Trio of amateurs will finish conference play, then head straight to Chevron

Busy weeks have already begun for three of the seven amateurs competing in the Chevron Championship.

The LPGA’s first major championship of the year begins Thursday at The Club at Carlton Woods’ Nicklaus Course in The Woodlands, Texas, and in the field are seven amateurs: Saki Baba, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champ; L.A.-area college standouts Amari Avery of USC and Zoe Campos of UCLA; Ting-Hsuan Huang and Eila Galitsky, each of the past two Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific winners; British Amateur champ Jess Baker, who plays collegiately at UCF; and Michigan State’s Valentina Rossi, the Latin America Women’s champ.

Rossi is skipping the Big Ten Championship, which begins Friday at Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh, but the three other college players – Avery, Campos and Baker – will finish conference play on Wednesday before taking late flights to Houston.

Avery and Campos are currently competing at the Pac-12 Championship at Papago Golf Club in Phoenix while Baker is at the American Conference Championship at Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, Florida. Baker traveled to Carlton Woods for some practice rounds after the ANWA.

“As logistically difficult as it is,” Baker told Golfweek last month, “I would do it every time.”

But Avery and Campos, who received word of their Chevron invites less than two weeks ago, have not had chances to make scouting trips Carlton Woods and will tee it up in Thursday’s first round without having seen the course. Avery’s dad, Andre, is already at Carlton Woods, though, having caddied for his younger daughter, Alona, in the Mack Champ Invitational last weekend on the Nicklaus Course.

Avery was tied for fifth at 2 under and Campos T-10 at 1 under through 18 holes of Pac-12s. Baker was T-6 at 2 under after the first round of AACs.