern standouts like Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn.
As a freshman at Kentucky in 2019-20, Wenzler posted the third-best scoring average in school history. Later that summer, she would go on to win two championships, posted two runner-up finishes and qualified for the U.S Women’s Amateur Championship.
Although Wenzler didn’t enjoy the same type of individual success as a UK sophomore, she played in all but one event in Kentucky’s breakthrough NCAA Championship season and was the second-best Wildcat performer at the national championship.
Wenzler, along with teammates Jensen Castle and Laney Frye, are scheduled to play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Aug. 2-8 in Rye, New York. Wildcats María Villanueva Aperribay, Marta López Echevarría and Rikke Svejgård Nielsen are also competing this week at the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship at Royal Park I Roveri in Italy
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
