VIRGINIA BEACH, Virg. (Sept. 16, 2011) -- There are 34 states represented in the championship field: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
There are six countries represented: Canada, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka and the United States.
The average age of the Women’s Mid-Amateur competitor is 43.48. The youngest player in the field is Paige Bromen, 25, of Stillwater, Minn. (DOB 8/1/1986). There are six other 25-year-olds in the field, all in their first year of eligibility. Deborah Anderson, 60, of Rancho Mirage, Calif., is the championship’s oldest competitor.
There are nine past USGA champions in the field: Carolyn Creekmore, 59, of Dallas, Texas (2004 Senior Women’s Amateur); Virginia Grimes, 47, of Meridian, Miss. (1998 Women’s Mid-Amateur); Mina Hardin, 51, of Fort Worth, Texas (2010 Senior Women’s Amateur); Martha Lang, 58, of Birmingham, Ala. (1988 Women’s Mid-Amateur); Martha Leach, 49, of Hebron, Ky. (2009 Women’s Mid-Amateur); Amber Marsh Elliott, 42, of Greensboro, N.C. (2003 Women’s Mid-Amateur); Ellen Port, 49, of St. Louis, Mo. (1995, 1996, 2000 Women’s Mid-Amateur); Meghan Stasi, 33, of Oakland Park, Fla. (2006, 2007, 2010 Women’s Mid-Amateur); and Corey Weworski, 49, of Carlsbad, Calif. (2004 Women’s Mid-Amateur).
There are also six past USGA team champions in the field: Laura Coble, 47, of Augusta, Ga. (2005, 2009 Women’s State Team); Creekmore (1995 Women’s State Team); Grimes (1997 Women’s State Team); Leigh Klasse, 51, of St. Anthony, Minn. (2001 Women’s State Team); Claudia Pilot, 54, of Austin, Minn. (2001 Women’s State Team); and Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 35, of Sri Lanka (2007 Women’s State Team, representing Arizona).
Seven players have represented the USA at the Curtis Cup Match: Robin Burke, 48, of Houston, Texas (1998); Patricia Cornett, 57, of Mill Valley, Calif. (1978, 1988); Grimes (1998, 2000, 2006); Lang (1992); Noreen Mohler, 57, of Bethlehem, Pa. (1978); Port (1994, 1996); and Stasi (2008).
Cornett, Lang and Mohler have all served as USA Curtis Cup Team captains, in 2012, 1996 and 2010, respectively
Creekmore and Weworski represented the USA at the 2005 Copa de las Americas.
Individual Player Notes
Debbie Adams, 44, of Asheville, N.C., has represented the United States at the International Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning the individual and team gold medals.
Judith Allan-Kyrinis, 47, of Canada, has had five career holes-in-one, including one when she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.
Helene Beat, 29, of Sylvania, Ohio, is a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Her senior business partner is Alan Fadel, who has played in numerous USGA championships.
Kim Briele, 50, of New Bern, N.C, is a very accomplished athlete. She was drafted to play professional softball after her sophomore year in high school and participated in the 1980 USA Olympic Basketball trials. She was twice a semifinalist on “Big Break” on Golf Channel.
Robin Burke, 48, of Houston, Texas, was the runner-up at the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Mary Cabriele, 48, of Vienna, Va., was the first woman to play for the men’s golf team at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. In 1984, she became the first woman to qualify for and compete in the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships.
Laura Carson, 55, of Lake Bluff, Ill., was an early leader at the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open. Her group was the first off the tee, and she made a birdie on the opening hole.
Laura Coble, 47, of Augusta, Ga., was the runner-up at the 2009 Women’s Mid-Amateur. She participated in a May 2011 mission trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to assist in relief efforts for the tornado victims.
Lisa Cook, 30, of Noblesville, Ind., will be keeping a close eye on the scores from this week’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Shadow Hawk Golf Club in Richmond, Texas. Her husband, Kenny, qualified for that championship.
Lynne Cowan, 48, of Davis, Calif., won the 2011 Women’s Golf Association of Northern California’s Match Play Championship, Stroke Play Championship and Champion of Champions, making her the first person win the three in the same year.
Alexandra Frazier, 53, of Haverford, Pa., was the runner-up at the 2010 Senior Women’s Amateur. She founded a nonprofit charity called “Women Golfers Give Back,” which raises funds for six Philadelphia-area girls’ golf programs. To date, the organization has given more than a quarter of a million dollars to these programs.
Annette Gaiotti, 58, of Holladay, Utah, is the mother of Jared Goldberg, a member of the U.S. Ski Team’s alpine division.
Cissye Gallagher, 44, of Greenwood, Miss., is married to Jim Gallagher Jr., a PGA and Champions Tour player who was a member of the victorious 1993 Ryder Cup Team. She is an 11-time champion of the Mississippi Women’s Amateur.
Tatiana Gammicchia, 44, of Russia, was a track and field athlete in her home country, competing in the triple jump, long jump and 100-meter hurdles.
Joan Garety, 55, of Ada, Mich., is a highly decorated player in her home state, and was named the Golf Association of Michigan’s Senior Women’s Player of the Decade in 2010.
Mina Hardin, 51, of Fort Worth, Texas, was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and is now a U.S. citizen. In 1983, she became the first Mexican woman to play on the LPGA Tour. She was the runner-up at the 2011 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur after taking the championship title in 2010.
Lisa Higgins, 34, of Zionsville, Ind., has played golf with former United States President George W. Bush, Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning, and Pete and Alice Dye.
Patti Hogeboom, 27, of Canada, won the 2011 Investors Group Ontario Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
Linda Jeffery, 38, of Abilene, Texas, is a member of the United States Air Force Reserve. She is a multiple-time winner of the Armed Forces Golf, Air Force and World Military Golf Championships.
Leigh Klasse, 51, of St. Anthony, Minn., was the stroke-play medalist at the 2010 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur.
Andrea Kraus, 50, of Baltimore, Md., had a hole-in-one less than 24 hours before giving birth to her son, Matthew. She is a 13-time winner of the Baltimore Metropolitan Championship.
Pamela Kuong, 50, of Wellesley Hills, Mass., won the 2011 New England Women’s Golf Association Championship.
Kathy Kurata, 50, of Pasadena, Calif., is trained in Japanese classical dance.
Martha Lang, 58, of Birmingham, Ala., is the current chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee and won the 1988 Women's Mid-Amateur.
Sally Lawrence, 52, of Englewood, Colo., is a glass artist and uses traditional Venetian glass-blowing techniques.
Martha Leach, 49, of Hebron, Ky., won the 2009 Women's Mid-Amateur. She is the sister of six-time USGA champion Hollis Stacy.
Maggie Leef, 51, of Brookfield, Wis., won the 2011 Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association’s Senior Women’s Stroke Play.
Amber Marsh Elliott, 42, of Greensboro, N.C., who won the 2003 Women's Mid-Amateur, is a breast-cancer survivor. She was diagnosed in 2006, 17 months after giving birth to her son, Justin.
Carol Martin, 43, of Irving, Texas, was a four-year tennis player for Syracuse University. She recorded 124 collegiate victories, including the Women’s Singles Eastern Collegiate Championship.
Julie McMullin, 44, of Park City, Utah, won the 2011 Utah Women’s Amateur Championship.
Noreen Mohler, 57, of Bethlehem, Pa., is a four-time winner of the Massachusetts State Amateur and a three-time winner of the New England Amateur.
Janet Moore, 47, of Greenwood Village, Colo., is the women’s golf coach at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. She is a five-time winner of the Colorado Women’s State Stroke-play Championship, and at one time, she, her husband and their two children combined to win three state team championships in a 10-month span.
Anna Morales, 42, of Austin, Texas, played for the Peruvian National Team as a junior.
Sue O’Connor, 54, of Lake Bluff, Ill., was once a ski instructor and had Clint Eastwood as a student, though she did not recognize him. In 1985, she rode her bicycle 4,600 miles from Seattle, Wash., to Atlantic City, N.J., to raise money for the American Lung Association.
Katie O’Donnell, 25, of Mount Prospect, Ill., is a former USGA P.J. Boatwright Jr. intern. Following her internship with the Women’s Texas Golf Association, she was hired as a full-time employee and is now the Association’s Assistant Executive Director.
Brenda Pictor, 56, of Marietta, Ga., won the 2010 North & South Senior Women’s Amateur and was the runner-up in 2011. Also in 2011, she won the Georgia State Golf Association’s Senior Women’s Amateur and Senior Women’s Match Play.
Ellen Port, 49, of St. Louis, Mo., is a four-time medalist of the Women’s Mid-Amateur and has won the championship three times. She has won the Missouri State Amateur on seven occasions, and has captured 13 St. Louis Metropolitan championships.
Carol Robertson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., was the runner-up at the 2010 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She received her amateur reinstatement letter the day before her championship qualifier. She was recently named the head women’s golf coach at Old Dominion University, and was once an intern at Bayville Golf Club, the championship host site.
Lisa Schlesinger, 53, of Laytonsville, Md., was the stroke-play medalist at this week’s USGA Senior Amateur Championship at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn.
Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 35, of Sri Lanka, won the Sri Lanka Amateur at age 12. Her victory put her into the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest winner of a national championship.
Margaret Shirley, 25, of Roswell, Ala., is the assistant women’s golf coach at Auburn University. She won the 2011 Georgia State Golf Association’s Women’s Match Play.
Lynn Simmons, 43, of Phoenix, Ariz., was the runner-up at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Olivia Slutzky, 43, of Newport Beach, Calif., has received two golf-related injuries, both at the hands of her husband, Alan. He once hit an errant drive that hit her in the face, requiring several stitches, while another injury occurred when he drove their golf cart into a pond.
Suzi Spotleson, 44, of Canton, Ohio, is an outsourcing manager for GE Capital Retail Finance. She manages call centers in India, the Philippines, Guatemala, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United States, and flies more than 100,000 miles per year.
Meghan Stasi, 33, of Oakland Park, Fla., is a three-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. Her husband, Danny, proposed to her on the Swilcan Bridge at the 18th hole of the Old Course at St. Andrews after she represented the United States at the 2008 Curtis Cup Match. She and Danny own and operate Shuck n Dive, an oyster restaurant in Florida.
Angela Stewart, 57, of Greenville, N.C., enjoys working with fellow amateur golfer Maggie Weder on her charity, “Golfin 4 MS.” The charity has raised more than $85,000 over five years for Multiple Sclerosis-related causes.
Kay Tyler, 46, of Bethesda, Md., owns her own printing and mailing company, which had a big year in 2010. She was nominated for two national small-business women of the year awards, and in January, she appeared in a segment of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” that was taped at her company. She was also in the running to receive a visit from President Barack Obama, but when his representative arrived unexpectedly to inspect the property, the firm was in the midst of mailing out thousands of Republican advertisements. The president never came to the office.
Karen Veriato, 49, of San Marcos, Texas, spent five years as a caddie for her husband, Steven, when he played on the Champions Tour.
Sydney Wells, 49, of Menominee, Mich., won the Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association’s 2011 Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Susan West, 47, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., won the 1997 United States Tennis Association’s national doubles championship. She was nationally ranked in both singles and doubles tennis in the mid 1990s.
Laurie White, 48, of Carmel, N.Y., is a six-time Sports Emmy Award winner who has produced several videos for the USGA. She has worked five Olympic Games for NBC and several British Open Championships for ABC.
Dawn Woodard, 37, of Greer, S.C., is the 2011 Carolinas Women’s Match Play champion.