The 2022 U.S. Women's Open will feature more than 15 current college golfers, including some of the very best players in the country, who contended for — or in one case, won — the 2022 NCAA DI Women's Golf Championships. This year's U.S. Women's Open is at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina, from June 2-5.
Here are the golfers in the 2022 U.S. Women's Open field who competed at the NCAA level during the 2021-22 season. The players are listed alphabetically by last name, which means we saved the best for last — literally — because Stanford's Rose Zhang just won the NCAA individual and team titles and the Annika Award as a freshman.
Malak Bouraeda
School: Colorado
Years active: 2018-22
Bouraeda plans to return to Colorado for a fifth season, according to the USGA, after posting three top-five finishes for the school in the last four seasons. She earned the only qualifying spot for the U.S. Women's Open at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, where she shot a 1-under in the qualifier.
Jensen Castle
School: Kentucky
Years active: 2019-22
As a freshman at Kentucky, Castle set the program's single-season stroke record with an average of 71.88, while she earned All-SEC First Team honors, becoming the first Wildcat to do so since 1989. Last season, she matched her career-best round of 66 twice and she broke the school's 54-hole record by four strokes at the UCF Challenge, where she shot a 15-under 201. She set a new single-season record for stroke average at 71.75, just ahead of her freshman-year performance. At the 121st U.S. Women's Amateur, she won the event despite being the No. 63 seed in an all-time unexpected victory in a USGA event.
Castle competed in the U.S. Women's Open last year at The Olympic Club, where she missed the cut.
Bailey Davis
School: Tennessee
Years active: 2021-22
As a freshman at Tennessee, Davis earned SEC All-Freshman honors and she tied for 45th at the SEC Championship. She finished her freshman season with one top-10 finish and two top-25 finishes. At the U.S. Women's Open qualifier at Belle Haven Country Club, she was one of two players to shoot below par.
Alexandra Forsterling
School: Arizona State
Years active: 2018-22
Forsterling will make her U.S. Women's Open debut after shooting a 2-under 142 in 36 holes at the qualifier at the Gainey Ranch Golf Club. She was a member of the European Junior Ryder Cup Team prior to attending Arizona State.
Laney Frye
School: Kentucky
Years active: 2020-22
As a freshman at Kentucky, Frye became the fourth Wildcat to earn SEC All-Freshman Team honors and she led the team in stroke average, top-10 finishes, top-20 finishes and par-or-better rounds. Last season at the UCF Challenge, she finished a career-best tied for fourth while shooting a 9-under 207 over 54 holes, which was tied for the third-best in school history. She beat LPGA Tour player Sanna Luutinen at Shannopin Country Club to qualify for the 2022 U.S. Women's Open.
Annabell Fuller
School: Florida
Years active: 2019-22
Fuller was named to the All-SEC Second Team in 2022 and she earned SEC Golfer of the Week honors once during the season. As a sophomore in the 2020-21 season, she led the team with four top-10 finishes and five top-25 finishes.
Ami Gianchandani
School: Yale
Years active: 2018-22
As a freshman at Yale, Gianchandani won both Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year honors, becoming the first Bulldog to win both awards in the same season. In 2022, she finished tied for third at the Ivy League Championship. She'll make her U.S. Women's Open debut after shooting an even-par 140 at the qualifier at Worcester Country Club.
Lauren Gomez
School: Pepperdine
Years active: 2021-22
As a freshman at Pepperdine, Gomez won the West Coast Conference championship — the first win of her college career — and she fired back-to-back 4-under 68s at Soule Park Golf Course to qualify for her first U.S. Women's Open.
Melanie Green
School: South Florida
Years active: 2020-22
Green was nearly a lock to finish in the top 10 during her sophomore season at South Florida, where she logged seven top-10 finishes in 10 starts. She finished sixth at the American Athletic Conference Championship.
She'll make her U.S. Women's Open debut after firing a 6-under 138 in 36 holes in a qualifier at The Forest Country Club.
Ingrid Lindblad
School: LSU
Years active: 2019-22
Lindblad has already competed in the U.S. Women's Open, where she finished tied for 30th in 2020 at Champions Golf Club with a score of 8-over. She was 2-over through 54 holes before shooting a 77 in the fourth round.
In three seasons at LSU, Lindblad has a career stroke average of 70.43, with 57 of her 82 career rounds coming in at even-par or better. She has won nine events, including the 2022 SEC Championship, and she's a two-time SEC Player of the Year and three-time Annika Award finalist.
Below you can watch Lindblad nearly make an ace in the final round of the 2022 NCAA DI Women's Golf Championships, where she finished tied for third at 1-under. She shot a 2-under 70 in both the second and fourth rounds, thanks to an eagle on No. 18 in the second round and a three-birdie, one-bogey fourth round.
Karissa Kilby
School: Florida International
Years active: 2021-22
The soon-to-be sophomore finished eighth at the 2022 Conference USA Championship and now she'll make her U.S. Women's Open debut after earning her spot in the field as the first alternate from the Honolulu, Hawaii, qualifying site.
Emma McMyler
School: Xavier
Years active: 2020-22
McMyler had four top-10 finishes in 10 starts as a sophomore at Xavier, where she helped the Musketeers win their third consecutive Big East Championship. Her 73.14 scoring average ranked as the best in the conference and she was named Big East Player of the Year after earning medalist honors at the conference championship.
Lauren Miller
School: Mississippi State
Years active: 2018-22
In a small-world moment for Miller, she'll play in the same 2022 U.S. Women's Open field as Ally Ewing, who's the wife of Miller's Mississippi State coach, Charlie Ewing. She had one top-10 finish in six starts during the 2021-22 season. Miller qualified after shooting a 2-under at Fox Run Golf Club.
Anna Morgan
School: Furman
Years active: 2019-22
Morgan will make her first U.S. Women's Open start after qualifying through a 5-in-2 playoff at Mid Pines Inn & Resort, where she finished at even par. At Furman, she was named the 2021 SoCon Freshman of the Year and in 2022, she helped the Paladins with the conference championship, where she finished tied for ninth as an individual.
At the 2022 NCAA DI Women's Golf Championships, Morgan finished tied for ninth after posting a 72-hole score of 3-over. She was 1-under through 36 holes thanks to shooting a 3-under 33 on the front nine in the second round.
Bohyun Park
School: Texas
Years active: 2021-22
Park finished tied for 17th at the 2022 NCAA DI Women's Golf Championships after posting a 5-over 293. Her 4-under 68 in the second round put her at even par for the tournament through 36 holes. She birdied six of the final 13 holes that round and in the final round, she eagled the 392-yard third hole as part of an even-par round.
Park competed in the 2021 U.S. Women's Open, where she was 12-over through two rounds before missing the cut.
Rose Zhang
School: Stanford
Years active: 2021-22
As a freshman at Stanford, Zhang won the NCAA individual title, finishing three strokes ahead of the rest of the field with a 72-hole score of 6-under at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., and she helped the Cardinal win the team championship. Zhang gave Stanford a 3-2 win over Oregon with a 3&1 win over Oregon's Sofie Kibsgaard Nelson.
She earned the Annika Award as the best collegiate golfer in the country, one season after her Stanford teammate Rachel Heck also won it as a freshman the year before.
Zhang has competed in the U.S. Women's Open in each of the last three years, finishing tied for 55th at 7-over in her first start in 2019 at the Country Club of Charleston. She missed the cut in 2020 and 2021.
