2024 Tennessee Women's Open Preview
July 25-27, 2024
By Brian Weis
Sitting amidst the rolling hills and vast woods on the Cumberland Plateau, Stonehenge Golf Course is a masterpiece. The 6549-yard par 72 layout was brought to life by architect Joe Lee and gets its name from the native stone walls found throughout the property. Bent grass tee boxes, fairways, and greens paired with natural rock outcroppings make way for pristine playing conditions in the heart of the Golf Capital of Tennessee. This will mark the 16th straight year Stonehenge Golf Club and the Fairfield Glade community have hosted the Tennessee Women's Open.
Competitors at the tournament tell the Tennessee Golf Association that the Tennessee Women's Open is one of their favorite tournaments of the year because of the community behind it. Walking up to the 18th green at Stonehenge with the area around the green packed with spectators makes their summer season.
About the Tennessee Women's Open:
Started in 1999, the Tennessee Women's Open is one of the longest-running women's Open tournaments in the country. The 54-hole event is split into two divisions, the Championship Division and the Senior Division.
The tournament has been held at Stonehenge Golf Club in Fairfield Glade since 2009. Celebrating 26 years of competition, the Tennessee Women's Open has consistently attracted top talent from around the globe.
Past winners include current LPGA Professionals Ashli Bunch, Lauren Coughlin and Karlin Beck as well as some of the top amateur golfers in the world like Tennessee Players of the Year Sophie Linder and Lynn Lim, the defending champion at the Tennessee Women's Open. Her win in 2023 made her just the fourth player in Tennessee golf history to win the Tennessee Women's Open and Tennessee Women's Amateur in the same year.
Players to watch:
Lynn Lim (Gallatin) - Winner of the 2023 Tennessee Women's Open, she became just the fourth player in the history of Tennessee Golf to win the Women's Open and Tennessee Women's Amateur in the same year. She won the Tennessee Women's Amateur in 2022 as well.
Sophie Linder (Carthage) - Currently a collegiate golfer at Ole Miss, Linder made history with her win at the event in 2021, becoming the first female golfer to win the Tennessee Girls' Junior and Tennessee Women's Open in the same year. Linder carded another TGA event win in 2023, taking home the TGA Women's Match Play championship.
Karlie Campbell (Ethridge) - After finishing T3 last year in the Tennessee Women's Open, Karlie Campbell is another name to watch for. She became just the ninth player ever to win both the TGA Girls' Junior Championship and the Tennessee PGA Girls Junior Championship in the same year, the first to complete the feat since 1999.
Lauren Slatton (McMinnville) - The future UAB Blazer finished as a semifinalist at the 2024 USGA Women's Amateur Four-ball at Oak Hills Country Club.
Telerei Hughes (Knoxville) - Won the inaugural Tennessee Women's Mid-Ameuter in 2017. Adeena Wilcox (Newark, Ohio) - Recorded her first professional win at the 2022 Tennessee Women's Open with a score of -2. She took the lead on hole 16 of the final round and kept it through the final two holes.
Charlene Chung (Hong Kong) - Just finished her freshman season on the Vanderbilt Women's Golf Team, but originally hails from Hong Kong. She finished second at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational Junior. She finished second at 2023 Hong Kong Ladies Close Amateur & Mid-Amateur Championship.
Mikayla Dubnik (Murrayville, Ga.) - Won the 2023 Georgia Women's Open, carding a -6 gross score. She plays collegiate golf at Mercer University, where she finished first at the Mercer Invitational and had five Top 20 finishes during the 2022-23 season.
Lauren Thompson (Dothan, Ala.) - Plays collegiate golf for Lipscomb University, where she earned an automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Regional as an individual. She finished in the top-5 six times and earned 7 top-10 finishes over the 2023-24 season. She also was the Individual Champion at the 2023 ASUN Tournament and a medalist at the same tournament in 2024.
Michaela Morard (Huntsville, Ala.) - Morard returns to the field as one of the Tennessee Women's Open past champions, first claiming victory in 2020 as an amateur. She's an 11-time Alabama Golf Association champion who just completed her college career at the University of Southern California and plans to compete as a professional at Stonehenge.
Allie Knight (Knoxville) - A teaching professional at Fairways & Greens in Knoxville, Knight is a fierce competitor on the professional circuit. She recently qualified to play in an LPGA Tour event at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, competing with the likes of Allisen Corpuz, Nelly Korda, Brooke Henderson and Charley Hull. Knight has also represented the Tennessee PGA Section the past two years at the annual Challenge Cup matches between the top Tennessee Professionals and Amateurs.
Alyssa Montgomery (Knoxville) - The 2021 Tennessee Women's Amateur Champion is a perennial contender at the Tennessee Women's Open. Montgomery finished second in the 23rd Tennessee Women's Open in 2021and sixth in 2022. After graduating from the University of South Florida this spring, Montgomery will be competing as a professional for the first time at the Tennessee Women's Open.
Senior:
Suzanne Rhodes (Crossville) - Finished Top 5 at the 2022 Tennessee Senior Women's Open. Member of Fairfield Glade
Leslie Letner (Crossville) - Won her first TGA tournament in 2023 in a playoff at the Tennessee Women's Senior Amateur.
Rhonda Switzer-Nadasdi (Nashville) - Two-time TGA Champion and most recently the winner of the 2022 Tennessee Women's Senior Amateur.
Sue Miller (Loudon) - A contender every year she plays at the Tennessee Women's Senior Open, Miller has goals of winning it all in 2024. The reigning Tennessee Senior Women's Player of the Year looks to capture her first Women's Open title this year at Stonehenge.
About Tennessee Golf Association:
Founded in 1914, the Tennessee Golf Association supports and promotes golf throughout the state with the mission to "drive Tennessee's golf community forward." What started as an association of five private clubs in Memphis over 100 years ago has since grown to include over 200 member clubs, courses and organizations across the state representing over 42,000 individuals.
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Revised: 07/08/2024 - Article Viewed 1,930 Times
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About: Brian Weis
Brian Weis is the Publisher of GolfTrips.com, a network of golf travel and directory sites including GolfWisconsin.com, GolfMichigan.com, ArizonaGolfer.com, GolfAlabama.com, etc. Professionally, Brian is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA) and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG). In 2016, Brian won The Shaheen Cup, an award given to a golf travel writer by his peers.
All of his life, Brian has been around the game of golf. As a youngster, Brian competed at all levels in junior and high school golf. Brian had a zero chance for a college golf scholarship, so he worked on the grounds crew at West Bend Country Club to pay for his University of Wisconsin education. In his adult years, his passion for the game collided with his entrepreneurial spirit and in 2004 launched GolfWisconsin.com. In 2007, the idea for a network of local golf directory sites formed and GolfTrips.com was born. Today, the network consists of a site in all 50 states supported by national sites like GolfTrips.com, GolfGuide.com and GolfPackages.com. It is an understatement to say, Brian is passionate about promoting golf and golf travel on a local, regional, national and international level.
On the golf course, Brian is known as a fierce weekend warrior that fluctuates between a 5-9 handicap. With a soft fade, known as "The Weis Slice", and booming 300+ drives, he can blast it out of bounds with the best of them.
Contact Brian Weis:
GolfTrips.com - Publisher and Golf Traveler
262-255-7600