RED HOOK, N.Y. — Red Hook Golf Club member Ina Kim-Schaad admits that it’ll probably be difficult to top her accomplishments on the golf course over the last two weeks.
First, the 42-year-old Kim-Schaad captured her second U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Golf Championship by draining an 18-foot birdie putt on the fifth extra hole to defeat Hanley Long of Clarksville, Tennessee, on the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course in Pebble Beach, California on Oct. 9.
Then eight days later, she was undefeated in her three matches to help the Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) bring home the 18th Carey Cup over a team from Ireland at the Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin, Ireland.
“It was a pretty special experience (winning the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) because I grew up in California,” Kim-Schaad said in an phone interview on Monday, Oct. 20 after she and her husband, Ian, returned home to New York. “It is a special place for me because Ian and I got married in Carmel. Monterey Peninsula is one of our favorite golf courses. He was on the bag with me and my parents from L.A. were visiting and we had a great rental house. We had a lot of fun. There were a lot of components that made this week very special for me regardless of the win.”
Kim-Schaad said the national mid-amateur title was also gratifying because the tournament for women age 25 and over had a record turnout with many exceptional competitors. She also faced many younger opponents along the way.
Ina Kim-Schaad (bottom row, far right) is photographed on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, as the team from the Metropolitan Golf Association holds the trophy after winning the 18th Carey Cup over Golf Ireland at the Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin, Ireland.
“The course setup the final day was very tough,” Kim-Schaad said. “The pins were in places where you couldn’t quite have access to a lot of them. You really had to be OK with hitting a great shot and still having a 20- to 25-footer if not more. It was a little bit of a different mindset instead of just flag hunting as it required a little bit more discipline than just being in attack mode. I made a few errors in the middle of the round that are pretty uncharacteristic of me, but I was very proud of how I bounced back and didn’t linger. I really stayed focused on playing the golf hole ahead of me and not worrying about how I stood or how my opponent was playing. I’m grateful that turned out to be the best strategy.”
Though Kim-Schaad and her husband spend much of the year in their home in Jupiter, Florida, they spend a lot of time in New York. She has become one of the top women golfers in MGA history, with signature wins at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and the 2024 New York Women’s Amateur Championship.
A member at the prestigious Deepdale Golf Club on Long Island, Kim-Schaad said she has played countless rounds while a member of the Red Hook Golf Club. Her husband is a Rhinebeck native and is currently on Red Hook’s board of directors.
“My husband went to Rhinebeck High and his mother and father still live there,” she said. “I’ve played a lot of golf at Red Hook. Ian learned to play golf at Red Hook and his father was the president of Red Hook Golf Club. So we have a lot of ties to the community and it’s been a lovely community for us.”
A native of Los Angeles, Kim-Schaad was a standout golfer in high school and lost in the finals of the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. She went on to play collegiately at Northwestern, but after graduating in 2005 she gave up the game of golf to focus on a career in business.
Kim-Schaad’s career in the financial world took her to Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco before moving overseas to London and Hong Kong. Along the way, she met her future husband and the couple eventually moved to New York.
Her husband Ian, a 2-handicap and a club champion at the Red Hook club, convinced her to take up the sport again in 2016 after a 10-year hiatus.
It didn’t take long for her to regain her touch and she’s been a force on the MGA and national golf scene ever since.
While still basking in the glow of her second national title at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, Kim-Schaad left immediately after her victory to play some courses in Ireland to acclimate herself to the time change and the different conditions of links-style golf courses.
In her third appearance at the Carey Cup, Kim-Schaad was undefeated in two team matches and in her singles match. She has been on three straight winning MGA teams in the Carey Cup and has cherished every moment.
“Whenever you’re playing for something greater than yourself, there’s that added little bit of pressure,” she said. “You really want to do well because your teammates are relying on you. I guess I can say now that I really do thrive under pressure and I enjoy it. It’s truly a privilege to play under those conditions.”
The MGA team beat Golf Ireland 12.5 to 9.5 last week. The MGA has maintained possession of the Carey Cup since 2019, its longest stretch in the event’s history.
When asked if 2025 was one of her best seasons, Kim-Schaad said she was proud of her accomplishments.
“Yeah, I’d have to say it doesn’t get much better than this,” she replied. “My first one (U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) was so sweet coming out of not golfing at all and being able to do that was really special. It’s kind of hard to compare, but this one was pretty darn special. I don’t know if I can beat this with my family being there, the venue being what it is (in California), the field and everything else. It was amazing.”
Originally Published: October 21, 2025 at 4:56 PM EDT
