When they look back on it years from now, Brynn Walker and
Madelein Herr will realize what excellent adventures they had at the first two
editions of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
It probably just felt a little painful in the moments
following their heartbreaking 1-up loss on the 18th hole at the
Streamsong Resort’s Blue Course in a quarterfinal match against the Philippines
pair of Pauline Del Rosario and Princess Mary Superal.
Del Rosario, a Kansas recruit, and Superal, who plans to
turn professional later this year, had won the qualifying medal with a pair of
66s over the 6,216-yard, par-72 Tom Doak
design, so Walker, a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion at Radnor, and Herr, the
District One Class AAA champion from Council Rock North, knew what they were
getting into.
Walker, a North Carolina recruit, and the Penn State-bound
Herr, fell behind early in the quarterfinal match as Del Rosario and Superal
won the first and seventh holes with birdies to grab a 2-up lead.
But Team WalkHerr displayed, both last year in their run to
the semifinals at Bandon Dunes and again this year at Streamsong, the kind of
grit you need in match play. Walker and Herr cut the deficit in half by winning
the 11th hole with a par and then won 13 and 15 with birdies. Suddenly,
they were 1-up with three to play. Another berth in the semifinals was within
their grasp.
But Del Rosario and Superal evened the match with a birdie
on the 16th and won the match with a birdie at 18. It was the
Filipinos who were making a date in the semifinals where they will take on
Southern California 13-year-olds Angelina Kim and Brianna Navarrosa.
Kim and Navarossa claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Katie
Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area in a four-year period
beginning in 1999, and Kristen Obush.
Earlier Tuesday, Walker and Herr cruised to a 3 and 2
victory over Chinese Taipei sisters Yu Chiang Hou and Yu Sang Hou in a
round-of-16 match.
Walker and Herr built a 4-up lead by winning the second,
sixth, seventh and ninth holes with birdies. The Yu sisters cut into the lead
by winning the 10th and 13th holes with birdies, but a
birdie at 15 by Team WalkHerr restored a 3-up lead with three to play.
There’s a pretty good chance Walker will be playing in the
NCAA Championship with the Tar Heels at this time next year and Herr is joining
a talented nucleus in Happy Valley. So they might not be back at the Four-Ball
anytime soon, if ever. But they were a very big part of the first two editions
of the USGA’s new baby and that will never change.
In the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball being held simultaneously at
Winged Foot Golf Club’s East Course in Mamaroneck, N.Y., the Temple and
Scranton-area tandem of Brandon Matthews and Patrick Ross were also ousted in
the quarterfinals, suffering a 2 and 1 setback at the hands of SMU teammates
Benjamin Baxter and Andrew Buchanan.
Matthews, who just completed one of the greatest careers in
the history of Temple golf, and Ross fell behind when Baxter and Buchanan won
the seventh and 10th holes with birdies. Matthews and Ross cut the
deficit in half by winning the 12th with a birdie, but Baxter and
Buchanan closed out the match by winning the 17th with a birdie.
Matthews and Ross had won the qualifying medal with a pair
of 63s at both the 6,728-yard, par-70 East Course and the 7,033-yard, par-70
West Course, site of five U.S. Opens.
Baxter and Buchanan will take on Patrick Christovich of New
Orleans and Canadian Garrett Rank in Wednesday’s semifinals. Christovich and
Rank claimed a 1-up victory over former University of Maryland teammates David
Kocher and Connor Tendall.
Earlier Tuesday, Matthews and Ross cruised to a 3 and 2
victory over Ohio State teammates Clark Engle and Will Grimmer. Matthews,
winner of two of the last three Golf Association of Philadelphia Open
Championships, and Ross broke open an all-square match by winning the ninth, 10th
and 12th holes with birdies.
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