Four Hokies to compete in Four-Ball Championship

Virginia Tech golfers Whitney Stevenson, Elizabeth Bose and Sarah and Jessica Spicer will compete in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, May 27-31, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Stevenson and Bose will comprise one team and the Spicer twins will complete the other team completing in this USGA championship.

The action begins on Saturday, as the Spicers tee off at 7:24 a.m. along with the team of Alden Wallace and Libby Winans. The team of Stevenson and Bose will play their first match later that morning at 11 a.m. grouped with the team of Angelina Kim and Brianna Navarrosa. There will be stroke play on Saturday and Sunday and match play will begin on Monday, with the Round of 32.

The Spicers, rising sophomores from Bahama, North Carolina, qualified for the event by winning the sectional qualifier in Summerville, South Carolina with a score of 65. Bose, a rising junior from Norfolk, Virginia and Stevenson, a recent graduate from Canton, Georgia, also advanced out of the Summerville site.

“I am so excited to have four Hokies in this prestigious event,” head coach Carol Robertson said. “The four-ball format is a nice change of pace from what we play all season in collegiate golf. I am looking forward to being there to support them in person!”

The championship will take place at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The course was originally designed and built by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in December 1950. Jones oversaw an extensive redesign in 1992 and his son, Rees, converted the greens from bentgrass to bermudagrass and reworked tees and bunkers in 2013.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club has previously hosted two USGA championships, the 1962 U.S. Women’s Open (won by Murle Lindstrom) and the 1977 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur (won by Dorothy Porter).

One of the most popular formats played at golf courses nationwide, four-ball consists of two-person sides, with each member of a side playing their own ball and the better score counting as the team’s score for the hole. Sixty-four teams will compete for the title of the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champions. Tee times for the 18-hole stroke play rounds will run from 7 a.m. to 1:24 p.m. on Saturday, May 27 and Sunday, May 28, after which the low 32 teams will be seeded for the match-play rounds, which will begin on Monday, May 29.