Turns heads in first senior championship
Prattville’s Linda Jeffrey nearly made the most of her first time playing in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona,this week.
Although the 50-year-old Jeffrey fell short of making it to the championship match, she turned plenty of heads in making it all the way to semifinals before bowing out. With a berth in the final at stake, Jeffrey fell 3 & 2 to Brenda Corrie Kuehne of Asheville, North Carolina.
Linda Jeffrey advanced through the 36 holes of qualifying to reach match play with rounds of 78-78 to earn the No. 21 seed. She had little trouble in her first two matches, dispatching of Noreeen Mohler 6 & 4 and Kathy Glennon 7 & 6, to advance to the Round of 16.
Defeated ex-Alabamian Kathy Hartwiger
There, she played 23-time Alabama Golf Association champion Kathy Hartwiger, who now resides in Pinehurst, North Carolina. In her closest match of the tournament, Jeffrey eked out a 2 & 1 victory to make it to the quarterfinals where another standout amateur awaited. Former Curtis Cup Captain Sarah Lebrun Ingram of Nashville, also played Jeffrey tough before falling 3 & 2 in Wednesday’s morning match.
That set up the semifinal match with Kuehne, who knocked out the Prattville resident. Despite losing in the semifinals, Jeffrey earned an exemption into the 2024 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur.
“I just didn’t make anything.,” Jeffrey told Tom Mackin of USGA.org. “You know, she [Kuehn] gave me couple door openings and I stubbed my toe going through the door. That happens in golf. I mean, she won it. I helped [her] along, but she won that match. Fantastic player.”
Jeffrey said she had an outstanding experience at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.
Linda Jeffrey holds multiple military golf titles
“You know, the people who have run this and put this together, it’s been incredible,” she said. “Being my first Senior [Women’s Amateur], I finally graduated to my age group. Yeah, I’ve been missing that. I’ve been an old Mid-Am and you can only go so long with that.”
Although Jeffrey was a rookie of sorts in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, she is no stranger to winning. She qualified for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am in 2018 and won the 2023 Alabama Women’s Senior Amateur Championship.
A major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Jeffrey is currently serving on active duty. She owns nine individual World Military Golf Championships, seven Armed Forces Golf Championship and eight Air Force Golf Championships throughout her career. She also makes time to volunteer at a First Tee Program and coaches youth soccer and basketball.
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
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Featured image by USGA.org
