Pregnant NJ Golfer Chases National Title at West Orange's Montclair Club

A national golf championship arrives in New Jersey this weekend, and it is not landing at the club most local fans would expect. Montclair Golf Club, tucked into West Orange and Verona, opens practice rounds Thursday and Friday ahead of the 2026 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship, a six-calendar-day event that runs from Aug. 29 through Sept. 3 and brings 132 female amateur golfers age 25 and older to the club's historic Donald Ross nines.

The championship marks Montclair's first USGA national event in 41 years, since the club hosted the 1985 U.S. Amateur, according to NJ.com. That 1985 U.S. Amateur was won by Sam Randolph, who went on to earn low amateur honors at the Masters Tournament in both 1985 and 1986, according to the United States Golf Association. The last time the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur itself came to New Jersey was in 1997, when it was played at Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield and won by Carol Semple Thompson, who had also captured the U.S. Women's Amateur at Montclair back in 1973.

A Lone Jersey Golfer, Playing for Two

Only one New Jersey golfer made the 132-player field: Kate Granahan of Mountain Lakes, the reigning New Jersey Women's Mid-Amateur champion, who is competing while pregnant with her first child. The 32-year-old, who played collegiately for Penn State, has won the New Jersey Women's Mid-Amateur title three times, in 2021, 2023 and 2026, most recently capturing it at Upper Montclair Country Club this past July, per the same NJ.com report. According to ACOG, regular exercise during pregnancy can benefit the pregnant person and fetus, including by reducing back pain and easing constipation.

The rest of the field spans a wide age range, from 25-year-old Jensen Jalufka of Austin, Texas, to 63-year-old Mercedese Large of West Hartford, Connecticut. The USGA created the Mid-Amateur championship in 1987 specifically to give post-collegiate players a dedicated national stage, addressing how full-time college golfers had made it difficult for older amateurs to compete equitably, according to the USGA. The inaugural 1987 championship drew 320 entries.

Ross Design Meets Modern Restoration

Qualifying competitions for this year's 132-player field were held between June 24 and July 29, the USGA notes. The championship will be played across Montclair's Second and Third nines, laid out by Donald Ross in 1920 and configured for this event as a par-70 course measuring 5,763 yards. Ross designed three of the club's four nine-hole courses, while architect Charles Banks designed the fourth.

Founded in 1893, Montclair Golf Club is the 13th-oldest golf club in the United States and moved to its current West Orange and Verona location in 1920. The club underwent a multi-phase restoration, including a master plan effort starting in 2020 led by architect Brian Schneider of Renaissance Golf Design that reconstructed and recontoured greens and removed trees, according to a report from Sports Illustrated. Legendary amateur Bob Jones, winner of nine USGA championships, once famously called Montclair the “longest short course” he had ever played, per the USGA. Robert Trent Jones Sr. was a longtime club member, and both Robert Trent Jones Jr. and architect Rees Jones learned the game at Montclair.

Institutional Roots and a Tricky Green Test

Montclair was also one of the founding member clubs of the Metropolitan Golf Association, and longtime club member Isaac “Ike” Grainger served as USGA president from 1954 to 1955 and was recognized as an authority on the Rules of Golf, the USGA notes. Robert Scalzo, co-chair of the tournament's host committee, said Montclair is one of the best golf courses in New Jersey, according to NJ.com's reporting by Chris Faytok. Player Ashley Kim said the course's undulating and double-tier greens have proven difficult during practice, the same report states.

Format, Schedule and Free Admission

Competition opens with 18-hole stroke-play rounds on Saturday and Sunday, with the first round teeing off at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and the second at the same time Sunday. The field will then be cut to the low 64 players, who advance into match play beginning with a round of 64 with 8:30 a.m. tee times on Monday. Rounds of 32 and 16 follow Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., quarterfinals and semifinals are set for Wednesday at 7:30 a.m., and the two finalists will meet in an 18-hole championship match Thursday, Sept. 3, starting at 8:30 a.m.

Spectators need no tickets, and the USGA is encouraging fans to attend; admission is free throughout the week. The winner earns an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Women's Open at Inverness Club, one of professional golf's five major championships, along with custody of the Mildred Gardinor Prunaret Trophy for a year, an exemption into the next U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship, and exemptions into the next two U.S. Women's Amateur Championships, per the USGA.

A Defending Champion With History on Her Side

Defending champion Ina Kim-Schaad of Jupiter, Florida, won last year's title in a 23-hole final match at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, the longest championship match in tournament history, according to the USGA. It was her second Mid-Amateur crown, having also won in 2019. Only two players in USGA history have won the title four times: Ellen Port, who won in 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2011, and Meghan Stasi, who won in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012.