Women S Amateur

Andrea Kraus, of Pikesville and Woodholme Country Club, posted a 4-over-par 74, and claimed one of seven available places during qualifying yesterday at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase for the 98th U.S. Women's Amateur championship.Mallory Crosland, of the Chevy Chase Club, who won her second straight Maryland State Women's amateur title last week, was the medalist with a 72, followed by Leland Beckel, of Columbia CC, and Laura Hammond, of Exton, Pa., with 73s.The championship, whose field also will include U.S. Women's Open runner-up Jenny Chuasiriporn, from Timonium, will be held Aug. 11-16, at Barton Hills CC in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Alexis Thompson already has rewritten plenty of the "youngest" standards around women's golf. The next one, though, looms as her biggest. The South Florida prodigy, the nation's top-ranked female amateur for more than a year, is set to turn pro at next month's Shoprite LPGA Classic. Her first round for pay is June 18 — four months past her 15th birthday. By comparison, Michelle Wie waited until one week before turning 16 to turn pro. "She thinks she's ready," said her father, Scott Thompson.

ROCKVILLE -- Jane Fitzgerald got four birdies and eight pars yesterday and defeated Bonnie Fry, 5 and 4, to win the Maryland State Golf Association Women's Amateur championship at Norbeck Country Club.Fitzgerald, the top seed, won her third state amateur title in as many tries, having won in 1989 and 1990. She did not compete last year."This was my best round of the week," said Fitzgerald, who competed unattached. "I felt good and was hitting the ball well. Also, my putting was better today [yesterday]

Jason Bohn knew in his heart he made the right choice. Yesterday, his golf game confirmed it. Opting to defend his B.C. Open title instead of playing in the British Open, Bohn shot a 6-under-par 66 to tie Harrison Frazar for second, one shot behind 45-year-old Mark Brooks after the first round in Verona, N.Y. "It shows that I totally made the right decision, makes me feel good. I played well; I'm in contention," said Bohn, who has made 12 straight cuts this year. "The British is my favorite major, too, but this is the last B.C. Open.

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. -- Jane Mason of Green Hill Yacht & Country Club shot a 2-over-par 38-3674 and took a one-stroke lead over Shelley Savage of Army Navy CC, 39-3675, after the first round of the Middle Atlantic Golf Association Women's Amateur championship at Cripple Creek Country Club yesterday.In a battle of former champions, Mason had two birdies and four bogeys, and Savage, three birdies and six bogeys. Carleen Jones of Pine Ridge Golf Club trailed with 39-3978, followed by Joan Winchester, Rolling Road Golf Club, 42-3880.

Shirley Williams, with a limited background in match-play golf, scored a major upset when she defeated two-time medalist Jennifer Lewis, 3 and 2, in the first round of the 74th Maryland State Women's Amateur championship at the Suburban Club yesterday.Williams, a physical education teacher and volleyball coach at Western High School, won the first two holes and never relinquished the lead in beating Lewis, last year's losing finalist and a five-time women's champion at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville.

AIKEN, S. C. -- Rebekah Owens of Columbia, S.C., played nearly flawless golf, building an early advantage and maintaining it the rest of the way as she defeated Jenny Chuasiriporn of Timonium, 6 and 5, in the championship match of the 67th Women's Trans National tournament at Hound- lake Country Club yesterday.Owens, who has one semester remaining at the University of South Carolina, was 4 up at the break, and 6 up after 27 holes. She made no mistakes and seemingly dropped every putt she had to in being around par for the 29 holes.

Andrea Kraus, who had to go the normal regional qualifying route after having been exempt on two previous occasions, moved on to the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur championship with a co-medalist 4-over-par 39-3675 at Caves Valley Golf Club yesterday. Marian Read, from Center Square, Pa., shared the honor with 37-3875.With 34 players seeking nine places in the championship, to be played Sept. 6-11 at Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield, N.J., it took a score of 81 to advance.Kraus, a former Greiner Cup winner on this 5,687-yard, par-71 course and who had played in last week's U.S. Women's Amateur, hit 15 greens and finished with four bogeys.

WEST POINT, Miss. -- Nancy Lopez remembers the days when she was the LPGA's newest face and, in short time, its biggest star. Back then, playing against legends such as Mickey Wright and future Hall of Famers such as JoAnne Carner was a big deal to Lopez. It was a way to measure whether she had game.Today, as Jenny Chuasiriporn makes her professional debut in the 54th U.S. Women's Open at the Old Waverly Golf Club, the 21-year-old from Timonium will gauge herself against Lopez in much the same manner.

Wayne DeFrancesco, teaching professional at Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, posted a second successive 6-under-par 66 yesterday, good for a four-stroke victory in the 56th Assistants' Championship of the Middle Atlantic PGA at Bull Run Country Club in Haymarket, Va. It was the second title in the past three years for DeFrancesco, recent winner of the National Club Professional Championship. David Hutsell of Columbia CC in Chevy Chase was alone in second at 136. James Schuller of Congressional CC equaled the course record with a 65 for 138. Women's Amateur: Jennifer Thompson, the Metropolitan champion from Chestnut Ridge CC, and Arlene Zamora, recent Publinx runner-up from Pine Ridge, were the only local players to survive the first round of match play in the 80th Maryland State Championships at the Elkridge Club.

JoAnne Carner didn't turn pro until she was past her 30th birthday and within five years had become the No. 1 player on the LPGA Tour. Judy Rankin gave up her amateur status as a 17-year-old and took more than six seasons before she finally won. By the time they were finished, Carner and Rankin were considered among the best women ever to play the game. Both are in the Hall of Fame, evidence to the fact that there is more than one road to take in order to get to the sport's ultimate destination.

Morgan Pressel is not the most famous female golf prodigy in the world, nor the most gifted. Those labels, and potential burdens, belong to Michelle Wie. Yet Pressel possesses her own valuable traits, and a more impressive resume than Wie and nearly every other teen phenom on the brink of taking over the LPGA Tour. Coming off a couple of breakthrough performances last year -- highlighted by her resounding victory in the U.S. Women's Amateur and a second-place tie at the U.S. Women's Open -- Pressel will make her professional debut today in Hawaii in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay. Granted a commissioner's waiver that will allow her to play a full schedule before she turns 18 in May, Pressel doesn't think the transition from amateur to pro will be difficult given that her adjustment period began as a precocious 12-year-old playing in the 2001 U.S. Women's Open.

The quiz His moment in the sun: Forty years ago today, an Orioles rookie beat the Washington Senators, 7-2, on a two-hitter. It was the first of his two career victories. Name him. Answer, 7C PRO BASKETBALL Mystics, Beard end Lynx's run at six with 65-61 victory Rookie Alana Beard scored 23 points and made two free throws with 1:11 remaining to lead the host Washington Mystics to a 65-61 victory last night over Minnesota, ending the Lynx's franchise-record six-game winning streak in the WNBA.

Janice Callomiris of Congressional Country Club parred the opening hole to get past Brooke Rottman, Woodholme CC, in a playoff for the annual Middle Atlantic Women's Amateur championship at Chestnut Ridge Country Club yesterday. Calomiris, a playoff loser in this event last year, shot 77-80-157 to 80-77-157 for Rottman over the 5,827-yard, par-74 course. At the first extra hole, Rottman needed four strokes to reach the green, then missed her par putt from 25 feet. Callomiris then made a 10-foot putt for the win. Tinker Sanger of Green Spring won the Seniors title, 79-85-164.

Jessica Lewis won the first three holes, including opening with a birdie, and was not challenged in beating Mallory Crosland, 6 and 5, for the championship of the 82nd annual Maryland State Women's Amateur at Maryland Golf and Country Club in Bel Air yesterday. It capped an impressive stretch for Lewis, 22, a recent graduate of James Madison University, as she dominated the event for a second straight year. This time, she was forced past the 15th green only once in four starts, and ended 10 under par. Last year, she was 15 under for four trips at Columbia CC, her home course.

Katie Futcher, a Penn State senior from The Woodlands, Texas, conquered the back nine at Bethesda Country Club -- something few others in the 46-player field could do -- and won the USGA Women's Amateur sectional qualifying medal with a 37-33--70 yesterday. The long hitter had four birdies over the longer and more demanding last nine. Jessica Lewis, Maryland State Women's Amateur champion from Columbia CC, and Sally Voss Krueger, a former state champion now living in San Francisco, had 75s to be among the eight qualifiers.

ABSECON, N.J. - For those who missed out on watching Tiger Woods as a teenager and experiencing the explosion of a golfing legend, Michelle Wie will provide another chance. The 13-year-old femme phenom from Hawaii has designs on one day playing both the LPGA and PGA tours. She also hopes to compete in, not picket at, the Masters. Last year, Wie became the youngest player ever to qualify for an LPGA event. By winning last month's U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in Palm Coast, Fla., Wie became the youngest golfer to hold a title at an open-age USGA tournament.

PALM COAST, Fla. - From the braces on her teeth to the gee-whiz tone to her peppy voice to the tiny teddy bear attached to her golf bag, Michelle Wie seemingly epitomizes a contemporary, modern teen. When she swings a golf club, though, the child's play ends. Wie, the 13-year-old prodigy from Hawaii, became the youngest player to win a U.S. Golf Association adult event yesterday by beating former NCAA champion Virada Nirapathpongporn, 1-up, in the 27th U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at Ocean Hammock Golf Club.