England's Toy defeats Garvey at Royal County Down

Everybody had a story Saturday at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Island. On the final day of the Women’s Amateur, the flagship women’s event on the R&A’s amateur schedule, much was on the line.

Sweden’s Linn Grant was the top-ranked player in the field and Daniella Barrett would have been the first Finnish player to win it. They both fell in the semifinals, however.

Amelia Garvey, the powerful USC player, would have been the first New Zealander to win it since 1986. Garvey, however, couldn’t get past Englishwoman Emily Toy in the final match. Toy birdied the 17th to go 1 up and Garvey couldn’t come back.

As the winner of this week’s event, Toy will earn exemptions into the AIG Women’s British Open, the Evian Championship, next year’s U.S. Women’s Open and next year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Toy becomes the first Englishwoman to win the title since Georgia Hall, the reigning Women’s British Open champion, did it in 2013. So what’s her story? Climbing the rankings.

Toy won the New South Wales Amateur in Australia in January.

“I was ranked about 800 in the world at the start of the year but I’ve been ticking down, especially after the way I played in Australia. Hopefully I can come down a few more spots this week!” she told the R&A. “Players in America play more events than me and it’s quite hard for me given I’ve been finishing university at Exeter. To see the names on the trophy is awesome. I’m so proud to be on there too now.”

Even though she didn’t come out on top, Garvey, a 19-year-old, gave it her all.

“I gave it everything. I left it all out there which is all I can ask for. I’m really proud of the way I played. It’s been an amazing week,” she said.

“Emily played incredibly well, especially down the stretch. She slipped up once on 16 with a three putt but apart from that she didn’t miss many fairways or make many mistakes.