At the 2024 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championship, held this year at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass., the historic course played tough in Round 1. So tough, in fact, that the scoring average for Round 1 was 80.1, and only one player in the field managed to shoot under par.
That player was Alexandra Austin, who fired an opening round of two-under 70 — the only red number in the 132-player field — and even more impressively, she did it while six months pregnant. Austin’s baby boy is due in January.
The Fairfax, Va.-based insurance agent and experienced amateur is competing in her fourth U.S. Women’s Mid-Am. She made it to the quarterfinals in last year’s edition of the championship. She also made it to the semi-finals of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball alongside partner Lauren Greenlief.
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Austin’s three-birdie, one-bogey round was highlighted by a near-ace on the 218-yard par-3 17th at Brae Burn.
“I hit 3-wood,” Austin told the USGA after her round. “It was almost going in. I was like, Oh that’d be great, and then I can’t drink.”
Just behind Austin on the leaderboard is Jacqueline Setas at even par, and three players at one-over par, including last year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Am runner-up, Kelsey Chugg, and Austin’s former four-ball partner, Greenlief. Defending champ Kimberly Dinh was T23 after posting a score of four-over 76.
Austin and the rest of the field will complete the stroke-play portion of the championship with Round 2 on Sunday. From there, the top 64 players will be seeded in match play, with the Round of 64 taking place on Monday, the Round of 32 and the Round of 16 on Tuesday, quarterfinals and semifinals on Wednesday, and the final 18-hole match on Thursday. You can follow the action here.