By David Shefter, USGA

Not only will the 27th U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at Ocean Hammock Golf Club in Palm Coast, Fla., feature two reigning USGA champions (Annie Thurman and Becky Lucidi), but five players in this year's field of 144 competitors have qualified for the U.S. Women's Open.

Besides Lucidi, who earned an exemption into the Women's Open by virtue of her victory at the 2002 Women's Amateur, Thurman, the defending WAPL champion, Michelle Wie, Allison Fouch and Virada Nirapathpongporn secured an invitation to Pumpkin Ridge through sectional qualifying.

Thurman and Nirapathpongporn earned spots at the Charlotte, N.C., sectional, while Wie qualified outside of Orlando, Fla., and Fouch did so in Summit, N.J.

Nirapathpongporn, a rising senior at Duke University, won the individual title at the 2002 NCAA Women's Championships, while Lucidi led the University of Southern California to the team title at this year's NCAAs.

Thurman, a rising junior at Oklahoma State, will be the first competitor to try to defend her WAPL title since Amy Spooner in 1999. Spooner won the 1998 WAPL in Hawaii.

Wie, a 13-year-old from Honolulu, Hawaii, advanced to the semifinals at last year's WAPL in Sunriver, Ore. Earlier this year, she finished in the top 10 at the Nabisco Championships and played in the final pairing on Sunday.

Fouch carried her own bag during the 36-hole sectional at Canoe Brook Country Club, shooting 153 to grab one of the 11 available spots. She admitted to having a tough spring where her Michigan State team failed to qualify for the NCAAs, but added that she is starting to come out of her current funk.