The legend of Lucy Li continues to grow.
Needing some birdies to catch South Korea’s Hyun Selin for
medalist honors in Tuesday’s second round of qualifying for match play in the
U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Golf Club of Tennessee in Kingston Springs, Tenn.,
the 15-year-old from Redwood Shores, Calif. dialed up some birdies.
Li hit every green in regulation – how maddening would that
be in match play – and made six birdies and nary a bogey as she fired a
sparkling 6-under 65 and did indeed catch Selin to share medalist honors with a
9-under 133 total.
Combined with the medalist honors she earned in the U.S.
Girls’ Junior Championship a couple of weeks ago on the strength of a
spectacular opening-round 62 at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern
California’s Monterey Peninsula, Li became just the third player in USGA
history to win medalist honors in the two championships in the same year.
Li , No. 9 in the latest Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking
(WAGR), and the 17-year-old Selin matched the qualifying record, a mark Li
almost took down. Her birdie putt on her last hole of the day, the ninth at The
Golf Club of Tennessee, fell inches short. The 133 total put up by Li and Selin
matched the total recorded by Mariel Galdiano, a teammate of Li’s on the United
States’ winning Curtis Cup team earlier this year, two years ago at Rolling
Green Golf Club.
The runnerup to Galdiano at Rolling Green? A 13-year-old
Lucy Li, who was two shots behind Galdiano at 135. The people at Rolling Green
are still trying to figure out how a 13-year-old kid did that to their golf
course.
Starting at the 10th, Li birdied 11, 13, 17 and
18 as she inexorably closed in on the target Selin had set earlier in the day.
Li made the two more birdies she’d need at the third and eighth holes before
just missing for the record at the ninth. Li had opened with a 3-under 68
Monday.
Selin, who was one of seven players who trailed first-round
leader Alexa Pano by a shot with a 67, had
one more birdie than Li did Tuesday with seven, but a couple of bogeys
left her with a 5-under 66.
It was a disappointing day for the local contingent at The
Golf Club of Tennessee.
North Carolina junior Brynn Walker, the two-time state
champion at Radnor who plays out of St. Davids Golf Club, bounced back from an
opening-round 78 with a 2-over 73, but her 151 total was six shots shy of the
cutoff for match play.
Nine players will vie for the final spot in match play first
thing Wednesday morning after finishing at 3-over 145, the lowest cutoff score
in U.S. Women’s Amateur history.
Nobody knows better than Walker, who has been in the Tar
Heels’ starting lineup in every tournament since she arrived in Chapel Hill,
how competitive it is out there. Walker was 2-under for her round after making
her third birdie of the day at the 11th, but double bogeys at 13 and
15 dropped her back to 2-over for the round.
Meghan Stasi, the South Jersey native who is a four-time
winner of the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship, also landed on 151, adding a 75 to
her opening-round 76.
Also ending up at 151 was Penn State senior Lauren Waller,
who lost to Walker in a playoff in the 2014 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a
senior at Canon-McMillan. Waller added a 76 to her opening-round 75.
Waller’s Penn State classmate, Jackie Rogowicz, a two-time
PIAA runnerup at Pennsbury, added a 76 to her opening-round 80 for a 156 total.
It hasn’t been a terrible summer for Rogowicz, who also played her way into the
field in the ShopRite LPGA Classic at the Stockton Seaview Resort’s Bay Course
in Galloway Township, N.J.
Finishing in third place in qualifying at 7-under 135 was
Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey, a two-time member of the Great Britain & Ireland
Curtis Cup team who is No. 21 in the Women’s WAGR. Mehaffey, a junior at
Arizona State, fired a 3-under 68 Tuesday after opening up with a 67.
Mehaffey helped the Sun Devils capture the 2017 NCCA title
in her freshman season at Arizona State.
Pano, the 13-year-old from Lake Worth, Fla. who fell in the
final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at Poppy Hills to Yealimi Noh,
Jaclyn Lee, the Big Ten champion at Ohio State from Canada, and Japan’s Suzuka
Yamaguchi shared fourth place, each ending up at 6-under 136.
After leading the field with a sparkling 5-under 66 in Monday’s
opening round, Pano carded a solid 1-under 70. Pano knocked off Li, 1-up, in
what sounded like a tremendous semifinal match at Poppy Hills. It might also
have been the beginning of a respectful rivalry that could last for 20 years or
more.
Lee, who finished tied for fifth in the NCAA Championship at
Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. this spring, carded her second
straight 3-under 68. Yamaguchi had opened with a 67 and posted a 2-under 69 to
join the group at 136.
Really nice effort to finish seventh alone by 2015 U.S.
Mid-Amateur Championship winner Lauren Greenlief, a 27-year-old from Ashburn,
Va. Greenlief, a Virginia product, was one of three co-medalists in qualifying
in last fall’s Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Champions Golf Club’s
Cypress Creek Course in Houston. She lost in the round-of-16 to eventual
champion Kelsey Chugg.
Greenlief fired a 4-under 67 Tuesday after opening up with a
70 for a 5-under 137 total.
Let the matches begin.
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