Three Sacramento teams competed this past weekend at the LPGA Amateurs Western Regional Team Cup Qualifier at Blue Rock Springs.  It was competitive and fun match play.  Two teams qualified to advance to Cup Finals.  Congratulations to:

Fore Positrons:  Nanci Smith, Rebecca Birch, Kathleen Gallup (and honorary injured teammate and volunteer, Kris Corbridge)

Birdie Chasers:  Marian Kubiak, Paula Plesha, Kristine Burke, Esther Garcia 

And shown below, several members of our chapter came home with prize money after taking on Winchester Country Club - a challenging course.  Golfing weather was perfect. 

Ellie Jones - our latest one shot wonder occurred on Saturday, August 30 at Cherry Island. 

Remember Hole #3….through a narrow opening of trees, across the barranca, uphill to a sloped green.  Ellie closed her eyes and made a spectacular shot which finished in the bottom of the cup.  Congratulations!

Andi Saxe shown here celebrating her birdie on the hole.  And Marian shown tending the flag….

Thanks to everyone who participated by playing, volunteering, supporting our annual Swing Fore the Girls fundraiser.  Our Chapter raised over $2500 in support of First Tee of Greater Sacramento and USGA Girls golf.  That is amazing! 

First Tee Golfer, Gigi Borrego, talks about her positive experience of being a member of First Tee.   

And after the golf, our winners are:

2025 Swing Fore the Girls Champions  (Ambrose score:  52 (15 birdies!!)

Tina Tseng, Linda Cai, Sunny Shimabukuro, and Hong Yee

Flight A First Place  (Ambrose score:  55 (8 birdies!!)

Natalie Lam (First Tee), Margie Longo, Betty Galvez, Lori Williams and Judy Eastburn

Flight B First Place (Ambrose score:  53 (9 birdies!!)

Chelsy Saelee (First Tee), Jayne Moore, Sherry Adams, Annette Wegesend, and Debbie Henning

 Closest to the Hole Winners:

Hole 3:  Andi Saxe and First Tee Bella Cantelmi

Hole 6:  Erin Parker and First Tee Ava Uppal

Hole 12:  Kristine Burke and First Tee Natalie Lam

Hole 14:  Rob Saxe and Ben Little

Hole 16:  Hong Yee (1 inch!!) and First Tee Gigi Borrego

Big Winners of the Day

All of you and First Tee of Greater Sacramento.  It was great meeting some of you for the first time and hope you enjoyed your day.  Thank you for your continued support, friendship and generosity for a great cause.  These young women are part of our future leaders. 

This would not have been a success without multiple chapter members who stepped up to volunteer including Monique Cox, Chao Chen, Toni Greenwall, Dixie Reid, Kathleen Walsh, Patricia Kofmehl, Christina Stoll and Joanie Lew.  And thank you to our home club and typically great staff at Haggin Oaks. 

Looking for those lucky raffle prize winners....

Gathering in the clubhouse after August 16 round at Mather. 

With our August 16 round wrapped up we will say goodbye to Mather golf course for 2025, and hope for better greens in 2026.  Those greens are a bit rugged right now!  However, that could not stop our ladies from some great scores as 6 golfers shot net 72 or lower and 15 shot in the net 70’s.  Proving we can handle tough conditions! 

We played singles – drop your 3 worst holes.  Leading the field, Maggie Raybourn continues her streak of great play with a net 65, including 7 net birdies!  After dropping three holes Maggie and Doreen Freund both scored net 52 which explains why they are battling it out at the top of the CCT leaderboard.  In other stellar play, Chao Chen had 8 net birdies and we had 3 players score 6 birdies – Stephanie Clendenin, Nanci Smith, and Ramona Marshall. 

Tied for top low gross at 83 went to Pam Katros and Marcia Whiting.

6 CCT points:  Maggie Raybourn, Chao Chen, Doreen Freund, Maureen Hannon, Nanci Smith, and Sonya Bradley.

In a shocking development, late arriving Moe Hannan is now at the top of the CCT Flight A leaderboard.  Unclear how this happened.  However there is a logjam below her looking to snatch the top spot in weeks ahead. 

Our next CCT event is Sept 13 at Cherry Island.  Registration will be opening later this week. 

Maggie and Paula got the memo -- wear purple and grey.

Whew!  Hottest day of the year didn’t stop us!  26 players got out early, played fast, and beat the heat.   We proved a little heat leads to hot scores as 9 players shot net par or better!  I’d say we are ready for the State Fair Women’s Championship!  It was fun to see so many gathered in the clubhouse hydrating after!  Lots of laughter.

We played FIXED SCORE with your foursome working as a team!  One point per net par.  It was close and I like that.  Good competition with one or two points separating teams. 

6 CCT points awarded to the following teams:

50  Sonya Bradley, Maggie Raybourn, Karen Zamarripa, blind draw

49  Moe Hannan, Doreen Freund, Pam Katros, Laurie Hochmuth

48  Karen Graser, Deb Adell, Tracy Starkey, Jeri Paik

4 points awarded to the following teams:

47  Jody West, Lori Lucius, Margie Longo, Ramona Marshall

44  Tyra Jarvis, Chao Chen, Jen Gregory, Theresa Garcia

2 points awarded to the following teams:

43  Marcia Whiting, Melody Hayes, Kathy Walsh, Stephanie Clendenin

42  Krista Wylder, Kristine Burke, Andra Saxe, blind draw

Shooting net below 72 (guaranteed 5 points)

68 Jeri Paik and Chao Chen

69 Marcia

71 Maggie Raybourn  and Stephanie Clendenin

72 Andra Saxe, Karen Zamarripa, Ramona Marshall, Karen Graser

And Krista Wylder, with a net 75, received the guaranteed 3 points.

Sitting at the top of the CCT leaderboard, we currently find Karen Graser (Flight A) and Maggie Raybourn (Flight B).  But those leads can evaporate quickly with 7 rounds coming up in the CCT!

Hope to see you on the course soon.

What a weekend!  Your very own Sacramento Chapter team won the 2025 Cal Cup competition.  And it was a nailbiter.  A great event from start to finish.  Our Chapter was represented by a great team and a long list of smiling volunteer helpers.  We truly proved, once again, we have the membership who will step forward to make an event awesome. 

Sacramento was able to snatch victory over Northern Nevada by a slim .49 margin.   Final score:  Sacramento 14.60 and Northern Nevada 14.11.  The rest of the teams ranged from 10.93 to 4.73.  Every member of our team contributed points and we needed all of them to retain the trophy here in Sacramento.   It was a fun event from the Friday night welcome reception to the Sunday afternoon trophy presentation. 

“Thank You!” is owed to too many chapter members to name.  At check in, raffle tables, spotters, scoring, you name it – I saw members of our chapter giving a helping hand.   I’ve included a few photos from the weekend but could not capture all of our volunteers and behind the scenes elves.  Included in those who stepped up, a big thank you to the staff at Haggin Oaks (Morton Golf).  From the exclusive Friday night shopping experience (thank you Tammy Beckman) to the course painting (thank you Soleil Gutchess) and all the other staff who worked hard to make it enjoyable for all, thank you!   I could not be more proud of what we pulled together here in Sacramento.   Already looking forward to a three-peat in Orange County 2026.

(Many more pictures available on the Cal Cup portal at GGID:  2025calcup)

If you guessed Karen Garcia -- you have been paying attention.  Karen is clearly playing some good golf! Congratulations!

The PWGA Legacy Open was August 5 and 6 at Corica Park in Alameda.  Our Karen Garcia finished nine strokes ahead of her nearest challenger.  She shot a 2 day total of 140!   Way to go!

Other chapter members who competed include Pam Katros finished 4^th (171) in her flight and Vicki Philpott finished 7^th (179).  That is some good golf ladies.  

From the NCGA Golf April 2025 Magazine:

Karen Garcia, member of the LPGA Amateurs - Sacramento Chapter remembers her win at the 2015 U. S. Senior Women's Championship with NCGA as they get ready to host the U. S. Women's Mid-Amateur on October 4-9.

Read the article HERE...