2015 City Women’s Championship

Bing Maloney Golf Course June 20,21

“The 80th Annual Sacramento City Women’s Golf Championship began Saturday morning on June 20, 2015 as some of the top amateur women golfers in Northern California teed it up at Bing Maloney Golf Course in Sacramento, California. Many of the golfers are currently playing in college or recently graduated from college, including golfers from UC Davis, Sac State, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, University of Oregon, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, Rutgers, University of Nevada-Reno, San Jose State, Sonoma State, USF, Hofstra, Santa Clara, Cal State Monterey Bay, Rutgers, Cal State Bakersfield, Chico State, Academy of Art and the University of Texas.

We also had members from the California State Women’s Amateur team and several top high school golfers playing, as well as past 2001 and 2002 champion Lynne Cowan and defending champion Kelsey Ulep.

The first round was very hot and muggy and led to a long 5 hour round. The scores, however, were equally blistering with a tournament record 15 women going under par, led by former Sac City College Female Athlete of the Year Erika Salinas’ 67 and current Oregon Duck Kelsey Ulep’s 68. USF Don, Clare Sorensen, also posted a great round of 69 while a stunning 5 women shot 3 under par 70s, including Long Beach State’s Shawnee Martinez, who posted her round early to make the final group on Sunday .

Other notables going under par on Saturday included USF’s Ayaka Suzuki and San Jose State’s Elizabeth Schultz with a 70, Sac State’s Sagee Palavivatana with a 71 and high school phenom Sabrina Iqbal of San Jose, just 13 years old also with a 70. The highlight of the first round was Chico State’s Sydney Zink’s hole in one on the 5th hole with a 5 iron.

On Sunday , the weather turned slightly cooler with a stiff breeze all day that sent the scores two to three strokes higher. From the second to last group, Ayaka Suzuki played steadied all day, but could not make enough birdies and finished at 143. Sabrina Iqbal, entering the 10th grade this coming year, had a roller coaster day with 8 pars, 5 bogeys and 5 birdies to finish the day at even par, 3 under 143 for the tournament. Elizabeth Schultz made a charge with four birdies on the back nine, but like Sabrina, she made too many early bogeys and tied for 5th at 143.

University of Reno’s Caryn Khoo also made an early charge, at one point going four under for the day and five under for the tournament, but bogeys on 12 and 16 dashed her hopes and she also finished at 143, 3 under. Clare Sorensen actually grabbed the sole lead after she birdied the 2nd and 4th holes, but a triple bogey on the tough 12th hole took her out of contention and she also finished at 143. Defending Champion Kelsey Ulep played a strong front nine and tied for the lead after a birdie on the tough par 4 10th hole, but a late bogey on the par 3 16th hole pushed her back and she finished at 142, 4 under.

Like her good friends Clare and Kelsey, Sagee came out strong and birdied holes 2, 4, 10 and 11 after bogeying the first hole to get to five under, but a late bogey on the short dog leg 17th hole put her in a tie for 3rd with Kelsey. That left Shawnee, a native of Modesto, and newcomer to Bing Maloney, to battle against Erika Salinas, who has played Bing over a 100 times as her home course in both high school at McClatchy and junior college at Sac City. After bogeying the first hole, Shawnee birdied the par 3 5th hole, the par 4 7th hole and the par 5 9th hole to get to 5 under par. Meanwhile, Erika also birdied holes 7 and 9 after bogeying hole 2 to get to 7 under par at the turn. It stayed that way until the 15th hole when Shawnee made a tough birdie on Hole 15 to get to six under. Erika parred holes 10 through 16 to keep her one stroke lead going into the last two holes, but she made a bogey on 17 to drop back into a tie. On 18, Erika again missed her par putt and Shawnee needed to make par to win the tournament.

Playing coolly all tournament, Shawnee sank her par putt crowning her the 80th Sacramento City Women’s Golf Champion (see picture). In the handicap division, June Kitapan of Fairfield, shot a great net score of 141 to win the overall low net, while Julie Quinn and Agnes Kennedy both of Sacramento won their respective flights, respectively with net scores of 143 and 144.

The Sacramento Golf Council thanks all the women who participated in the 80th Annual Sacramento City Women’s Golf Championship. Tournament director, Sean Wong, especially thanks the tournament committee, who did a great job the hole tournament, including Dorothy Trevethick, Gwen Seefeldt, Janice Luis, Greg Bisi and Mike Fleming, as well as tournament volunteer Riley Wong for spotting on the first tee and Golf Council member Ross Martin for taking pictues. Sean would also like to wish runnerup and long time Sac City Women’s participant Erika Salinas well as she travels to St. Louis to earn her Ph.D. We hope to see you all back next year!”