North Carolina senior Brynn Walker, playing out of St.
Davids Golf Club, matched par in Monday’s opening round of the U.S. Women’s
Amateur at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., giving her a good
shot to reach match play.
Walker, who captured the Women’s Golf Association of
Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship on her home course last month, was tied
for 22nd after the opening round. The top 64 finishers following
Tuesday’s second round advance to match play, which gets under way Wednesday
morning.
Walker, winner of the 2014 and 2015 PIAA Class AAA crowns
during a stellar scholastic career at Radnor High, earned her third straight
trip to the U.S. Women’s Amateur and her fourth overall out of a qualifier at
Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, N.J.
Walker, who has been in the North Carolina starting lineup
since her arrival in Chapel Hill as a freshman, has not been able to advance to
match play in her three previous U.S. Women’s Amateur appearances.
Walker got this year’s bid off to a solid start with a
birdie at the first hole. The start of play was delayed about an hour by heavy
rains in the morning, turning Walker’s late start into a bit of a twilight
round.
Walker made a bogey at the fifth, but bounced right back
with a birdie at the sixth. She made a bogey at the 10th hole, got
it back to 1-under with a birdie at the 14th hole and fell back to
even-par with a bogey at the 16th hole.
Walker avoided the kind of big number that has plagued her
at times during her career. She qualified for the LPGA ShopRite Classic at the
Seaview Hotel & Golf Club’s Bay Course at the Jersey Shore earlier this
summer and played solid golf with the exception of a disastrous 10 that doomed
her chances of making the cut.
One bad hole is something you can quickly put behind you in
match play, but it can be tough to overcome in stroke play. Nobody knows that
better than Walker, who has played a ton of stroke-play tournament golf for the
Tar Heels since joining the program in the fall of 2016.
The future of the Stanford program was very much on display
a couple of weeks ago when incoming freshman Lei Ye of China won the U.S.
Girls’ Junior Championship at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis., defeating
fellow incoming Stanford freshman Brooke Seay of San Diego, Calif. in the
quarterfinals along the way.
The Cardinal’s formidable present was on display in the
opening round of U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifying Monday as senior Andrea Lee of
Hermosa Beach, Calif. and No. 2 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR)
grabbed a share of the lead and senior Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland and No.
5 in the Women’s WAGR was in a group of four players tied for fourth place.
Lee, who has twice represented the United States in the
Curtis Cup Match in her stellar amateur career, toured the back nine at Old
Waverly, the first nine she played, in 5-under 31 on her way to a 5-under 67.
She made birdies at the 10th and 11th holes and then
rattled off three straight birdies at the 16th, 17th and
18th holes.
A bogey at the fourth hole briefly dropped her back to
4-under before she made a birdie at the sixth hole to get it back to 5-under.
Not that Stanford’s future wasn’t represented at the top of
the leaderboard. Lee and Valenzuela will be gone when Michaela Morard of Huntsville,
Ala. arrives in northern California in the summer of 2021. All Morard did
Monday was finish her round with birdies on the last four holes, 15, 16, 17 and
18, to join Lee in a tie for first place at 5-under 67.
Morard is one of a remarkable total of 32 players who teed
it up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at SentryWorld a couple of weeks ago in the field this week. Morard
reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior.
Lauren Hartlage of Elizabethtown, Ky., who led Louisville to
the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville Ark. in the
spring, was alone in third place with a 4-under 68.
Valenzuela, the runnerup to Sophia Schubert in the 2017 U.S.
Women’s Amateur at San Diego Country Club, headed the group tied for fourth at
3-under 69.
Morgan Baxendale of Windermere, Fla., who helped Vanderbilt
claim the team crown in the Auburn Regional in the spring, and Ya Chun Chang
from Chinese Taipei, a freshman on an Arizona team that reached the semifinals
of the NCAA Championship at The Blessings before falling to eventual champion
Duke, joined Valenzuela in the foursome tied at 3-under.
Rounding out that quartet was Megan Schofill of Monticello,
Fla., who will join the Auburn program later this month.
Megha Ganne of Holmdel, N.J., the co-medalist in the
qualifier at Raritan Valley from which Walker emerged, was tied for 34th
with a 1-over 73. Ganne, who competed in the Drive, Chip & Putt National
Finals at Augusta National Golf Club for the fourth time in April, finished in
a tie for sixth in the Girls Junior PGA Championship at the Keney Park Golf
Course in Windsor, Conn. last month.
Caroline Wrigley, who captured the PIAA Class AAA
Championship as a senior at North Allegheny last fall, landed among the group
tied for 65th with a 3-over 75. Wrigley, who added the Pennsylvania
Junior Girls’ crown at Hershey Country Club’s East Course this summer to her
state title, will join the Furman program later this month.
Archmere Academy senior Phoebe Brinker, who has been
prominent in the biggest junior events of the summer, struggled a little with
an 81 that left her among the group tied for 136th. Brinker, who
plans to join the Duke program in the summer of 2020, reached the second round
of match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at SentryWorld.
Also in that group at 81 was Seton Hall junior Mia Kness,
the 2016 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Peters Township.
Another interesting name that landed on 81 was that of
Gianna Clemente of Warren, Ohio, who is getting her share of buzz because at
age 11, she is the third youngest player to qualify for a U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The talented youngster finished in a tie for fifth in the Pennsylvania Junior
Girls’ Championship at Hershey.
By the way, those two incoming Stanford freshmen, the
soon-to-be teammates of Lee and Valenzuela, are definitely in with a shot to
make match play.
Ye, coming off her title run in the U.S. Girls’ Junior that
moved her up to No. 38 in the Women’s WAGR, carded a 1-over 73 and is the group
tied for 34th. Seay, who played in her sixth U.S. Girls’ Junior at
SentryWorld, is a shot behind Ye with a 74 that left Seay among the group tied
for 45th.
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