BATON ROUGE – Three members of the LSU Women’s golf team – Aine Donegan, Latanna Stone and Taylor Riley – open qualifying Monday in the 123rd United States Women’s Amateur at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.
All three have interesting storylines heading into the championship field of 156 players looking to advance through two 18-hole rounds of qualifying to be part of the remaining 64 amateurs that will go on to match play beginning on Wednesday.
Donegan will be looking to continue the play that brought her to national attention after finishing one of four amateurs to make the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach.
Stone, who advanced to match play in the amateur at Chambers Bay last year after earning co-medalist honors in the qualifying, is playing in the amateur for the seventh time.
Riley may be one of the hottest young golfers in California at the moment after 1) qualifying for the Amateur, 2) winning the San Diego amateur title and 3) advancing through to the semifinals in the California State Women’s Amateur.
Speaking of California, Donegan certainly fell in love with Pebble Beach and the crowd fell in love with her.
“I like the California vibes,” she said in a USGA article this past week. “Maybe it’s the food [or] the fresh air. I don’t know what it is. Just to be at such a pretty golf course like Bel-Air Country Club is going to be really, really good. Two of my college teammates will be there and my [swing] coach (Gary Madden) is going to caddie for me. He’s seen me grow up and knows my swing inside out. I couldn’t ask for anyone better as a coach or caddie.”
Donegan qualified for the event after advancing to the final two rounds of the women’s open.
A total of 11 colleges and universities are sending at least three golfers to the Women’s Amateur with only Minnesota sending more than three (4).
Stone had a tremendous season at LSU in her fourth year, winning her first two collegiate events, including on the prestigious PGA National course that hosts a PGA event each spring. She shot back-to-back rounds of 71 to shoot 3-under 213. Only Rachel Heck (8) has played in the amateur in this field more than Stone.
Stone who advanced to match play earlier this summer after making her first appearance in the Women’s (British) Amateur, was exempt from qualifying as a member of the 2022 victorious United States Curtis Cup team.
Riley, who won three matches to get to the semifinals in the Cal amateur after finishing qualifying in second place, is the daughter of former LSU star golfer Michelle Louviere Riley and her father is PGA Tour winner and golf coach at San Diego, Chris Riley.
Stone will be back for her graduate student season this fall at LSU, while Donegan will be a junior and Riley a sophomore.
Shreveport golfer Meredith Duncan, between her junior and senior seasons at LSU, won the women’s championship and the Robert Cox Trophy on the 37th hole, the first extra hole when she stuffed her tee shot to tap-in range on the par 3 hole to defeat Nicole Perrot. That event was at Flint Hills National Golf Club in Andover, Kansas.
Duncan is a member of the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
When match play begins on Wednesday, television coverage will also commence on The Golf Channel beginning at 5 p.m. CT.
(Press release provided by LSU Athletics)
