It’s been nearly two years since Megan Furtney converted a 7-foot par putt on Timuquana Country Club’s 17th hole to seal the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball title for her and partner Erica Shepherd.

Little did anyone know on that May day in Jacksonville, Fla., how the world would look a year later, after COVID-19 became part of our daily lexicon. The pandemic forced the cancellation of all but four of the USGA’s 2020 championships, including the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, scheduled for Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla.

This week, the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship returns to take center stage at Maridoe Golf Club. Here are three things to know as the year’s first championship gets underway on Saturday:

New Champions

When 2019 champions Furtney and Shepherd withdrew last week after helping Duke University to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, it opened the door for two new names to be engraved on the trophy.

Could a recent runner-up pairing garner that coveted title?

Jillian Bourdage and Casey Weidenfeld, a pair of Floridians, came up short in the 2019 final, and Bourdage also was a runner-up later that summer, falling to Lei Ye in the 36-hole final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis. In 2017, University of Georgia alums Sammi Lee and Mary Ellen Shuman lost in the championship match at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Both sides return for this week’s sixth edition.

 Another side to keep an eye on is the duo of Alexa Pano, the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up, and partner Paris Hilinski, both of whom are inside the top 400 of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. Grace Summerhays, the sister of 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur champ Preston Summerhays, has teamed with fellow Arizona resident Sydney Bryan. Grace advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior.

While no mid-amateur or senior tandem has won the title in the previous five iterations, the veteran duo of Ellen Port and Lara Tennant have combined for nine USGA championships. Tennant has won the last two playings of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, and Port has captured four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and three U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur titles.

The top three finishers in the Girls 12-13 division from last month’s Drive, Chip & Putt Championship at Augusta National are all in the field, albeit with different partners. Winner Yuna Wilson is paired with Rianna Mission; runner-up Lucy Yuan is paired with Anna Davis; and third-place finisher Avery Zweig is paired with Gianna Clemente, who qualified for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur at age 10.

Back Again

Only one side can boast of playing in all six U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships: Meghan Stasi and Dawn Woodard. Another duo also will have played in all six, albeit with different partners for the first three: 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Lauren Greenlief and Katie Miller.

Both sides got into this year’s field as alternates due to withdrawals.

Stasi and Woodard earned first-alternate status from the Heber Springs, Ark., qualifier. Greenlief and Miller, who first teamed up in 2018 after playing with different partners, were the first alternates from the Petersburg, Va., site.

Stasi, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has claimed four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles and competed on the victorious 2008 USA Curtis Cup Team. She is also coming off a victory on Wednesday in the inaugural Ladies National Golf Association (LNGA) Mid-Amateur at Anthem Golf & C.C. in Arizona. Woodard, of Greenville, S.C., a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur medalist and an eight-time South Carolina Women’s Amateur champion, tied for second in the LNGA event, five strokes back of Stasi. The side has qualified for match play in four of their five previous starts and reached the quarterfinals of the inaugural event at Bandon Dunes in 2015.

Greenlief, of Ashburn, Va., and Miller, of Oakmont, Pa., lost in Round of 32 in 2019 after missing the cut a year earlier. Greenlief advanced to the semifinals of the 2016 championship with fellow Virginian Alexandra Austin, while Miller reached the quarterfinals in 2015 with Amber Marsh Elliott and the ensuing year with Kristen Obush.

Demanding Test

Maridoe Golf Club, formerly The Honors Club that was remodeled by architect Steve Smyers in 2017, is a stern test. When the club hosted the inaugural Maridoe Amateur in December, not a single competitor bettered par over 54 holes of stroke play.

Will Holcomb, a semifinalist in the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst, was the medalist with a 2-over total of 218. Noah Goodwin, the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, shot 7 over. Summerhays was 8 over, tied with 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Michael Thorbjornsen.

When the Texas Golf Association rated the course on behalf of the USGA for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, the Course Rating was 79.3 with a Slope Rating of 152.

“The course is extremely challenging for a number of reasons,” said Rachel Sadowski, the USGA’s championship director for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. “There aren’t a lot of short-tee options and it’s a second-shot golf course. [There are] a lot of long approaches due to [required] lay-ups off the tee. [The] elevated greens are severely undulated.

“There are plenty of penalty areas and lots of water to negotiate. It’s Texas, so the winds can pick up and the course is relatively unprotected. It’s an intimidating golf course visually.”

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.