USGA announces site for 2022 Women’s Mid-Amateur
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The United States Golf Association is headed back to Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida.
The USGA announced Wednesday that the club will host the 35th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship from Sept. 17-22, 2022, on its Long Mean Course.
The tournament actually had been scheduled to be there in 2021, but when the coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 Women’s Mid-Amateur, Fiddlesticks, the USGA and 2020 site Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, were able to work out an agreement to have the 2021 tournament at Berkeley Hall.
“We reached out and offered them our spot,” Fiddlesticks general manager and executive vice president Ryan Shaw said. “It was just the gentlemanly thing to do. They were ready. They had done their fundraising and everything they needed to do.”
The 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur will be the second USGA championship at Fiddlesticks Country Club. In 2010, the club hosted the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, won by Mina Hardin. Naples’ Mary Jane Hiestand, a Hideout Golf Club member, made it to the third round that year.
“We’ve always had a very good relationship with the USGA,” Shaw said. “The Long Mean Course is a very, very good golf course and well-respected golf course. For them to have the opportunity to come in and host such a high-profile event here, they were very interested.”
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to take this championship to Fiddlesticks Country Club, which will be a fantastic host,” said USGA assistant director Laura Nochta in a release. “Players will enjoy the course’s challenging layout and scenic views, all while competing to earn a coveted USGA title and a place in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open Championship.”
Designed by architect Ron Garl, the Long Mean Course opened in 1983 and recently underwent renovations to enhance bunker playability, add several teeing areas and incorporate bermuda grass.
“The members really relish the opportunity to host these types of events and give back to the game of golf and the USGA,” Shaw said.
Shaw, who has been at Fiddlesticks for seven years, said the club spent $5 million in a complete renovation of the Loch Ness Course, formerly called the Wee Friendly, and another $2 million on the Long Mean last summer. Fiddlesticks also has added a pool cabana area, and is in the midst of a $2 million tennis and pickleball court project.
“We’ve really expanded our amenities,” Shaw said.
The Long Mean renovation was mainly to greens and bunkers. All of the bunkers were rebuilt, and some moved slightly. Some new tees, both forward and further back, also were added.
“We went out and redid our greens and we decided that we would do a few other things,” Shaw said.
Hiestand, 61, has played in 21 Women’s Mid-Amateurs, and was the runner-up in 2017 at Champions Golf Club.
“It’s a great venue—for match play especially,” said Hiestand, who has been playing the course once a week the past few months. “Fiddlesticks did a great job (in 2010) and the golf course was spectacular.”
Bonita Springs’ Kimberly Benedict, who also is Gulf Coast High School’s boys golf coach and led the Sharks to Collier County’s first-ever boys state title in 2017, has played in four Women’s Mid-Amateurs, making the Round of 32 three times. She missed the cut to match play last year.
“I’m thrilled,” Benedict said of the Fiddlesticks news. “That’s awesome. I’m thrilled for a number of reasons, but I’m so excited that it’s coming to Southwest Florida. We have so much to show off here, as far as the rest of the country.”
The USGA has twice tried to host events at Quail Creek Country Club in the past few years, but the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was relocated due to Hurricane Irma, and the 2020 U.S. Women’s Four-Ball Championship was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Collier County has never hosted a USGA event.
“I’m happy that the USGA didn’t give up on this part of this country,” Benedict said.
“I’m a little shocked the USGA came back to Florida because of the hurricane situation that they had with Irma,” Hiestand said.
The U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship is open to any female amateur golfer 25 and older with a Handicap Index not exceeding 9.4. The 2022 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur will be the 26th USGA championship contested in Florida. Entries will open in spring 2022. For more information, visit usga.org.
A total of 132 players advance to the national championship through a number of exemption categories, or through one of a number of qualifiers held throughout the country and in Mexico. The championship begins with 36 holes of stroke play, before the field is reduced to the low 64 scores for the championship’s match-play bracket, from which the champion is determined.
The most recent U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was played in 2019 at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ina Kim-Schaad, 35, of New York, New York, the runner-up in the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior who returned to competitive golf in 2016 after an 11-year hiatus, defeated fellow New York City resident Talia Campbell, 3 and 2, in the 18-hole final on Sept. 19.
