Yale golfer gets Women’s Open shot

Ami Gianchandani is only 22, yet the rising senior for the Yale University women’s golf team has already played in eight United States Golf Association championships.

It will soon be nine and her biggest one to date. Gianchandani qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open, which begins Thursday at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

“Growing up, I followed some of these players,” Gianchandani said. “Some of them now are the same age as me. They left college to go play (professionally). … Hopefully, this will be the first time of many that I will continue to play with them.”

Of those eight previous USGA appearances, Gianchandani competed in the U.S. Junior four times. A captain for the Yale team, Gianchandani shot a 71-69 at the Worcester Country Club to win the qualifier. It was the only spot available.

“Sectional qualifying is normally regarded as the toughest day in golf. There is so much pressure,” Gianchandani said. “When I found out I had won it, I was over the moon. It was the moment I was picturing and looking forward to since I was 10 years old. This was the seventh or eighth time playing in a U.S. Open qualifier. I’ve been close before.”

Gianchandani, the Ivy

League Player of the Year, admitted she chose to not look at any leaderboards or ask where she stood throughout the 36 holes.

“I did not talk to anyone at lunch that day. That (watching leaderboards) is not something I constantly do or don’t do,” Gianchandani said. “On that day, it felt like the right thing to do on a 36-hole day, which is really long. If you get caught up in results, that takes you out of the present and before you know it, you’ve lost focus.”

Yale teammate Kaityn Lee carded a 69-73-142 to earn alternate status for the Open.

Among those competing will be Annika Sorenstam, the three-time Open champion and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sorenstam earned an exemption by winning the U.S. Senior Women’s Open last August at Brooklawn CC in Fairfield.

“I read a bunch of golf books that have her as the example of what it means to be a great golfer,” Gianchandani said about Sorenstam. “She probably is the one in the field I most look up to and consider an idol.’

Gianchandani said she is flying to North Carolina on Sunday. She has practice rounds scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.