Qualification for the U.S. Women's Open has begun, and a very unlikely hopeful is among the players. A nine-year-old girl is attempting to play alongside the professionals this time around. Bella Simoes could make history.
Simoes is a three-time U.S. Kids Golf world champion and has won each of the past three years. She is from Brazil and is anxious to make it work in Naples, Florida for the qualifiers.
She is one of 68 players who will take part in the 36-hole qualifier. If she places in the top two, she automatically qualifies for the Women's Open. She would be the youngest competitor in the tournament's history, edging out 10-year-old Lucy Li who competed in 2013.
She is joined in Tuesday's qualifier by notables such as Gianna Clemente, Brooke Matthews, Isabella Fierro, Lindy Duncan, Heather Lin, Vicky Hurst and Kristy Mcpherson.
Who has already qualified for the U.S. Women's Open?
Much of the U.S. Women's Open field has already been set. Like most major tournaments, there are a lot of ways to qualify. Past winners automatically qualify, which means that Michelle Wie (2014), Chun In-gee (2015), Brittany Lang (2016), Park Sung-hyun (2017), Ariya Jutanugarn (2018), Jeongeun Lee (2019), Kim A-lim (2020), Yuka Saso (2021) and Minjee Lee (2022) will all be in the field.
Additionally, from last year's U.S. Women’s Open, the 10 lowest scorers, including ties, qualify, so Mina Harigae, Choi Hye-jin, Ko Jin-young, Lydia Ko, Anna Nordqvist, Bronte Law, Megan Khang, Leona Maguire, and Nelly Korda join the field.
The 2022 U.S. Senior Women's Open winner, Jill McGill, and the winner of the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur, Saki Baba, will also be participating.
The top 30 point leaders from the 2022 LPGA Race to the CME Globe Final Points qualify:
- Atthaya Thitikul
- Lexi Thompson
- Leona Maguire
- Céline Boutier
- Kim Hyo-joo
- Nasa Hataoka
- Danielle Kang
- Andrea Lee
- Ayaka Fura
- Charley Hull
- Jodi Ewart Shadoff
- Madelene Sagström
- Gaby López
- Nanna Koerstz Madsen
- Marina Alex
Several others will be qualifying, but most of them are professionals or at the very least amateurs on the verge of becoming professionals. What Bella Simoes is attempting to do is pretty rare and would be an incredible feat.