Walker rallies to edge Potter-Bobb, reach second round of U.S. Women's Amateur at Old Waverly

   North Carolina senior Brynn Walker was staring at an early exit from the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in steamy West Point, Miss. Wednesday when she lost the 16^th hole to a par by Julia Potter-Bobb of Indianapolis to go 1-down with two holes to play.

   Walker, a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion at Radnor High, had finally broken through to earn a spot in the match-play bracket in her fourth appearance in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. But Walker had an answer as she ripped off a birdie-birdie finish to live to play another day with a stunning 1-up victory.

   As I mentioned in my Tuesday post, this isn’t Walker’s first rodeo. This is her ninth appearance, by my count, in a USGA championship. She has twice teed it up in the LPGA ShopRite Classic at the Seaview Hotel & Golf Club’s Bay Course at the Jersey Shore. She has played in NCAA regionals in each of her first three seasons with the Tar Heels.

   Still, Walker had to reach deep in a tough match against a tough customer in the 31-year-old Potter-Bobb, a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion from Indianapolis and the lone mid-am to advance to match play. And reach deep she did.

   The waters get even deeper still in Thursday morning’s second round as Walker will be matched against Stanford senior Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland and the No. 5 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   Valenzuela knocked off Florida senior Sierra Brooks of Orlando, Fla. and No. 15 in the Women’s WAGR, 2 and 1, in probably the marquee matchup of the day pitting two former U.S. Women’s Amateur runnersup.

   But if you covered Walker’s entire scholastic career, from the Radnor girls’ PIAA Class AAA team championship in 2012 when she was a freshman, to her individual Class AAA title in 2014 as a junior, to her repeat Class AAA individual title in 2015 as well as a PIAA Class AAA boys team title as a senior, there was only one match you were following on the USGA website.

   It was an up-and-down battle in which only five holes were halved. After some early back-and-forth, Walker, who plays out of St. Davids Golf Club, won the seventh hole with a birdie and the eighth hole with a par to go from 1-down to 1-up.

   Potter-Bobb, who claimed the second of her two U.S. Women;s Mid-Am titles at The Kahkwa Club in Erie in 2016, won the 12^th hole with a par and the 13^th hole with a birdie to again take a 1-up advantage.

   Walker, who tuned up for the U.S. Women’s Amateur by winning the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship on her home course at St. Davids last month, then evened the match with a birdie at the par-5 15^th.

   That set up the final sequence with Potter-Bobb retaking the lead by winning the 16^th hole with a par before Walker finished with a flourish to reach the second round.

   I’m sure Walker would have loved to play Brooks, with whom she has been pals since their junior days, in the second round.

   But Valenzuela, the runnerup to Sophia Schubert in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur at the San Diego Country Club, pulled out the victory over Brooks, the runnerup to Hannah O’Sullivan in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Portland Country Club.

   Regular readers of this blog might be familiar with the career detour Brooks took when injury derailed her freshman season at Wake Forest and she eventually left Winston-Salem before resurfacing at Florida. She is all the way back as her runnerup finish to Arkansas’ Maria Fassi in the NCAA Championship’s individual race at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. would attest.

   Three trips to match play in the NCAA Championship without a national title has built up a ton of match-play scar tissue for Valenzuela.

   The two came out firing Wednesday morning with Valenzuela winning the first hole with a birdie and Brooks evening the match with an eagle at the second.

   Brooks drew even again when she won the 11^th hole with a par. But Valenzuela had the answers down the stretch, taking the 13^th hole with a par while Brooks made double bogey and taking a 2-up lead by winning the 16^th hole with a par. When they halved the 17^th hole with par, a match worthy of being a final was over. Such are the vagaries of match-play draws.

   Walker will be a decided underdog to the classy and talented Valenzuela in the second round. Will Walker be intimidated? No chance.

   One of the co-medalists fell in the opening round when Emily Hawkins of Lexington, N.C. stunned Chinese teen Jiarui Jin, 4 and 2. Hawkins was the freshman of the year in the Big South Conference as she helped those Camels of Campbell win the conference crown and reach the NCAA East Lansing Regional.

   But that was nowhere near the biggest upset of the day. That belonged to 15-year-old Megha Ganne of Holmdel, N.J. Ganne was the co-medalist at the same U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier that Walker emerged from at Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, N.J.

   Ganne took out Gina Kim of Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 21 in the Women’s WAGR with a 1-up stunner. In a few weeks this spring Kim, probably the best freshman in Division I during the 2018-’19 season, helped Duke capture the NCAA team crown and then contended deep into the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston before settling for low amateur honors in the group tied for 13^th.

   Ganne, who competed in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club the
Sunday of Masters week for the fourth time in April, was 1-down when Kim won the 14^th hole.

   But Ganne responded by taking the 15^th hole with a birdie and the 16^th hole with a par to take a 1-up advantage. Kim answered with a birdie at the 17^th hole to send the match to the 18^th hole all square. But Ganne took the 18^th hole with a par to complete a remarkable performance.

   The other co-medalist, 14-year-old Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Fla. and No. 40 in the Women’s WAGR, finally survived the opening round as she rolled to a 5 and 4 victory over Remington Isaac, a teen from Montgomery, Texas.

   Don’t be fooled by Pano’s age. She has performed at a high level on any number of big stages since first teeing it up in a U.S. Women’s Amateur as an 11-year-old at Rolling Green Golf Club in 2016.

Pano’s second-round opponent will be Lauren Beaudreau of Lemont, Ill., a 6 and 4 winner over Delany Martin of Boerne, Texas in the opening round. Beaudreau, who will join the Notre Dame program in a couple of weeks, is coming off a run to the quarterfinals in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis.

   It’s been three years since Lucy Li of Redwood Shores, Calif. nearly won medalist honors at Rolling Green as a 13-year-old. I’ve been a fan ever since.

   Hadn’t heard much from Li since she withdrew from the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship with an injury in April. Her absence from the Girls Junior PGA Championship and the U.S. Girls’ Junior was notable.

   But there she was Wednesday, rolling to a 5 and 4 decision over Vanderbilt junior Morgan Baxendale in the opening round. Baxendale finished in a tie for fifth in qualifying with a solid 4-under 140 total.

   Li will take on Florida State senior Amanda Doherty of Brookhaven, Ga. in Thursday morning’s second round. Doherty, who helped the Seminoles reach the NCAA Championship at The Blessings, rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Sophie Linder, a 14-year-old phenom from Carthage, Tenn., in the opening round.

   By the end of the day Thursday, weather permitting, only eight players will be left standing as two rounds of match play are scheduled, the second round in the morning and the round of 16 in the afternoon.