Gabriela Ruffels (USGA)
The field at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur was cut from 64 to 32 on Thursday. Most of the top names remain following the first round of match play action.
Top-seed Rachel Heck (No. 367 in the GolfWeek/AmateurGolf.com Women's Rankings) defeated Therese Warner 2 up. Warner earned the last spot following a 16-player playoff for the final five spots after Wednesday’s final round of stroke play.
The top-ranked Emilia Migliaccio (the No. 3 seed in the tournament) won her match over Gurleen Kaur 3&1. Kaur, also earning her spot via Wednesday’s playoff, is ranked 19th by AmateurGolf.com. Migliaccio will face 30-seed Amari Avery at 9:00 am ET.
Defending champ Gabriela Ruffels continued her consistent play, winning her match over Kajal Mistry 3&2. As one of 12 former USGA champions in the field this week, Ruffels will look to continue her defense on Thursday.
“I’m just trying to keep it as normal as possible,” Ruffels said when asked about how this week feels as a defending champion. “It’s been awesome.”
She tees off at 9:20 am ET against 38-seed Lei Ye, the winner of the 2019 U.S. Junior Girls Championship.
Red hot Rachel Kuehn seems destined to make a run at the championship. A video was released earlier this week by the USGA that highlighted Rachel’s mother Brenda Corrie-Kuehn competing in the 2001 U.S. Women’s Amateur just 10 days prior to giving birth to Rachel. Pair that with Rachel’s wins at the North & South and the LNGA before arriving to Woodmont this week and she now finds herself in the Round of 32.
Advancing 2&1 over Yurika Tanida, Kuehn will face 25-seed Brooke Matthews at 7:20 am ET.
5-seed Riley Smyth (AG's No. 154) had a scare as she missed a match-clinching knee-knocker on 17. Halving the 18th, Smyth beat 60-seed Katherine Zhu.
Of the 32 matches on Wednesday, just 10 saw upsets. Among the higher-seeded early exits 7-seed Catherine Park, 9-seed Micheala Williams, 10-seed Mychael O’Berry, 12-seed Marissa Wenzler, and 14-seed Natasha Andrea Oon.
The field will battle their way doe to eight on Thursday as Tuesday’s washout is forcing a 36-hole day. Play will begin at 7:00 am ET with the afternoon wave kicking off at 12:45 pm ET. TV coverage begins at 1:00 pm ET on Golf Channel.
ABOUT THE U.S. Women's Amateur
The U.S. Women's Amateur, the third
oldest of
the USGA championships, was first played
in 1895
at Meadowbrook Club in Hempstead, N.Y.
The
event is open to any female amateur who
has a
USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 5.4.
The
Women's Amateur is one of 14 national
championships conducted annually by the
USGA,
10 of which are strictly for amateurs.
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