In the longest final match in U.S.
Ina Kim-Schaad won the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship for the second time on Thursday, draining an 18-foot putt on the fifth extra hole at Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course to claim a dramatic victory over her opponent, Hanley Long. The 23-hole final match was the longest in U.S. Women’s Mid-Am history.
At 42 years old, Kim-Schaad is a USGA event veteran, with this year marking her 20th USGA championship appearance. With the win, she became the fourth-oldest champion ever at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, and the first woman to win the Mid-Am twice since Julia Potter-Bobb in 2016. Kim-Schaad won her first Mid-Am title in 2019 at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Ariz.
“I’m still overwhelmed with emotion, honestly,” Kim-Schaad said Thursday. “I truly love this place, and my husband and I got married in Carmel. To do it at such a special place, golf course, with my family here and my husband on the bag, his birthday day week, and for a second time, it’s like there’s not even enough language to put around just all the feels that I’m feeling.”
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Kim-Schaad fired stroke-play rounds of 72-79 (seven over) to take the 45th seed in the match-play Round of 64. She won her first match 1 up; her Round of 32 match 2 and 1, her Round of 16 match 3 and 2, her quarterfinal match 3 and 1, and her semi-final match 2 and 1, where she took out No. 1 seed Katherine Zhu.
In the final match against Long, 27, Kim-Schaad won the first hole and never trailed, but Long managed to tie the match four different times - including on the 17th hole. Kim-Schaad ultimately prevailed with a dramatic birdie on the fifth extra hole.
“Downhill left-to-right ticklers are not my specialty, but I just wanted to give it a chance,” Kim-Schaad said. “I thought if I nestled it up there and two-putted, [Long] was going to have a really difficult par anyway. My genuine intention was nestle it up there and give it a chance, and it just happened to drop.”
“It was an absolute battle out there the entire day,” Long said. “Hats off to our champion. She absolutely crushed it today. Honestly, I’m just so proud of my grit and determination throughout the entire day, keeping my head up and held high and never giving up.”
With the win, Kim-Schaad will receive an exemption into the next 10 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships, the 2026 and 2027 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships and the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Riviera Country Club.
The 2026 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship will be played at Montclair Golf Club in West Orange, N.J., Sept. 29-Oct. 3.
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