Jensen Castle Earns Exemption into LPGA’s Cognizant Founders Cup
WEST CALDWELL, N.J. – The long list of tournament exemptions Kentucky women’s golfer Jensen Castle has earned from her breakthrough U.S. Women’s Amateur victory last week continued Thursday with exemption into the LPGA’s Cognizant Founders Cup in early October.
Castle has accepted the invitation and plans to play in the Oct. 6-10 tournament at historic Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, New Jersey.
The rising UK junior was one of two players to earn special exemptions into the 132-player field, which is expected to be filled with the LPGA Tour’s most talented and accomplished players.
The Cognizant Founders Cup, which debuted in 2011, pays tribute to the 13 founding members of the LPGA. The tournament has a $3 million purse, making it the largest LPGA Tour event outside the majors and the CME Group Tour Championship.
For Castle, the Cognizant Founder Cup exemption is one of a handful of special invites that have followed the victory at last week’s Westchester Country Club’s West Course in Rye, New York, although this was the first not automatically tied to the tournament.
Automatic exemptions for the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship included the next 10 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, the 2021 Women’s British Open and the 2022 August National Women’s Amateur. By making the finals, Castle had already clinched a spot in next year’s U.S. Women’s Open after qualifying as an amateur for this past year’s tournament at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Due to scheduling conflicts, Castle will not participate in the Women’s British Open later this month.
Castle also earned a spot on the 2021 U.S. Curtis Cup Team with the win. She will compete Aug. 26-28 at Conwy Golf Club in North Wales vs. Great Britain and Ireland. The Curtis Cup Match is a biennial international women’s amateur golf competition between the U.S. and the team of Great Britain and Ireland. It consists of six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches, six four-ball matches and eight singles matches over three days of competition. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the first Curtis Cup since 2018, which the U.S. won in resounding fashion, 17-3.
The South Carolina native won the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur on Sunday with a 2-and-1 victory over Arizona’s Yu-Chiang (Vivian) Hou, the 2020 Women’s Golf Coaches Association Freshman of the Year, in the 36-hole championship match. It was one of a number of impressive victories Castle put together in the six-match championship run. She also defeated Kennedy Pedigo, the No. 2 overall seed, in the opening of match play, and Rachel Heck, the 2021 NCAA individual champion, in the semifinals.
In winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur, Castle became the first No. 63 seed to win the Robert Cox Trophy and the third No. 63 seed in United States Golf Association history to win a title since seeding began in the 1980s, according to the USGA.
Played annually and organized by the USGA, the U.S. Women’s Amateur has been played since 1895. There are no age restrictions, but to make the field is an achievement within itself with a record 1,560 entries and a maximum USGA Handicap Index of 5.4.
Castle navigated through a field of 156 players and captured one of the final two spots from stroke play in a 12-for-2 playoff to make match play and then defeated some of the nation’s best amateur golfers in the head-to-head format.
In a week of unforgettable play, Castle’s resiliency stood out the most. On Saturday, in the semifinals, Castle trailed Heck, the 2021 consensus national collegiate player of the year, by two holes with three to play. She rallied to force extra holes and won it on the 19th hole with a 20-foot make for birdie.
Castle trailed Hou by two holes after the morning’s 18-hole round but came back in the afternoon with a vengeance. She won four of the first eight holes after the restart to take a 2-up lead. She stopped a potential Hou comeback attempt with a birdie on the 35th hole of the day to win 2 and 1.
The South Carolina native did all of that while coming back from a stress fracture in one of her ribs. After helping Kentucky to the NCAA Championship Finals in May – the program’s first appearance since 1992 – playing in the U.S. Women’s Open in June, and then winning a second straight Carolinas Four-Ball Championship with Kuehn at the beginning of July, Castle had to withdraw from several summer tournaments due to the injury. She picked up a club for the first time last week in nearly a month.
Castle arrived at Kentucky as the most decorated signee in program history. She has been as good as advertised with 17 appearances in two seasons, seven top-20 finishes and a 73.6 stroke average. She led the 2019-20 team to two championships while setting the program’s single-season scoring record with 71.9 strokes per round as a freshman.
Kentucky’s 2021-22 schedule was released last month. Returning all five players – including Castle – who qualified and played in the NCAA Championship Finals, the Wildcats will play in nine regular-season events before the SEC Championship and postseason play. After navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic, UK will return to a traditional schedule with four tournaments in the fall, four in the spring, a head-to-head matchup with rival Louisville and then the postseason.
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.
