Mid-Am women’s leader shoots only at 6 months pregnant

At the 2024 US Women’s Intermediate Amateur Championship, held this year in Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass., the historic course played tough in Round 1. So tough, in fact, that the average score for Round 1 was 80.1, and only one player in the field managed to shoot under par.

That player was Alexandra Austin, who shot an opening round of two-under 70 — the only red in the 132-player field — and even more impressively, she did it while six months pregnant. Austin’s son is due in January.

Fairfax, Va.-based insurance agent. and seasoned amateur is competing in her fourth US women’s competition. She reached the quarterfinals in the last edition of the championship. She also reached the semifinals of the 2016 US Women’s Amateur Four with partner Lauren Greenlief.

Austin’s three-birdie, one-putt round was highlighted by a near-perfect ace on the 218-yard par-3 17th at Brae Burn.

“I hit a 3-wood,” Austin told the USGA after her round. It was almost coming in. I was like, Oh, that would be nice, and then I can’t drink.”

Just behind Austin on the leaderboard is Jacqueline Setas at even par, and three players at a higher level, including last year’s US women’s runner-up Kelsey Chugg and Austin’s former four-ball partner Greenlief . Defending champion Kimberly Dinh was T23 after posting a four-over 76.

Austin and the rest of the field will complete the championship portion of the championship with a stroke in the second round on Sunday. From there, the top 64 players will advance to match play, with the round of 64 taking place on Monday, the round of 32 and round of 16 on Tuesday, the quarterfinals and semifinals on Wednesday, and the match the last with 18 holes. Thursday. You can follow the action here.

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As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural women’s varsity player class, Jessica can blow away anyone in the masthead. She can also drive them in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her series The original interview, “A Round With,” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.