Corpuz is primarily known for her sheer number of USGA championships played. There have been eight, beginning with the 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links when she was 10.
At the amateur level, that translates to match-play experience. Every USGA amateur event ends with a bracket. That bodes well for Corpuz for the rest of the week.
Corpuz was 3 under for 36 holes, and managed to hold off Amanda Doherty, a rising Florida State senior who won the Sally Amateur in January and, like Corpuz, was invited to play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in the spring. Doherty had steady rounds of 71.
Two players equally versed in match play are tied for third at 1 over. That includes another USC player in Jennifer Chang, runner-up at the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior, and Dylan Kim, who recently finished her college eligibility at Baylor.
A few places down the leaderboard, Pinehurst local Nicole Adam, 17, held on to tie for eighth at 3 over and will get a shot at match play on Wednesday. Garvey ended up also tying for eighth after backing up and opening 68 with 77.
The field was cut to 32 players for the start of match play. Among the highlights of the first round will be Kim’s match against another USC player, Malia Nam. Adam will face another USC player who made match play (five Trojans are on the bracket in total) in Gabriela Ruffels, who was runner-up at this event a year ago.
Emilia Migliaccio, who went 3-0 for Wake Forest in NCAA match play in May, will face Stanford commit Lei Ye. The two women finished first and second at the Harder Hall Invitational in January.
On the very bottom of the bracket, Baylor’s Gurleen Kaur will take on Gina Kim, the Duke freshman who was instrumental in the Blue Devil’s national title run and contended at the U.S. Women’s Open the next week.
