NYS Women's Amateur History

The New York State Women's Amateur Championship is the premier championship for the state's finest amateur female golfers. Its roll of champions stretches back to 1930, and in the decades since the event has crowned its winners at many of New York's most storied clubs — Monroe, Yahnundasis, Schuyler Meadows, Onondaga, Park CC, St. George's and Leatherstocking among them. Oak Hill Country Club donated the championship's permanent trophy, the Oak Hill Cup, and hosted the inaugural playing in 1930.

The names on the Oak Hill Cup read like a register of New York's greatest amateurs. Ruth Torgerson set the standard that still stands, winning five consecutive titles from 1946 through 1950, a mark of dominance that has not been matched. Margaret Nevil claimed four crowns between 1958 and 1962, and the list of three-time winners runs deep, from Helen Hicks, Barbara Bruning, Lancy Smith, and Dianne Wilde to Danielle Downey, Moira Dunn, and Kyra Cox. Best known is Dottie Pepper, the 1981 champion, who went on to a celebrated LPGA career with two major titles and then became one of golf's leading broadcasters.

The NYS Women's Amateur is bound closely to the NYS Girls' Junior Amateur, and a remarkable number of players have their names on both trophies, evidence of the path from junior standout to state champion. Rarest of all is the same-season sweep: only Dottie Pepper, in 1981, had ever won both titles in the same year until Nina Choe joined her 2026.