Jensen Castle Rolls into U.S. Women’s Amateur Quarterfinals
RYE, N.Y. – The beat goes on for Kentucky women’s golfer Jensen Castle.
The 2021 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier continued to make noise at the U.S. Women’s Amateur with two wins in Thursday’s match play to advance to the quarterfinals of the nation’s premier amateur tournament.
Castle, who will be a junior at UK in the fall, won her morning match Thursday 1 up vs. Sophie Linder and then rolled in the afternoon with a 4-and-2 victory over Jenny Bae from the University of Georgia.
The victories advance Castle to Friday’s quarterfinals at the Westchester Country Club’s West Course (par 72, 6,488 yards) in Rye, New York. Castle will take on Emily Mahar from Virginia Tech at 1:20 p.m. Mahar won her Thursday afternoon match 1 up.
Peacock TV will have live coverage of the quarterfinals from 2-5 p.m.
Kentucky teammate Marissa Wenzler fell in Thursday morning’s round of 32 to Hailey Borja from the University of Michigan, 3 and 2. The loss ended a marvelous two weeks for the junior-to-be. She won both the stroke-play and match-play portions of the Western Women’s Amateur to end July, got into match play this week at this U.S. Women’s Amateur in an exciting 12-for-2 playoff (Castle was the other qualifier), and then knocked off top-seeded Rachel Kuehn from Wake Forest University in the round of 64.
Sophomore-to-be Laney Frye was also in this week’s field and made it to match play. She lost in the opening round. UK’s three representatives to start the tournament tied for the second most in the field. Only Stanford, with four players, featured more players to start the event.
Castle, who knocked off the tournament’s No. 2 seed in the opening round of match play, stayed alive Thursday in thrilling fashion. In the morning match vs. Linder, Castle trailed as much as 2 up through 11 holes. She bounced back by winning three of the next four – all birdies – to take a 1-up lead, and then closed it out in clutch fashion.
On 17, with a 1-up advantage, Castle found her approach shot plugged on the front lip of a steep greenside bunker. After nearly a minute of just trying to find solid footing, Castle – with her back leg holding her up in the sand and her left leg balancing her in the rough in front of her – took a whack at the buried ball and landed it on the green and she nearly fell backwards into the trap. She got up and down to save par and take the 1-up lead into the final hole.
Castle had a 12-foot tester on 18 to tie the hole and seal the match. She calmy sunk it to advance.
The afternoon match was relatively drama free. Castle never trailed and took a commanding 3-up lead through 11 holes. She closed out the match on No. 16 with a par for a 4-and-2 victory.
Played annually and organized by the United States Golf Association, the tournament 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. A total of 25 sectional qualifiers were held in the U.S. and one in Canada.
Past notable champions include Julie Inkster (1980-82), Grace Park (1998), Morgan Pressel (2005), Danielle Kang (2010-11) and Kristen Gillman (2014, 2018).
This marks the second straight appearance for Castle and Wenzler. Castle made it to the round of 32 last season and Wenzler advanced to the round of 64.
Kentucky’s presence in the tournament shouldn’t come as a surprise. Castle, Frye and Wenzler all played major roles in UK’s breakthrough 2020-21 season that resulted in the program’s first NCAA Championship Finals berth since 1992.
Castle and Wenzler have played in a combined 33 events in their first two seasons at Kentucky. Castle posted the top scoring average in school history as a freshman and Wenzler recorded the third best. Although neither could match their record-setting marks as sophomores, each played an important role in the NCAA Championship run with Castle contributing a team-high 30 rounds towards the team score in 2020-21 while Wenzler posted the second-best UK score at the national championship.
Castle appeared in the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur qualifier earlier this summer and teamed up with Kuehn in June to win their second straight Carolinas Four-Ball Championship.
Kentucky’s 2021-22 schedule was released last month. Returning all five players who qualified and played in the NCAA Championship Finals, the Wildcats will play in nine regular-season events before the Southeastern Conference 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.
.@jensen_castle has made it to the quarterfinals!
Her 4&2 victory advances her at the #USWomensAm. pic.twitter.com/PJ82hD6AWy
— USGA (@USGA) August 5, 2021
.@jensen_castle earned the victory this morning.
This bunker shot ??#USWomensAm pic.twitter.com/DDbFoW8x9D
— Kentucky Women’s Golf (@KentuckyWGolf) August 5, 2021
