Around the Green

Women's Stroke Play Receives High Rating from WAGR

The Texas Golf Association is proud to report last week’s third annual Women’s Stroke Play Championship received a “C” rating from the World Amateur Golf Rankings. This was the strongest field in the short life of the event; several competitors ranked in the top 400 in the world rankings.

The definitive resource used worldwide for rankings of amateur golfers and competitions, WAGR grades qualified events on an eight-point scale (from “Elite” down to “G”). A “C” rating falls in the upper-half of the spectrum and placed the strength of the 2017 Women’s Stroke Play Championship field on equal footing with several well-established annual events. The Women’s Southern Amateur, Women’s South Atlantic Amateur (“The Sally”) and the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship routinely receive “C” ratings.
 
Several collegiate tournaments throughout the schoolyear also fall in the “C” range. The WAGR tournament ratings are derived through a formula based on the number of players in the field ranked inside the WAGR’s top 1,250 for women (WAGR uses the top 1,500 for men’s event ratings) and their positions in the polls.
 
Wylie’s Maddie McCrary, a senior at Oklahoma State, was the top-ranked player in the Women’s Stroke Play Championship. Winner of the 2015 Texas Women’s Open, McCrary is the world’s 89th-ranked amateur. She finished fifth at the Women’s Stroke Play.
 
Unfortunately, heavy rains washed out the final round at the Clubs of Kingwood’s Island Course. The TGA crowned three co-champions, each ranked in the WAGR’s top 400. Hanna Alberto from Kingwood (229th), Hailee Cooper from Montgomery (328th) and Julie Houston from Allen (269th) shared the victory at 3-under-par 143.
 
“Of course we were disappointed with the fact that the weather kept us from finishing the 54-hole championship,” said Katie O’Donnell, the TGA’s Director of Women’s Operations. “We knew we had a solid field with a number of great players. Hearing the news of our ‘C’ rating from WAGR was really exciting. This event has grown quite a bit in a short time, and this success is something we can build on for an even better championship next year.”
 
For more information on the 2017 Women’s Stroke Play, including complete results, click here.