SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’ll be a family affair next summer at Southern Hills. There will also be plenty of good-natured ribbing going on.
Rachel Kuehn, one of the top women’s college golfers and a member of the defending NCAA champions Wake Forest, is set to tee it up with her mom Brenda Corrie Kuehn in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It’ll mark just the second time the prestigious U.S. Golf Association event will feature a mother-daughter combo. In 1962 Jean Trainor and her daughter Anne Trainor made the field and the two actually squared off in match play, with mom winning 4 and 3 in the second round at the Country Club of Rochester in New York.
In 2024, Rachel will be coming off her fifth and final season at Wake Forest. She plans to keep her amateur status through the Women’s Am. Brenda, meanwhile, qualified for next year’s Am after reaching the final of the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which was contested Thursday at Troon Country Club.
“I wish more than anything that I could have been there for her this week. But I got to refresh from afar and be some moral support from a distance,” said Rachel, who joked there’s a worn part of her phone screen from constantly refreshing the leaderboard.
Always in awe of my superstar momma
https://t.co/mZBTbh7IV7
— Rachel Kuehn (@rachel_kuehn_) October 5, 2023
As she looked ahead to the Women’s Am next summer, Brenda knows it’ll be a challenge keeping up with the youngsters.
“That’s a whole other league,” Brenda said after falling short in the final against Sarah Gallagher, who won the Senior Am title 1 up.
Rachel helped Wake Forest capture the 2023 NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club, just five miles down the road from Troon CC last May.
“Incredibly excited for her,” said Rachel. “We did make the joke at the start of the week that Arizona was good for the Kuehn family.”
But what if the two were to meet in match play next summer at the Women’s Am?
“I’d love to take her down,” Brenda quipped. “The problem is there is so much trash talking in our house that if one person wins, I mean, it would go on forever.”
“And I have a feeling it’s not going to be me,” she continued to joke. “It’d be her. So, I don’t really want to give her that opportunity to trash talk me for the rest of my life.”
“There will be a whole lot of trash talk,” Rachel concurred. “She was right, we would never let the other live it down. I hope we get that chance, that would be cool.”
By making the 2023 final, both Kuehn and Gallagher earn that U.S. Women’s Am spot (Aug. 5-11) as well as entry into the 2024 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Massachusetts, and the 2024 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, Washington.
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard contributed to this article.