Headed for Stanford, Ye outlasts Bourdage to claim victory in U.S. Girls' Junior Championship

   For the first time since the NCAA Championship went to a match-play format to determine its champion for the women, Stanford failed to reach the semifinals this spring at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.

   Not that the Cardinal fell off much. They did qualify for match play and suffered a narrow 3-2 setback in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Duke.

   But not to worry Stanford followers, reinforcements are on the way. First and foremost among them is Lei Ye of China, who will arrive in northern California in a month or so with the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy to decorate her room.

   Ye got her name inscribed on the trophy that goes to the winner of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship with a hard-fought 1-up win over future Ohio State Buckeye, Jillian Bourdage of Tamarac, Fla., in a thoroughly entertaining final Saturday at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis.

   A day earlier in one of four terrific quarterfinal matches, Ye had to fight off a challenge from Brooke Seay of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. to earn a 1-up decision and advance to the semifinals. It was the astounding sixth appearance in the U.S. Junior Girls for Seay and she went out fighting. Oh yeah, Seay is headed for Stanford next month, too.

   It’s the kind of match-play experience that might prove valuable should Stanford end up among the top eight and advance to match play in next spring’s NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. And, like I said, the Cardinal always make match play at the NCAA Championship.

   Bourdage, who won’t join the Ohio State program until next summer, certainly displayed some pretty impressive match-play chops of her own at SentryWorld.

   Bourdage was 3-down to Ye when the scheduled 36-hole final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior broke for lunch after 18 holes Saturday.

   But when Bourdage birdied the 25^th hole, the seventh at SentryWorld, the match was even. For the rest of the match, every time Ye put a nose in front by winning a hole, Bourdage would answer. It’s called the clutch gene and Bourdage showed she’s got it.

   Ye won the 27^th hole with a birdie, but Bourdage answered with a birdie to win the 28^th hole. Ye won the 30^th hole with a par, but Bourdage got even again with a birdie at the 32^nd hole. Ye won the 33^rd hole with a birdie, but Bourdage took the 34^th hole with a par to again draw even.

   On the 35^th hole, the par-4 17^th at SentryWorld, Ye delivered a dagger as her gap wedge from 105 yards away finished six feet from the hole and she buried the birdie try to take a 1-up lead to the 36^th hole.

   Bourdage went right back to work, firing her 8-iron approach to SentryWorld’s 18^th green from 130 yards away to five feet from the cup. Just when it looked like this one was headed for a 37^th hole, Bourdage’s birdie try slipped just below the cup and Ye had the title after dropping a three-footer for par to halve the hole.

   Ye became just the second Chinese player to win a USGA championship, joining Alice (Fumie) Jo, who captured the final edition of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship in 2014 at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash.

   “You know, China is definitely a growing player in the game and I think winning this (championship) is definitely a huge achievement for us and I know that it will inspire other juniors back home to work harder to play better,” Ye told the USGA website after her dramatic victory. “So, I think being able to help grow the game back home, that’s really cool.”

   Ye and Bourdage also brought some match-play experience along with them to SentryWorld in that both had made runs to the final of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship before falling.

   Ye and fellow Chinese player, Ya Chun Chang, fell in the Women’s Four-Ball final in the spring of 2018 to Colorado State teammates Katrina Prendergast and Ellen Secor at the El Cabellero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.

   Bourdage teamed with fellow Floridian Casey Weidenfeld in this year’s U.S. Women’s Four-Ball at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla. and fell in the final to incoming Duke freshmen Megan Furtney and Erica Shepherd. Looks like the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball is turning into a nice little match-play proving ground for some of the junior players.

   In Friday’s semifinals, Bourdage cooled off the hottest player in junior golf in Yuka Saso, an 18-year-old from the Philippines and the No. 25 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), with a 2-up victory.

   Bourdage had a 2-up lead when Saso, coming off a two-shot victory in the Girls Junior PGA Championship at the Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn., mounted the inevitable comeback. Saso, who plans to join the Georgia program in the summer of 2020, won the 14^th hole with a par and the 15^th hole with a birdie to even the match.

   But, with a passing shower suddenly drenching the course, Bourdage just buried a 16-footer for birdie on the 17^th hole that gave her the edge.

   Ye, meanwhile, claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Nicole Whiston of San Diego, who will join older sister Waverly at Tennessee next month.

   The semifinals were preceded Friday morning by four tremendous quarterfinal matches, highlighted by the showdown between Saso and Rose Zhang of Irvine, Calif. and No. 22 in the Women’s WAGR.

Saso had come from behind to overtake Zhang at Keney Park and Saso, the qualifying medalist at SentryWorld with a spectacular 12-under 132 total, again got the better of Zhang, claiming a 2-up victory.

   Zhang, who played 3-under golf, ripped off wins at the ninth, 10^th and 11^th holes to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up advantage. But Saso drew even by taking the 14^th hole with a birdie and inched ahead by taking the 17^th with a birdie.

   Two of the other quarterfinal matches went the distance as Ye edged Seay, 1-up, and Whiston claimed a 1-up decision over Bianca Chacon of Whittier, Calif., who will join the Oregon program next month. Bourdage, meanwhile, finished off Lauren Beaudreau of Lemont, Ill. on the 17^th hole in a 2 and 1 victory. Beaudreau is headed for South Bend, Ind., where she will join the Notre Dame program next month.

   Zhang wasn’t exactly a spectator after her quarterfinal loss to Saso. She donned a USGA caddy bib and carried the bag for her pal Ye. Hey, if you can’t win the title yourself, offering a little help to a friend that takes the title isn’t a bad consolation prize.

   After all, if all goes according to plan, Zhang and Ye will be teammates in the summer of 2021 when Zhang joins the program at, you guessed it, Stanford. The Cardinal just keeps on keeping on.