Storylines for the 12th USGA Women’s State Team Championship Sept. 26-28, 2017 | The Club at Las Campanas, Santa Fe, N.M. mediacenter.usga.org | http://www.usga.org/womensteam | #WomensStateTeam There are 48 three-player teams in the field, representing 47 states and the District of Columbia. North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Wyoming did not field teams. Alexa Pano, 13, of Lake Worth, Fla., is the championship’s youngest competitor. The championship’s oldest competitor is Maggie Brady, 69, of the District of Columbia. The average age of the Women’s State Team competitors is 36.77 years old. Delaware is the youngest team in the field with a combined age of 47: Phoebe Brinker, 15, of Wilmington; Jennifer Cleary, 16, of Wilmington; and Esther Park, 16 of Wilmington. Mississippi (combined age of 50) and Tennessee (combined age of 51) are the only other teams comprised solely of teenagers. Illinois has the oldest team, with a combined age of 162: Hui Chong Dofflemyer, 48, of Belvidere; Char McLear, 63, of McHenry; and DeAnne Stolarik, 51, of Zion. Field by age: Teens – 27 players 20s – 33 players 30s – 20 players 40s – 22 players 50s – 31 players 60s – 11 players Note: While there are no age limits for this championship, players currently on a college team are ineligible to play, per NCAA rules. There are seven USGA individual champions in the field: • Carolyn Creekmore, 65, of Dallas, Texas (2004 Senior Women’s Amateur) • Karen Garcia, 55, of Cool, Calif. (2015 Senior Women’s Amateur) • Lauren Greenlief, 27, of Oakton, Va. (2015 Women’s Mid-Amateur) • Martha Leach, 55, of Hebron, Ky. (2009 Women’s Mid-Amateur) • Julia Potter, 29, of Franklin, Ind. (2013, 2016 Women’s Mid-Amateur) • Margaret Starosto, 31, of Woodstock, Ga. (2014 Women’s Mid-Amateur) • Meghan Stasi, 39, of Oakland Park, Fla. (2006, 2007, 2010, 2012 Women’s Mid-Amateur) Meghan Stasi (2008) is the only player in the field who has competed in a Curtis Cup Match. Five players have won a USGA Women’s State Team title, including Laura Coble, 53, of Augusta, Ga., who has competed on three of Georgia’s four championship teams: 2005, 2009 and 2011. The other players are: Tara Fleming, 50, of Jersey City, N.J. (New Jersey, 2013); Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 41, of Cave Creek, Ariz. (Arizona, 2007); Margaret Starosto (Georgia, 2015); and Lynn Thompson, 59, of Cincinnati, Ohio (Ohio, 2003). Susan Marchese, 56, of Omaha, Neb., is playing in her 12th USGA Women’s State Team Championship. The only player to compete in all 12 championships, she has always represented Nebraska, which posted its best finish in 1995, tying for 13th with Oregon. There are five family combinations in the field: two mother-daughter, two sister-sister and one aunt-niece. The mother-daughter duos include: Kay Daniel, 46, and Abbey Daniel, 16, of Covington, La.; and Heidi Haylock, 45, and Ruby Haylock, 13, of Hartford, Maine. The sister combinations are: Anika Richards, 13, and Katelin Richards, 15, of Anchorage, Alaska; and Anci Dy, 14, and Anika Dy, 16, of Traverse City, Mich. Janice Calomiris, 58, of the District of Columbia, is the aunt of Julia Calomiris, 17, of the District of Columbia. Select Player Notes, by Team Alabama Michaela Morard, 15, of Huntsville, is a two-time Alabama Golf Association Girls’ Junior Amateur champion (2015 and 2017), and won the 2016 Alabama Women’s Amateur Stroke-Play Championship at age 14 to become the youngest winner in the championship’s 67-year history. A three-time American Junior Golf Association Rolex Junior All-American, she has also won three AJGA events. She plays high school softball as well as the violin and flute. Susan West, 53, of Tuscaloosa, is a former United States Tennis Association national champion, ranking in the top two in doubles and top 10 in singles. The first recipient of the Tuscaloosa PGA Professionals of Tuscaloosa County Player of the Year Award in 2010, she advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2014 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship. Arizona Kim Eaton, 58, of Mesa, is a Colorado Golf Hall of Fame member who has reached the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinals three times (2009, 2011 and 2014). She has won several state amateur and senior amateur titles in Arizona, California and Colorado. A retired police officer, she is competing in her seventh Women’s State Team Championship (four with Colorado and three with Arizona). Thuhashini Selvaratnam, 41, of Cave Creek finished runner-up in the 2006 Women’s Mid-Amateur, beating Mary Miezwa in the quarterfinals, 2 up. Selvaratnam has partnered with Miezwa in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Selvaratnam is competing in her seventh Women’s State Team for Arizona and was on Arizona’s 2007 championship team. She is a native of Sri Lanka. California Lynne Cowan, 54, of Rocklin, has won multiple California Women’s Amateur titles, winning her third Northern California Golf Association Senior Women’s Amateur in 2017 and winning NCGA Senior Player of the Year. She has lived with ankylosing spondylitis, a form of rheumatoid arthritis, since she was 18 and has found that the motion of her golf swing helps keep her limber. She and her husband, Carl, work as independent sales representatives in the golf business. She is competing in her fifth Women’s State Team for California. Karen Garcia, 54, of Cool, is the 2015 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion. A high school guidance counselor, she lost 60 pounds by following a three-year golf fitness regimen before winning the 2015 championship. Born in Wheeler, Ore., Garcia, formerly Karen Vipond, attended the University of Oregon, where she played softball for two seasons. She started playing golf at the age of 21 after graduating from Portland State University. Colorado Christie Austin, 60, of Denver, was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. She served six years on the USGA Executive Committee, and was the first woman to chair the Rules of Golf Committee and serve as a referee in a Walker Cup Match conducted in Great Britain and Ireland. In 2007, she earned Colorado Senior Player of the Year from the Colorado Women’s Golf Association after winning both the Senior Match Play and Senior Stroke Play championships. She was honored by Sportswomen of Colorado as 2007 Master Player of the Year and currently serves on the national board for The First Tee and the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. She is one of four American females (and one of 15 women worldwide) to become a member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews since 2015, when the club voted to admit women. Janet Moore, 53, of Centennial, and her husband, Kent, served as the women’s and men’s golf coaches, respectively, at Wheaton (Ill.) College from 2011-15. She has won five Colorado Women’s Stroke-Play Championships and was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2001; Kent was inducted in 2004. Connecticut Lisa Fern-Boros, 56, of Shelton, is a two-time Southern New England women’s champion and the step-niece of two-time U.S. Open champion Julius Boros (1952, 1963), who was also from Connecticut. Florida Tara Joy-Connelly, 44, of Palm Beach Gardens, was named the Massachusetts Golf Association Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 and made the semifinals of the 2014 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. In 2015, Joy-Connelly won the Florida State Golf Association’s Women’s Amateur Stroke-Play and Women’s Mid-Amateur championships. She is playing in her 10th Women’s State Team (seven for Massachusetts, three for Florida). Alexa Pano, 13, of Lake Worth, is the championship’s youngest competitor, and at 11 was the youngest competitor to play in an LPGA of Japan Tour event – the 2016 Yonex Ladies Golf Tournament. An eight-time winner of the IMG Junior World Championship and two-time National Drive, Chip & Putt champion (2016 and 2017), she has already played in two U.S. Women’s Amateurs, making match play in August at San Diego Country Club. In January, she led the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur (The Sally) heading into her final nine holes, and finished tied for third in the prestigious event. She was featured in the 2013 documentary “The Short Game” on Netflix. Meghan Stasi, 39, of Fort Lauderdale, is a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion (2006, 2007, 2010, 2012) who represented the USA in the 2008 Curtis Cup Match on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, where she got engaged to her husband Danny on the iconic Swilcan Bridge. She also served as the head women’s golf coach at the University of Mississippi from 2000-07. A Tulane University graduate, Meghan owns a seafood restaurant in Fort Lauderdale with her husband. She is competing in her fifth straight Women’s State Team Championship. Georgia Laura Coble, 53, of Augusta, was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame this year. She is also a Georgia Golf Hall of Fame member who has won the Georgia Women’s Open and is a six-time Georgia State Women’s Amateur champion. She is also the only golfer to have won the Tommy Barnes Award as overall Georgia State Golf Association Player of the Year three times and was a semifinalist in the 2016 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. She is playing in her sixth Women’s State Team and has played on three of Georgia’s four championship teams (2005, 2009, 2011).