Keira Cassady knows more about Bermuda Dunes Country Club than most of the golfers who will play in the U.S. Women’s Open qualifying tournament Wednesday, looking for a berth in the Women’s Open next month.
“I actually live there,” said Cassady, who is wrapping up her sophomore year at Rancho Mirage High School.
Cassady is one of 73 pros and amateurs playing for just two spots into the Open in the 36-hole qualifying tournament in the desert Wednesday. Just 16 and playing in her first major qualifying tournament of any kind, Cassady is approaching the qualifier with realistic expectations.
“I’m just doing it for the experience, seeing where I need to get to,” Cassady said. “It’s really for the experience.”
Cassady, who won the Desert Empire League girls golf individual title last fall, will be joined in the field by three other desert golfers. Joanna Bushnell Crist, a two-time DEL individual champion from La Quinta High School, who will play at Fresno State in the fall, is also in the field, as are Vanessa Betencourt of Palm Desert, who played college golf at UC Riverside, and Megan Rasmussen of Palm Desert, the director of instruction at The Citrus Club in La Quinta.
The Women’s Open will be played June 4-7 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, the annual home of the Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour and host of the 1948 men’s U.S. Open and the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships.
There is another golfer in the field with desert ties, though Gabriela Ruffels is listed as being from Australia. The 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and three-time winner on the Epson Tour has spent plenty of time in Indian Wells, where he parents own a home.
Ruffels, 26, will be one of the favorites at the Bermuda Dunes qualifiers along with Lucy Li, who became the youngest player to qualify for the Women’s Open when she was 11 in 2014. She is now 23 and a two-time winner on the Epson Tour and a full member of the LPGA. Li is ranked 96th in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, while Ruffels is ranked 136th in the world.
The field of the USGA national championship is open to any professional golfer and amateur players with handicap indexes that do not exceed 2.4.
Like Cassady, Bushnell Crist counts Bermuda Dunes among the courses she plays the most in the desert, calling his one of her home courses. Unlike Cassady, Bushnell Crist has played in USGA qualifiers before, including one for the Women’s Open as well as the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur.
“When I played in it before it was always kind of far away and a course I wasn’t familiar with. Even though I did a practice round, I still kind of didn’t have that confidence,” Bushnell Crist said. “But I think as I have gotten older and especially as this is on my home course, I should do great. I have really high expectations for myself.”
Bushnell Crist also said the event will be good training for her upcoming play at Fresno State.
“I think it will be great practice for me because it is 36 holes, and that’s quite common in college,” Bushnell said. “A lot of our tournaments are 36 holes. So it will be a great way for me to kind of see where I am at.”
Tee times for the morning round run from 7 to 9 a.m. on the first and 10th tees of the Classic Course at Bermuda Dunes.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Local high school stars aim for U.S. Women’s Open at Bermuda Dunes qualifier
Reporting by Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
