Twenty-five holes into the 9th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Oak Hills Country Club, Sydney Hackett and Melanie Walker were on the verge of changing airline reservations and prematurely checking out of their area hotel.
The two Virginians stood at 2 over par and five strokes off the projected match-play cut. But something happened on the way to the clubhouse. The quarterfinalists from the past two championships jumped into a proverbial phone booth and morphed into super-heroes. Seven-under par golf over the final 11 holes got the duo into match play, and by Tuesday afternoon, they were in the semifinals after knocking off record-setting co-medalists and top seeds Lauren and Katelyn Lehigh, of Loveland, Colo., 1 up.