Despite their young ages, Gianna Clemente and Avery Zweig are no strangers to USGA competition. Zweig, 16, is playing in her fifth U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, teaming up with Clemente, 15, for the last three, reaching the semifinals in 2021 and the Round of 16 in 2022. Clemente, who first burst onto the scene when she qualified as an 11-year-old for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur, has since Monday-qualified for three LPGA Tour events, and last year reached the final match of the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Zweig already has a U.S. Women’s Open appearance under her belt.
The high schoolers entered this week’s 8th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball as a team to watch, their junior careers clearly making them a formidable threat. After rounds of 69-67 in stroke play, they entered the match-play bracket at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash., as the No. 15 seed, and cruised through the first two rounds with a pair of 5-and-4 victories. In Tuesday afternoon’s quarterfinal match, Clemente and Zweig took the lead for good against Vanessa Borovilos and Cara Heisterkamp on the eighth hole en route to a 3-and-2 victory.