May 25, 2017
NCGA Riding Streak Heading into U.S. Amateur Four-Balls
The NCGA is on somewhat of a hot streak when it comes to USGA championships.
In 2015, three national titles were won by players hailing from Northern California—Hannah O’Sullivan (U.S. Women’s Amateur), Bryson DeChambeau (U.S. Amateur) and Karen Garcia (U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur).
Last year, meanwhile, Los Altos G&CC member Andrew Buchanan won the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball title playing with partner Benjamin Baxter.
At the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball (Pinehurst), the NCGA will have five squads in the field: Russell Humphrey and James Watt, Brent Booth and Dan Valine, Zach Smith and Noah Woolsey, brothers Jason and Ryan Higton (pictured right) and the father-son combo of Ben and Dan Corfee.
Russell and Humphrey have proved to be a lethal combo before. In 2012, they’d win the NCGA Four-Ball title.
On the women’s side, the NCGA will be represented by the tandems of Sabrina Iqbal and Simar Singh and Kourtnie Maxoutopoulis and Camry Tardy.
Iqbal, who was the NCGA’s Women’s Player of the Year in 2016, is also the three-time defending Junior Tour of Northern California Girls’ Player of the Year. Singh won the California Junior Girls’ State Championship in 2015.
Maxoutopoulis, a member at Castlewood CC, is a former standout at Texas Christian University, where she played with Tardy.
The U.S. Amateur and Women’s Amateur Four-Ball are only the start of the USGA season. Here’s hoping more hardware comes back to Northern California.
-NCGA Staff
