Coloradans Ashley Kozlowski (Canadian Women’s Amateur) and Lauren Lehigh (Tour championship on Annika Women’s All Pro Tour) score runner-up finishes
By Gary Baines – 8/4/2024
Two of the top Class of 2024 female college golfers that Colorado produced had memorable starts to August in very notable tournaments — one on the professional side, the other in an amateur event.
Ashley Kozłowski of Littleton, winner of the recent CGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship, finished second on Friday in the Canadian Women’s Amateur in Victoria, B.C. Kozlowski graduated late in the spring from Purdue.
Lauren Lehigh.
And Lauren Lehigh of Loveland, who began her pro career shortly after wrapping up her college days at New Mexico, was runner-up on Sunday in the tour championship for the Annika Women’s All Pro Tour, the Heritage Classic in Wichita, Kan.
— Canadian Women’s Amateur: Kozlowski, who intends to remain an amateur and soon start a career as a systems engineer at Northrop Grumman in Florida, finished a stroke behind champion Yurang Li of Fullerton, Calif., in Canada. The Coloradan posted scores of 68-69-72-72 for a 7-under-par total and narrowly missed a birdie try on the final hole that would have forced a tie with Li.
Kozlowski made 15 birdies over 72 holes.
Colorado native Jennifer Kupcho, now an LPGA Tour professional with three victories, won the Canadian Women’s Amateur title in 2017.
For all the results from Canada, CLICK HERE.
— Heritage Classic: Lehigh, a two-time Colorado girls state high school champion, shared the lead of the Heritage Classic going into the final round and ended up with a solo second-place finish out of a 127-player field, which was worth $8,500 to her.
Lehigh went 67-72-67-69 for a 13-under-par total, which left her four strokes behind winner Hailee Cooper, who picked up her third victory of the season. The Coloradan chalked up 23 birdies for the week.
The Heritage Classic is the most lucrative of the Annika WAPT events, featuring a $100,000 purse. The top five players earned spots into the Epson Tour’s Guardian Championship Sept. 6-8 in Prattville, Ala..
Last week, the Annika WAPT announced it will hold a 2025 event at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton July 20-25.
For all the scores from Wichita, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com