Australians eliminated at US Women’s Amateur Championship
Ella Scaysbrook during her Round of 16 match today – image USGA
Australia’s bid for a second US Women’s Amateur Championship title has ended at the Round of 16 stage at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee, the last two of six Australian entrants in the event, NSW’s golfers, Ella Scaysbrook and Rachel Lee, being defeated after an impressive run to reach the last 16.
Scaysbrook, who was no doubt keen to put to bed the memories of her semifinal loss twelve months ago, bounced back from a 2-down deficit in her Round of 32 match against Japan’s Yurina Hiroyoshi to win 1 up, but in her Round of 16 matchup against Seojin Park of South Korea, she lost her last three holes of the match to lose 3&1.
Sydney’s Rachel Lee, the 2025 Australian Amateur Champion, but still only 18 years of age, had an easy win in her Round of 32 match against American Macy Pate. In her Round of 16 match against the brilliant Asterisk Talley, however, despite recovering from a three-hole deficit through 8 holes and fighting back to tie the match through 13, she would lose 3&2.
Earlier in the Round of 32 matches, Victorian Raegan Denton fought her way back from a three-hole deficit through 13 holes of her match against Thailand’s Pimchompoo Chaisilprungruang, playing her last five holes of regulation at 4 under, only to suffer an agonising loss at the 20th hole.
The US Men’s Amateur Championship gets underway this week at the Merion Golf Club and Philadelphia Country Club in Pennsylvania, where two Australians, Harry Takis and Kayun Mudadana, and two New Zealanders. Zackary Swanwick and Josh Bai are in the field of 312 vying to make the leading 64 to advance to matchplay.
