13-year-olds Angelina Kim and Briana Navarrosa all smiles as they advance to semifinals
(Photo Courtesy of USGA)
BOWLING GREEN, FL (May 24, 2016) - Medalists
Pauline Del
Rosario and Princess Mary Superal survived a
quarterfinal scare on Tuesday afternoon and
advanced
to the semifinals of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur
Four-Ball Championship, being conducted on the
6,216-
yard, par-72 Streamsong Blue at Streamsong Resort.
Del Rosario and 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior
champion
Superal, both members of the Philippine National
Team,
are joined in Wednesday morning’s semifinals by
Californians Angelina Kim and Brianna Navarrosa;
Texas
natives Hailee Cooper and Kaitlyn Papp; and
Virginians
Alexandra Austin and Lauren Greenlief, the 2015
U.S.
Women’s Mid-Amateur champion.
The 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball
Championship consists of 36 holes of stroke play
followed by five rounds of match play. The
championship is scheduled to conclude with an 18-
hole
final on Wednesday, May 25.
Del Rosario, 17, and Superal, 19, needed a late
comeback to eliminate 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur
Four-Ball semifinalists Madelein Herr, 18, of New
Hope,
Pa., and Brynn Walker, 17, of St. Davids, Pa.
The Philippine duo held a 2-up lead through 10
holes, but Herr and Walker battled back and pulled
all
square through 13. Walker’s birdie at the par-4 15th
gave them a 1-up lead, and marked the first time
that
Del Rosario and Superal trailed in their three
matches.
But the lead was short-lived. Del Rosario’s birdie
at
the par-3 16th, the most difficult hole of the
championship with a 3.6 stroke average, brought the
match back to all square.
“I had a birdie on 16 also yesterday, so it's been
pretty good to me throughout this week,” said Del
Rosario, an incoming freshman at the University of
Kansas.
The match came down to No. 18, where Superal
calmly converted a 9-foot birdie putt to clinch the
victory and a berth in the semifinals.
“I told myself just to make that putt,” said
Superal,
who plans to turn professional later in 2016.
“(Herr and Walker) were really good,” added Del
Rosario. “Somehow we pulled through, thanks to
Princess' last putt.”
In an outstanding match that featured a
combined
11 birdies and no bogeys, 13-year-olds Kim, of Los
Angeles, Calif., and Navarrosa, of San Diego, Calif.,
earned a 3-and-1 victory over Katie Miller, 31, of
Jeannette, Pa., and Kristen Obush, 32, of Pittsburgh,
Pa.
“They were probably the toughest opponents
we’ve
had in these matches,” said Navarrosa. “It was a
really
nice win to know that we've come this far.”
Kim and Navarrosa combined for seven birdies,
and
every hole that was won on either side was won with
a
birdie. With the match all square through 11,
Navarrosa
reeled off birdies at holes 12, 13 and 15 to build an
insurmountable lead.
“I was just going to be aggressive,” said
Navarrosa.
“Like there is nothing to lose. It's match play.
Anything
can happen, so I just kept trying to stick my shots,
and
then I made the putts.”
Cooper, 16, of Montgomery, Texas, and Papp,
17,
of Austin, Texas, took a 2-and-1 win over sisters
Nicole
Whiston, 14, and Waverly Whiston, 16, both of San
Diego, Calif. After swapping the lead over the
opening
seven holes, Papp and Cooper pulled ahead for good
with a birdie at the par-4 eighth hole.
They extended their advantage to 3 up with
consecutive birdies from within 10 feet at holes 13
and
14. The Whistons birdied No. 15 to stay within
striking
distance, but the sides swapped birdies at the par-5
17th to clinch the victory for Cooper and Papp.
“They made a lot of putts. We just made a few
putts back, so it was good,” said Cooper, a rising high
school junior. “It was a dogfight all day. We were
fighting back and forth.”
Papp is attempting to become the second
member
of the Lake Travis High School girls golf team to win
a
USGA national championship, joining 2014 U.S.
Women’s Amateur champion Kristen Gillman. Papp
and
Gillman, who lost in Monday’s first round of match
play
with partner Sierra Brooks, helped lead the Lake
Travis
team to the 2016 Texas Class 6A Championship, a
stroke-play event, in April.
“This is the furthest I've ever made it in match
play
either by myself or the first time with a team,” said
Papp, who has verbally committed to attend the
University of Texas in the fall of 2017. “It's my first
time
making it to a semifinal match, so I'm super
excited.”
Austin, 23, of Burke, Va., and Greenlief, 25, of
Oakton, Va., won the par-4 first hole with a birdie
and
never trailed in their 2-and-1 win over Olivia Herrick,
27, of Roseville, Minn., and Samantha Sommers, 27,
of
Saint Cloud, Minn. Austin and Greenlief extended
their
lead to 3 up through nine, but Herrick and Sommers
kept things close, winning holes 11 and 12 to pull
within
one.
“My read on the back nine was just we were
both
hitting solid shots and we were both in all the holes,
(but) we just couldn't get putts to drop,” said
Greenlief,
a management consultant. “I felt a little calmer
because
both of us were hitting it solid and we had chances.
So
eventually we knew something was going to
happen.”
That moment finally came on No. 15, when
Austin,
a 2015 graduate of Radford University, nailed a 12-
footer for the birdie that sealed the match.
In the morning’s Round of 16, Del Rosario and
Superal advanced with a 2-and-1 win over Hana Ku
and
Jordan Lippetz. Kim and Navarrosa eliminated
Yoonhee
Kim and Yealimi Noh, 3 and 1. Cooper and Papp took
a
4-and-2 victory over Emily Mahar and Elizabeth
Caldarelli, while Austin and Greenlief beat Hannah
Leiner and Latanna Stone, 4 and 3.
SEMIFINAL MATCHES
7:00 a.m.--(1) Pauline Del
Rosario/Princess Mary Superal vs. (12) Angelina
Kim/Brianna Navarrosa
7:15 a.m.-- (7) Hailee Cooper/Kaitlyn Papp
vs. (30) Alexandra Austin/Lauren Greenlief
View results for U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball