Upon first glance, the match play tree of the U.S. Women’s
Amateur could have been easily mistaken for a scheduled event for
the UCLA women’s golf team.
Considered the most prestigious and most difficult championship
to win in women’s amateur golf, the U.S. Women’s
Amateur at Ansley Golf Club’s Settindown Creek Course in
Roswell, Ga., was at first taken over by Bruins ““ five of
them to be exact.
Two current Bruins, junior Hannah Jun and sophomore Amie
Cochran, along with three incoming members of the UCLA team, Jane
Park, Tiffany Joh and Ryann O’Toole, all placed in the top 64
of Monday and Tuesday’s stroke play competition to advance to
Wednesday’s first round of match play.
Once there, though, none of the Bruins could extend their dreams
of claiming the amateur championship past Friday’s
quarterfinal round.
Park, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur last year,
navigated through match play with the most success, advancing all
the way to the round of 16, where she was defeated by 15-year-old
Korean In-Kyung Kim on the second playoff hole.
The other two much-heralded freshmen, O’Toole and Joh,
fared better than their more experienced future teammates, both
winning at least one match before being eliminated.
Though the Bruins constituted nearly 8 percent of the entire
field, there was only one scenario in which any two of the five
teammates would have squared off against one another that came
close to fruition. If Cochran had defeated her first-round opponent
Jenna Pearson, she would have been pitted against O’Toole in
the round of 32. Instead, Cochran lost 3 and 2 to Pearson, who
O’Toole promptly defeated 2 and 1 to advance to the round of
16.
Morgan Pressel, considered the next rising star in women’s
golf, along with Michelle Wie, captured the amateur trophy on
Sunday with a 9 and 8 victory over Venezuela’s Maru
Martinez.
No officially enrolled UCLA women’s golfer has ever won
the U.S. Women’s Amateur.