Melton, who has committed to play golf for Pepperdine University, made a bogey at the par-4 second hole at Valencia, and never looked back on a 36-hole day. She closed her first round with three birdies and an eagle on No. 10.
During the second round, Melton had all pars on the front nine then added five birdies on the back to get to 5-under 73.
Four players are tied for third three more shots back at 4 under. Those players include USC’s Alyaa Abdulghany, Oregon’s Amy Matsuoka, UNLV’s Alli Kim and UCLA’s Lilia Vu, who was named the WGCA Player of the Year this spring.
Vu won this title two years ago at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Course. The only other winner in the three-year history of the SCGA Women’s Amateur has been Andrea Lee, the Stanford standout who won in 2015 and ’17. Lee is not in the field this week.
Haley Moore is, however. Moore clinched the winning point for the University of Airzona at the NCAA Women’s Championship. She has won a Cactus Tour event since then, and earlier this month was runner-up at the California Women’s Open.
Moore had 69-74 to get to 3 under and in a tie for seventh with SMU’s Brigitte Dunne. The bad news is that duo is six shots back with only 18 holes left to play.
Janet Yeo, a senior at UC Irvine, had a hole in one at No. 14 during the first round and is 2 over through 36 holes. That leaves her in a tie for 19th.