GLENVIEW, Ill. (June 21, 2021) – Aurora Country Club in Aurora, Illinois, will host its first Women’s Western Golf Association Championship when the 2021 Women’s Western Junior gets underway on June 22-25.
First played in 1920, the Women’s Western Junior is one of the oldest junior golf tournaments in the United States. Competition will begin with 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying, after which the field of 78 will be cut to the low 16 players for match play.
Four rounds of match play will determine the player who joins past champions like Candie Kung, Cristie Kerr, Grace Park and Nancy Lopez as winners of the Women’s Western Junior. The winner also receives an exemption into the 2021 Women’s Western Amateur at Park Ridge Country Club in Park Ridge, Illinois, in July.
Gabriella Gilrowski won the 2019 Women’s Western Junior at Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Indiana, outlasting Jocelyn Bruch in the championship match. This year’s field features an elite class of top junior golfers, including highly ranked players like Jackie Feldman (Austin, Texas), Montgomery Ferreira (Tacoma, Washington), McKenzie Mages (Marietta, Georgia), Shannyn Vogler (Moline, Illinois) and Sophie Zhang-Murphy (Saratoga, California). Vogler is one of the top local players from Illinois in the field.
"Each year, the girls who compete in the Women’s Western Junior represent golf’s best and brightest rising talent,” said WWGA President Cece Durbin. “We’re grateful to Aurora Country Club for hosting this national event, and we’re looking forward to a successful 2021 championship.”
Founded in 1914, Aurora Country Club was designed by Thomas Bendelow and William Boice Langford, both noted golf course architects who designed or remodeled many highly rated golf courses in the Midwest and across the United States. Bendelow’s work includes Medinah Country Club’s three courses, Olympia Fields County Club’s South Course in Chicago, and East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, home of the TOUR Championship.
Aurora’s rolling greens are consistently among the best manicured in the Midwest.
Aurora has been a steadfast supporter of both the Women’s Western Golf Foundation and the Evans Scholars Foundation. The WWGF has been awarding scholarships to young women who play golf since 1971, while the ESF is a nonprofit administered by the WGA that has awarded full college tuition and housing scholarships to more than 12,000 caddies since 1930.
Aurora has had 23 of its caddies graduate as Evans Scholars, beginning with James Colwell, who earned an Evans Scholarship in 1950 to attend Northwestern University. Three current Evans Scholars caddied at Aurora.
Attendance and parking for the Women’s Western Junior are free.
To see the full field, click here.
To see tee times, click here.