The longest day of play at the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur featured a mix of runaway wins and tightly contested matches as both the Rounds of 32 and 16 were held on Thursday at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
Eight players have emerged from the pack, including a pair of quarterfinalists from last year’s championship, a rising star (who’s only a high school sophomore) and five of the top-10 seeds from stroke play.
The most high-profile match of the Round of 16 was a tug of war between Furman graduate Anna Morgan and Auburn rising sophomore Anna Davis, two top-30 players in the world. Morgan won the first hole with par but Davis bounced back to even the match with a birdie at No. 2. The pair grinded out six consecutive pars before Morgan broke the tie again with par on No. 9 to make the turn 1 up. Davis then made birdie on No. 10 and par on No. 12 to take her first lead of the match after Morgan three-putted from inside 10 feet for bogey.
Morgan immediately squared the match yet again with birdie on No. 13, but a bogey on No. 15 opened the door for Davis to get even with three holes to play. After Morgan missed the fairway on No. 17, her approach from a flier lie in the rough found a back bunker and allowed Davis to two-putt for the 3-and-1 win.
“I knew it was going to be a good match. I haven't played her before, but I heard she's a great player,” Davis said of the marquee matchup. “I hate playing good players, really top-ranked players early in the bracket. But it was good. It was a good match. We both played really well.”
“I would do something good on one hole and the next hole she would make a putt, like oh, my gosh,” Davis added. “It was very back and forth, but it was great.”
Lag putting goes a long way at a course like Southern Hills, and midway through the front nine the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion got hot with the flatstick.
“Even when they weren't going in, it just felt really good. My stroke felt really good. It was about by like the fifth hole and I was hitting my lag putts really well, too. I was like, just a matter of time these are going to start going in,” she said of her putter. “Sometimes you just kind of get in that groove, and it just felt hot today.”
For the second consecutive day a pair of matches ended with 7-and-6 victories, this time from a pair of players making their U.S. Women’s Amateur debuts. Both 15-year-old standout Asterisk Talley and rising University of Arkansas senior Kendall Todd won the first hole and never looked back, rolling into the quarterfinals with ease.
“I'm playing really well, just came off a win a couple weeks ago. Game feels really good,” said Todd. “I was just staying patient with myself and not expecting -- well, obviously expecting to do well, but just keeping it slow and not getting ahead of myself.”
Also coming in playing well is Talley, who is now 13-1 in match play at USGA championships this season after her win in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship alongside Sarah Lim and runner-up finish at the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Southern Hills is no easy test but Talley is passing with flying colors as the high school sophomore from Chowchilla, Calif., has yet to reach the 18th tee in match play.
“I feel like just hitting it within 20 feet and just trying to get on the green and then just -- if a one-putt falls you're doing well, or if you get within 15 feet, you're doing really good,” Talley said of her game plan this week. “You're not trying to get anywhere close to the hole, you're just trying to get somewhere on the green, and then if you make a putt, you make a putt, and I feel like I was.”
“I feel like my management has definitely got better. If you asked me last year, I probably would have been one of those people that's like, ‘I'm going at every pin, I'm getting within one foot of every pin and making birdie on every hole,’” Talley said of how she’s improved during this breakout summer. I've grinded out this whole year. I've been playing so much golf and practicing so much. My game has just gotten a lot better.”
The first match to reach a playoff this week featured Texas A&M rising senior Adela Cernousek and University of Texas rising sophomore Lauren Kim, and went two extra holes. After each made bogey on the first playoff hole, the par-4 10th, Cernousek hit the green on the par-3 11th while Kim went long off the back edge. Kim’s chip ran past the cup, just inside Cenousek’s ball. The France native scared the hole with her birdie putt and scooped for par, and ultimately the win, after Kim’s par attempt missed to the left.
For the second consecutive day on Friday, Davis will feature in the marquee match of the round, this time against No. 1 seed and stroke-play medalist Maria Jose Marin (2 p.m. ET). Talley will square off against Cernousek (2:10 p.m. ET), with Todd and Kelly Xu (2:20 p.m. ET) to follow. The final quarterfinal match will see Catherine Rao, a quarterfinalist for the third consecutive year, take on Rianne Malixi (2:30 p.m. ET), the 2024 Girls’ Junior champion who has won her last nine USGA matches.
WHAT’S NEXT
Friday’s quarterfinal matches will begin at 2 p.m. ET. Peacock will air live coverage from 3-6 p.m. Admission is free, and the public is encouraged to attend.
NOTABLE
- All quarterfinalists are exempt into next year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur, which will take place at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Aug. 4-10.
- All three players named to the USA Curtis Cup have bowed out of the competition: Zoe Campos (Round of 64), Jasmine Koo (Round of 32) and Catherine Park(Round of 64). The remaining five members of the team will be named at the conclusion of the championship. The winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, if American, will automatically earn a spot on the team, which will compete at Sunningdale Golf Club in England Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
- For the first time in 60 years no matches went to extra holes in the first two rounds. The last time was in 1964 at Prairie Dunes Country Club, a Perry Maxwell design like Southern Hills. One match in the Round of 16 went to a playoff, where Adela Cernousek defeated Lauren Kim in 20 holes.
- The University of Arkansas is the lone college to have more than one representative in the quarterfinals with Maria Jose Marin and Kendall Todd.
- Catherine Rao advanced to the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year, while Anna Davis advanced to the quarters for the second consecutive year.
- The 2024 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion Rianne Malixi and runner-up Asterisk Talley both advanced to the quarterfinals. The pair are on opposite sides of the bracket and could meet again in the final.
- Speaking of Talley, the 15-year-old is the lone U.S. National Junior Team member to make the quarterfinals. Teammate Scarlett Schremmer lost in the Round of 16.
QUOTABLE
“I feel like the best part of match play is you're just playing the one person, and you don't have to worry about everybody else. Especially this morning with the conditions that there were, there was a bunch of wind, and in stroke play you can have someone going off at like 7 a.m. and there's no wind, no conditions at all, and I feel like it's great that you can have someone that has the wind, has the conditions that you have when you're playing them.” – Asterisk Talley on what she loves about match play
“This course is kind of diabolical, but it's in beautiful shape, and it's fun to play.” - Catherine Rao on Southern Hills Country Club
“It's like if I can beat this player, I definitely can take on the next one. Kind of gets you in that kind of mindset.” – Anna Davis on her top-30 matchup win against Anna Morgan in the Round of 16
“I think part of it is almost the pressure of being on a stage this big. Every year I come out here and I try to appreciate being out here every year. I love this event so much. It's so well run." - Rao in why the U.S. Women’s Amateur brings out the best in her
“It feels great to be competing with my teammates, and obviously with Kenny in the quarterfinals, too, it means a lot, and it means that we have a great team for next season. We can do lots of big things. I just wish her luck because I love her with my entire heart and hope if we have to see each other in the semifinals or even if we make it to the finals, so be it.” – Maria Jose Marin on reaching the quarterfinals with her Arkansas teammate Kendall Todd
“It means a lot. It's definitely a confidence booster. I won't be thinking about it this week, though. It won't be that helpful. Keeping a simple mindset will be a key for this.” - Rianne Malixi on what the U.S. Girls’ Junior win has done for her
“I mean, match play still scares me. Match play is such a totally different game. I think taking it shot by shot, and especially on a course like this where you do need to think through everything, that helps keep me grounded and calm.” Kelly Xu on match play
“I'm really excited. I can't wait to find out if I get to be here for another day. It's always nice to be able to play this course one more time because it's beautiful. Yeah, really cool.” – Adela Cernousek on advancing to the quarterfinals in her U.S. Women’s Amateur debut
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