Michigan’s Monet Chun Earns National Runner Up in U.S. Women’s Amateur

August 14, 2022

By Tom Lang

Michigan Wolverine junior-to-be Monet Chun made a valiant effort to reach the pinnacle of women’s amateur golf in the United States but came up one match short in a resounding defeat by a young Japanese player, 17-year-old Saki Baba – who won 11-and-9 over Chun in the USGA final at Chamber’s Bay.

It must have felt to Chun as if she got in the way of the Santa Fa Railway that runs through the property on the very edge of Puget Sound, south of Seattle. 

“Honestly, I was trying to match it up, but it was pretty amazing just to watch,” Chun said of Baba’s run-away performance. “She was going for every pin, making every putt, and that's hard to match up.”

After the first 18 holes, Baba was 7-up. Early in the second round (the championship is always scheduled for 36 holes) on national TV, Chun won two holes to get within five. But then Baba rattled off 6 straight hole wins, including a birdie on the 9th hole, to end that match after only the front nine was played Sunday afternoon. NBC / The Golf Channel had to fill the remainder of it’s prime time schedule with action taped earlier in the day on the first 18.

“I’m extremely proud,” Chun added. “I couldn't have imagined making it this far, and being here, it's an incredible honor and also just great to represent [the University of] Michigan and Canada, as well.”

Chun has had a wonderful 2022 season. She started it off with a Big Ten individual and team championship in late April. The individual title was her first in college, where she shot a team record low of 205 (70-66-69, -8). The Big Ten team title was the Wolverine woman’s program’s first. Then a couple weeks ago she added to her successful summer schedule by winning the Canadian Amateur title, in her home country. It was that win that qualified her for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Chun became the first Wolverine to reach a U.S. Amateur final match in 66 years, following U-M men's golf legend Chuck Kocsis in 1956. Additionally, Chun became the third Michigan golfer to reach the title match after fellow U-M men's golf legend John Fischer won the 1936 event in 37 holes at the Garden City Golf Club in New York.

Today Chun earned an exemption for the 2023 U.S. Women's Open (Pebble Beach Golf Links) and will be exempt from qualifying for the next three U.S. Women's Amateurs, if she remains an amateur.