DURHAM – Duke women’s golf incoming freshman Katie Li along with five former Blue Devils – Jaravee Boonchant, Celine Boutier, Gina Kim, Yu Liu and Leona Maguire — are set to compete in the inaugural Mizuho Americas Open, which will be contested June 1-4 at the Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J.
The Mizuho Americas Open will be played in a never-before-seen format on the LPGA Tour, with AJGA amateurs playing alongside LPGA Tour professionals. A total of 120 LPGA professionals and 24 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) juniors will play two separate tournaments, using Stableford scoring all four rounds and playing from different yardages.
“Stableford” is a scoring system that awards points for the number of strokes taken on each hole in relation to par, rather than simply counting strokes like in stroke play. Unlike in stroke play, where players want the lowest score, the goal in Stableford scoring is to have the highest score. Standard Stableford points values are:
0 Points – Double bogey or worse (two strokes or more over par)
1 Point – Bogey (one stroke over par)
2 Points – Par
3 Points – Birdie (one stroke under par)
4 Points – Eagle (two strokes under par)
5 Points – Albatross or double eagle (three strokes under par)
6 Points – Condor (four strokes under par)
During rounds one and two, AJGA juniors, including Li, will be paired together. After 36 holes, the LPGA will cut to low-50 and ties and there will be no cut for the AJGA juniors. In rounds three and four, one AJGA junior will play with two LPGA Tour pros with groupings made based on scores.
Li, who hails from Basking Ridge, N.J., owns 18 top-5 career finishes on the AJGA and is currently ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek girls rankings for the class of 2023. She will join the Blue Devils in August for the 2023-24 campaign.
Duke currently features three Blue Devils in the top-33 of the 2023 LPGA money list with Boutier sixth at $570,338, Maguire 25th with $269,203 and Liu 33rd at $207,354.
Fans will be able to watch the action live on Golf Channel (TV) and golfchannel.com, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports App and Peacock (streaming). On…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Duke University…