More Than Half A Century After Catherine Lacoste Won The US Women’s Open, An Amateur May Win It Again

The last amateur to win the US Women’s open was Rene Lacoste’s daughter Cathering Lacoste in 1967. Now, there’s a chance that an amateur may win the 2020 US Women’s Open again.

It has been 53 years since an amateur has won the U.S. Women’s Open. That could change this weekend.

More than half a century after Catherine Lacoste of France won in 1967 at The Homestead, two amateurs, Linn Grant and Kaitlyn Papp, sit within five-strokes of the 36-hole lead.

Grant, who also contended at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open at Shoal Creek but faded to a T-57 on the weekend, sits solo second after back-to-back rounds of 69. She’s at 4 under par. Papp, a Texas native enjoying a trip around her home state, sits T-3 with rounds of 71-68.

Read more at Golf Channel.

Chicago Sun Times Profiles Catherine Lacoste, the only amateur winner of the U.S. Women’s Open

The Chicago Sun Times has published a detailed profile of Catherine Lacoste, daughter of Rene Lacoste, and the only amateur winner of the U.S Women’s Open.   In the piece, they note that “Lacoste came by the athletic ability honestly as the daughter of Rene Lacoste and Simone Thione de la Chaume, who won the 1927 British Ladies Amateur. She recalls being a 24-handicap as a 13-year-old, but her improvement after that was marked.”

When Lacoste came to play in 1967:

She “never thought in any way” that she would win the tournament that week, but someone else did.

“I think the only person who thought I might win the U.S. Open was my father because he’d won the U.S. Open in tennis and obviously he had the spirit to think, ‘Why can’t she do it in golf?”

Lacoste returned to the U.S. in 1968 to defend her Women’s Open title but finished 13th, 13 shots back. More impressive over the following year was her sheer dominance in women’s amateur golf. She was focused on getting better at match play by then, and from October 1968 to October 1969, she never lost a single match. Victories piled up, including at the Women’s Western Amateur, U.S. Women’s Amateur and British Ladies Amateur.

Read more of the profile at The Chicago Times.