Local teen qualifies for USGA event

WASILLA — Even though Rynae Baca just recently entered her teen years, the young Wasilla golfer has spent her summers playing, and beating, the best adult players Alaska has to offer.

Now Baca has the chance to match her skills against the best amateurs the entire country has to offer.

Baca, 13, shot a 79 at Settlers Bay Golf Course last week to earn a spot in the 2008 United States Golf Association Women’s Amateur Public Links Championships, slated to start June 16 at Erin Hills Golf Course in Erin, Wisc.

Baca, one of two Alaskans to earn a spot in the event, said she felt pretty good about play during the qualifying round.

“I had a great round on the back nine,” Baca said last week. “On the front nine, I got a little nervous.”

Nervous are understandable, considering Baca is just 13, many years younger than everyone else in the nine-player field.

But playing the adults is getting easier for Baca, the two-time defending Alaska State Amateur champion.

“I’m not as nervous as I was before,” Baca said.

Anchorage’s Brittany Bomar, who just finished her sophomore season at Division I Northern Iowa, shot a 78 to finish first in the event.

Baca’s father, Roger — Rynae’s coach and caddy — said the top two players were tied going into the final hole.

Baca bogeyed the final hole, and Bomar was able to slip away with a one-shot win.

“If she’d of sunk that par putt, there definitely would have been a playoff.”

Roger Baca said he was proud of his daughter’s score, but going into the event, he predicted the top players would shoot in the low to mid-70s range.

“She played really well, but I really felt like she definitely could have gone lower,” Roger Baca said, noting the females used the men’s tees during the event.

Roger Baca said he’s not sure whether his daughter will be the youngest player in the 2008 event. The youngest to ever qualify for the USGA Amateur Public Links Championships is Michelle Wie, who played in the event as a 10-year-old in 2000.

The USGA event will be just one part of a very busy summer for Rynae Baca and her family. On Saturday, Rynae Baca will tee off in the World Youth Team Challenge at the Bollingbrook Golf Club in Bollingbrook, Ill.

Earlier this year, Rynae Baca was invited to play as part of eight teams in the event that includes squads from Canada, Mexico, South Africa and the USA.

Roger Baca said his daughter was invited, thanks to her play in the World Junior Golf Championship last year. Rynae Baca finished fifth as a 12-year-old.

Rynae Baca will play in the World Junior event again this year, and both Rynae and her 11-year-old sister Madison are slated to play in the state amateur championships.

USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championships Alaska qualifier

May 29, Settlers Bay

Qualifiers:

Brittany Bomar 78, Rynae Baca 79.

Missed cut:

Marguax Sheehan 81, Jamie Berge 88, Becky Erickson 94, Susan Gatewood 98, Faye Palin 99, Kim Everett 99, Karen Watehr 103.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.