{"id":295366,"date":"2023-05-11T02:27:32","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T02:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295366"},"modified":"2023-05-11T03:59:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T03:59:40","slug":"nine-year-old-prodigy-attempts-to-qualify-for-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295366","title":{"rendered":"Nine-year-old prodigy attempts to qualify for US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 19-year-old South Korean prodigy Inbee Park lifted the first of her seven major championships at the 2008 US Women's Open<\/a>, she became the tournament's youngest-ever champion.<\/p>\n

Bella Sim\u00f5es would not be born for around another six years but has just attempted to qualify for the same major.<\/p>\n

At nine years old, the Brazilian is the youngest player ever to attempt qualification for the tournament, set to tee off at California's acclaimed Pebble Beach course for the first time in its 78-year history in July.<\/p>\n

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Sim\u00f5es hit the very first shot of her qualifying group at The Club at Mediterra in Naples, Florida. An impeccable swing technique, which was posted to the USGA's Twitter account and drew plenty of plaudits.<\/p>\n

\"Bella<\/p>\n

Yet that should come as no surprise given Sim\u00f5es' already-impressive resume.<\/p>\n

A US Kids Golf World champion in the under-seven category in 2020, she defended her title a year later before clinching another victory in the eight-year-olds' competition in 2022.<\/p>\n

It's a youth tournament with pedigree: world No.7 and 2014 Chevron Championship winner Lexi Thompson was twice a champion before she became one of the game's elite players.<\/p>\n

Thompson became the youngest golfer ever to qualify for the US Women's Open when she \u2013 at 12 years old \u2013 made it to the 2007 edition of the major.<\/p>\n

Sim\u00f5es still has a few attempts left to seal that title but will have to wait at least another year after finishing tied-59th in the 67-player field.<\/p>\n

\"Bella<\/p>\n

The Brazilian shot 23-over par, as two players \u2013 Lindy Duncan and Brooke Matthews \u2013 secured automatic qualification with scores of 10-under and 8-under respectively.<\/p>\n

The USGA announced a record number of entries for July's championship, with 2,107 applicants from 47 US states and 62 countries dwarfing the previous record of 1,874 set last year, when Australia's Minjee Lee went on to clinch victory<\/a> at Pine Needles.<\/p>\n

Players must have a handicap index of 2.4 or below, or be a professional, to attempt qualification. Several groups are exempt and receive an automatic invitation, including the last 10 champions and the top 75 players in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Williams, a 60-year-old pro from Bethesda, Maryland, was the oldest player to attempt qualification this year, according to the USGA.<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When 19-year-old South Korean prodigy Inbee Park lifted the first of her seven major championships at the 2008 US Women's Open, she became the tournament's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295371,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295366\/revisions\/295371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/295368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}