An 11-year-old girl from Silicon Valley became the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open, after she won a sectional qualifier on Monday at the Old Course in Half Moon Bay, California, reports NBC Bay Area.
Lucy Li shot a 74, and then a 68, during two consecutive rounds at the par-72 course.
Before Li broke her record, Lexi Thompson was the youngest qualifier at the U.S. Women’s Open; according to ESPN, Thompson was 12 years, 4 months, and 18 days old when she qualified for the tournament in 2007. Beverly Klass played in the U.S. Open in 1967 when she was just 10 years old, but there was no qualifying round.
Interestingly, Jim McLean, who runs Jim McLean Golf Schools in South Florida, trains both Li and Thompson. The training facility congratulated Li in a tweet on Tuesday morning: “Congrats to Lucy Li for being the youngest junior to qualify the US Woman’s Open! Good luck out there – JMGS Staff.”
This is the second time in Li’s young career that she has made history; Li reportedly qualified for the championships at the California Women’s Amateur Championship tournament in 2011, when she was just nine years old.
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