ROCKVILLE, Md – Imagine making six birdies and losing a match.
Unfortunately for Arkansas’ Brooke Matthews, that was her reality on Friday at the U.S. Women’s Amateur. The rising junior lost a tough match to Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn 3-and-1. Kuehn, who entered this week at Woodmont Country Club just outside the nation’s capital on a two-event win streak, made eight birdies of her own to advance to the afternoon Round of 16.
If Kuehn and Matthews played a better-ball round, they would’ve been 11 under through 17 holes.
Is that any good?
Top-seeded Rachel Heck continued to cruise with a 4-and-3 victory over Cecilie Finne-Ipsen. Both made par on the opening two holes, but the rest of the match was all Heck. The incoming Stanford freshman won the third hole and held the lead for the rest of the match.
The day’s fourth match was the first to go to extra holes, with Auburn’s Kaleigh Telfer coming back from three down on the 14th hole to force a playoff against Virginia Tech’s Emily Mahar.
U.S. Women’s Amateur: Scores | Gallery
“Yeah, I didn’t start off too good. I wasn’t hitting the ball too great,” said Telfer after the match. “Emily played really well the first few holes, and I just said to my caddie that on hole 15 I’ve just got to win this hole and then I’ve got something to work with. I managed to win that hole with a par, and then it just boosted the confidence and I was able to come back and get it to all square on 18.”
How’s this for a playoff hole? Fourth match of the Round of 32 is in extra holes. This is the 20th hole, the par-3 2nd, playing 172 yards with the pin guarded by a bunker. Glad I don’t have to play it. pic.twitter.com/0r9Vm5Z8wg
— Adam Woodard (@AdamWoodard) August 7, 2020
Telfer, making her U.S. Women’s Amateur debut, won with a par on the 20th hole, the par-3 2nd. On the bag for the rest of her matches is teammate and fellow senior Mychael O’Berry, who lost yesterday in the Round of 64.
“It’s a lot easier having her on the bag. She can calm me down a bit and knows what it’s like out here,” said Telfer of her fellow senior. “Of course she knows everything about this course, she knows my game pretty well, so it helps a lot.”
The final match on the course featured defending champion Gabriella Ruffels in a tight contest with Lei Ye that went to the 18th green. Ruffels, a senior at USC, had two putts from outside 25 feet to win. She only needed one.
The Round of 16 began at 12:45 p.m. ET with the all-Stanford match of Heck vs. Rose Zhang (a 2021 commit). The Cardinal aren’t the only two with a pair of players left. Auburn (Megan Schofill, Telfer), USC (Ruffels and Alyaa Abdulghany) and Wake Forest (Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio) each have two players left in the field.
You can watch live action on Golf Channel from 1-4 p.m. ET.
[lawrence-related id=778058986,778058761,778057272]