Georgia residents Thienna Huynh and Sara Im outlasted Kaitlyn Schroeder and Bailey Shoemaker, 1 up, on Sunday at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico to win the 7th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
Huynh, 18, of Lilburn, and Im, 17, of Duluth, become the second and third players from the Peach State to win this championship, joining Rinko Mitsunaga (Roswell) who won at Bandon Dunes in 2015 with Mika Liu in the event’s inaugural year. Huynh, a graduating high school senior who plans to enroll at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the fall, also becomes the event’s second left-handed winner after Erica Shepherd in 2019.
Im, a high school junior, earned her second national title. In 2018, she captured the Girls 12-13-year-old division of the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship.
The victory also earned Huynh and Im, the 2020 Georgia Women’s Amateur champion, exemptions into this summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky., and the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
“It obviously means a lot,” said Huynh. “It's so surreal. [My mom] said on 18 green, ‘Can you believe that we're USGA champions?’”
Schroeder, 17, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Shoemaker, 17, of West Edmeston, N.Y., came into the 18-hole final on a tear, having played the equivalent of 31-under-par golf – with the usual concessions – through their first four matches, a total of 65 holes. They had averaged just over seven birdies per match, but could only muster four against Huynh and Im, who never trailed in the final.
“It definitely stings a little bit coming up short,” said Shoemaker, “but it was to one of our good friends [Im], and we definitely had a lot of birdies out there and that leads to a lot of confidence for us. We had the most birdies out there of any team (38 for the week), so we can say that for ourselves this week.”
Im’s chip-in birdie on the 399-yard first hole set the tone, and Huynh put the side 2 up when her short birdie putt on No. 3 was conceded. Shoemaker, a three-time New York State Girls’ Junior champion who has committed to the University of Southern California in 2023, rolled in a 20-foot birdie on the par-5 fifth to cut the deficit to 1 down, but their opponents won the sixth with a par and Huynh converted a birdie on the par-4 ninth for a 3-up at the turn.
The two sides exchanged birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 before Schroeder, who has committed to the University of Alabama in 2023, and Shoemaker tightened things up with wins on 13 and 14. Shoemaker made a 12-foot birdie on the 344-yard 13th and her tap-in par on the challenging 408-yard 14th won the hole.
After Huynh-Im, the No. 7 seeds from stroke play, birdied the par-5 15th, Shoemaker delivered the most dramatic shot of the championship as she nearly aced the 135-yard 16th. The ball lipped out and the birdie was conceded. Huynh or Im were just 1 up with two to play.
But pars on 17 and 18 were enough for Huynh and Im, a six-time winner on the American Junior Golf Association circuit, to claim the championship. Three of their five matches this week went to 18, and a fourth ended on No. 17.
“I was standing there [on the 18th green] with my hands over my head, like did this just happen?” said a relieved Huynh.
In the semifinals contested earlier on Sunday, Schroeder holed out from a greenside bunker on the par-3 16th hole to propel the side past pesky Texans Amelia Guo, 16. of Seabrook, and Sam Houston State signee Grace Jin, 17, of San Antonio, 2 and 1, Schroeder and Shoemaker were 8 under par over the 17 holes, including an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. Guo and Jin were 5 under.
“When they got an eagle and we made birdie, we weren’t mad because we were making those putts that we needed to make,” said Guo. “It’s not like we were making mistakes.”
In the other semifinal, Huynh and Im broke open a tight match by winning three consecutive holes to defeat New Albany (Ohio) High School teammates Kary Hollenbaugh and Anna Ritter, 4 and 3. Huynh and Im, who played 4-under-par golf, sandwiched birdies on Nos. 11 and 13 around a winning par on No. 12 to put the match away.
Hollenbaugh, 17, and Ritter, 18, who are headed to Ohio State and the University of Illinois, respectively, this fall, could only muster one birdie, winning the par-5 fifth hole. It was their first USGA championship, although they qualified for the 2020 championship that was canceled due to COVID-19.
What the Champions Receive
Gold medals
Custody of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Trophy for one year
Exemptions into the next 10 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships, provided the side remains intact
Exemptions into the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay
Exemptions into the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone
Notable
The runners-up receive silver medals and exemptions into the next three U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championships, provided the side stays intact. The 2023 championship is scheduled for May 13-17 at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. Sites for the 2024 and 2025 championships have yet to be announced.
The two semifinal losers received bronze medals and exemptions into the next two championships.
Registration for the 8th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship officially opens on May 4 and closes on Aug. 10 at 5 p.m. ET. To be eligible, each member of the side must have a Handicap Index of 14.4 or better.
This was the first of two history-making sites for USGA championships in 2022. In late July, Alaska will become the last of the 50 states to host a competition when the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur is contested at Anchorage Golf Course. This week, Puerto Rico became the first U.S. territory to host a championship. The Puerto Rico Golf Association is one of 58 Allied Golf Associations supported by the USGA.
Grand Reserve Golf Club, which annually hosts the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, is the site for the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship (Jan. 12-15).
Five of the seven U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball championship-winning sides have been juniors, with the lone exceptions being 2017 winners Alice Chen and Taylor Totland (Furman), and 2018 titlists Ellen Secor and Katrina Prendergast (Colorado State).
Champions Thienna Huynh and Sara Im never trailed over their final 75 match-play holes after rallying from 3 down to defeat sisters Claire and Grace Lu, 1 up, in the Round of 32 on Friday.
Sara Im and Bailey Shoemaker were foursomes (alternate-shot) partners in last year’s Junior Solheim Cup at Sylvania (Ohio) Country Club, losing to their European counterparts. Kaitlyn Schroeder, also a member of that team, played the four-ball session with Shoemaker. The USA lost, 13-11.
University of North Florida coach Scott Schroeder received permission from his athletic director to miss Sunday’s opening round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship in Athens, Ga., so he could caddie for daughter Kaitlyn. The Ospreys, led by 2021 U.S. Amateur semifinalist Nick Gabrelcik, are the favorites to win the 54-hole tournament.
Quotable
“We've played extremely consistently. It's been the same scores, minus 3, minus 4 the entire way. I think that's something that we have over our competitors is that we don't have a round where everything is going in or everything is not going in.” – Thienna Huynh on what makes her side so tough to beat in a four-ball format
“You want to know which one [of the exemptions] I’m most excited about? Guess what I have not qualified for yet and I’m 17? U.S. Girls. I want to play that [championship] so bad.” – Sara Im
“I don't think there's one [specific] highlight that stands out, just the clutch putts to win holes, to halve holes, to win matches. It all just fits together as a great week and an experience that we will never forget.” – Kaitlyn Schroeder, summarizing the week with partner Bailey Shoemaker
“Oh, it's been amazing. Flying here for a tournament, it was a great venue. We were really proud of the way we played and hung in there. But they played really well. Sara [Im] and Thienna [Huynh], they deserved it.” – Kary Hollenbaugh, summing up the semifinal run with high school teammate Anna Ritter
“For me it was a big confidence booster. I haven't played a lot of match play, so to win three of our four matches was pretty good for us. It was a great experience, and I think it really helped our games.” – Ritter
“My game really improved a lot, especially my putting and my bunker shots. I think I'll be more confident whenever I'm in those situations [in the future].” – Amelia Guo on what she learned from her semifinal run with partner Grace Jin
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Results from Sunday's semifinal matches at the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship, played at 6,323-yard, par-72 Grand Reserve Golf Club
Kaitlyn Schroeder, Jacksonville, Fla. & Bailey Shoemaker, West Edmeston, N.Y. (139) def. Amelia Guo, Seabrook, Texas & Grace Jin, San Antonio, Texas (139), 2&1
Thienna Huynh, Lilburn, Ga. & Sara Im, Duluth, Ga. (137) def. Kary Hollenbaugh, New Albany, Ohio & Anna Ritter, New Albany, Ohio (140), 4&3
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Result from Sunday's final match at the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship, played at 6,323-yard, par-72 Grand Reserve Golf Club
Thienna Huynh, Lilburn, Ga. & Sara Im, Duluth, Ga. (137) def. Kaitlyn Schroeder, Jacksonville, Fla. & Bailey Shoemaker, West Edmeston, N.Y. (139), 1 up
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