Camryn Carreon Grabs Top Seed at 101st Women’s Texas Amateur

HUMBLE – Riding a wave of momentum from her first amateur victory two and half weeks ago, San Antonio’s Camryn Carreon on Tuesday fired a 4-under-par 68 in the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur Qualifying Round at the Golf Club of Houston’s Tournament Course. Carreon, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio, earned Medalist honors and the No. 1 seed in the Championship Match Play Bracket.

“I’ve been trying not to have any expectations,” said Carreon, who won the 2022 Women’s Stroke Play Championship on June 26 at the Traditions Club. “No matter the emotions during round from the last hole, I’m just trying to stick to the gameplan, and it helped out.”

So did a solid iron game and hot putter.

Carreon, a First-Team All-Conference USA selection who record seven Top-20 finishes for UTSA last season, made six birdies on Tuesday. None of them were from longer than 12 feet away.

“My putting was good today,” she said. “Inside 10 feet, they were dropping. It’s not going to happen all the time, but when it does, and you just know it’s going to fall, it’s the best feeling ever.”

A recent qualifier for the 122nd U.S. Women’s Amateur later this summer, Carreon will attempt to complete the TGA Women’s two-step this week by winning both the Women’s Stroke Play and Women’s Texas Amateur in succession. Only Emma McMyler has accomplished the feat; the Xavier junior won both high-profile championships last summer.

Kyle Fraser, a mid-amateur from Fort Worth, finished one shot behind Carreon at 3-under 69. The former collegiate Lacrosse standout at Stanford got off to a torrid start Tuesday with three birdies on her first five holes. Fraser added three more on the back nine on the Tournament Course to help offset one bogey and a double-bogey.

Haley Vargas from Lubbock, Delany Martin from Boerne, and Gabriela McNelly from Mico share third place at 1-under 71. Martin is one of five players in the field from University of Houston’s Women’s Golf Team, which makes their home at the Golf Club of Houston along with the Men’s Team.

Thirty-two players posted scores of 4-over 76 or better to establish the Championship Match Play Bracket. The remaining competitors were placed in one of six flights based on their Qualifying Round scores.

Fort Worth’s Mina Hardin won Senior Medalist honors with a 3-over 75. A five-time Women’s Texas Amateur champion and the 2010 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur winner, Hardin has been a consistent presence at this championship for years. A veteran of more than 50 USGA national championships, Hardin was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.

Three juniors tied for Junior Medalist honors at even-par 72. Megan Winans from Richardson, Houston’s Ashley Yen, and Alise Knudson from Dallas also tied for sixth place.

In addition to being tested by the Tournament Course’s demanding routing and the water or wetlands hazards looming on 16 of the 18 holes, the competitors in the Qualifying Round also were challenged by the elements. The Greater Houston Area has been racked with Heat Advisory days this summer, and Tuesday was no different.

By 2 p.m., the temperature peaked at 99 degrees with a 108-degree Heat Index. The forecast projects a little more favorably: mid- to lower-90s by the end of the week.

The 101st Women’s Texas Amateur is the second TGA championship played at the Golf Club of Houston. The proud club also played host to the 2007 Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play, won by San Antonio’s Jonathan Mathias. For 17 years, the club hosted the PGA Tour’s Houston Open, first played on the Member Course from 2003-05 before it moved to the Tournament Course from 2006-19.

The Rounds of 32 and 16 in the Championship Match Play Bracket will be played Wednesday, starting at 8 a.m. For more information on the 99th Women’s Texas Amateur, click here.