Jasmine Koo (USGA Photo)
Ever since playing the first six holes of Monday’s opening round of stroke play of the 75th U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 3 over par, Jasmine Koo has turned El Caballero Country Club into her own personal playground. The 18-year-old incoming University of Southern California freshman from nearby Cerritos has simply been downright dominant, especially since the format switched to match play.
Just how impressive has Koo been?
The highest-ranked player in the field at No. 7 in the latest Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® hasn’t lost a single hole in three matches, needing only 37 holes to dispatch her opponents. The only thing hotter has been the temperatures, which reached the 90-degree mark for the fourth consecutive day of the championship.
On Thursday, Koo dismantled Lily Peng, of San Ramon, Calif., 8 and 7, to reach the quarterfinals. In the morning’s Round of 32, she posted a 6-and-5 victory over Chanel Dangela, of the Republic of Korea. Her third-round victory was the largest in a Round-of-16 match in seven years.
Koo, one of the first three players named to the eight-woman 2024 USA Curtis Cup Team that will face Great Britain and Ireland at Sunningdale Golf Club in England next month, is joined in the final eight by 2022 runner-up Gianna Clemente, 16, of Estero, Fla.; 2023 runner-up Rianne Malixi, 17, of the Philippines; 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion Asterisk Talley, 15, of Chowchilla, Calif.; Vanessa Borovilos, 18, of Canada; Madison Messimer, 17, of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Avani Prashanth, 17, of India; and Anna Fang, 15, of San Diego, Calif.
Besides the great golf, Koo said sleeping in her own bed – Cerritos is about a 45-minute commute – and eating mom’s homemade kimchi stew, a Korean dish, has been an absolute delight. She even had older brother, Joshua, a member of the Pepperdine University golf team and two-time U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier, on her bag for the first time on Thursday. She employed caddies from nearby The Los Angeles Country Club the first three days.
“I think whenever my opponent sticks it close it just like makes me super motivated to make birdie, so we've just matched birdies really well,” said Koo, who is the equivalent of 16 under par in match play. “Honestly, my game is just so comfortable right now. I'm so comfortable on the golf course.
“My brother caddied for me for the first time today and there are so many holes where he was like, ‘Okay, aim right on this one.’ I'm like, I have a wedge in my hand. I'm just going to go straight at it. I don't care if there is water on the left.”
This all began in April when she finished fourth in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The 2023 Women’s Western Amateur champion – that’s her only match-play title to date – then tied for 13th in the Chevron Championship the year’s first women’s professional major, before taking home individual honors at the Toyota Cup in Japan.
Clemente, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion who is No. 22 in the WAGR, extended her Girls’ Junior match-play record to 12-2 with a pair of victories, the last of which was an impressive 7-and-6 win over medalist and top seed Kinsley Ni, 16, of the People’s Republic of China, in the Round of 16. But earlier on Thursday, Clemente found herself 3 down after nine holes to Lisa Copeland, of Naperville, Ill., before she entered a figurative phone booth and turned into a superhero.
Clemente proceeded to birdie four of the next nine holes, including a match-clinching 12-footer on the par-4 18th, for a 1-up win. Then, against Ni, a player she dropped a 2-and-1 decision to last week in the singles portion of the Wyndham Cup, Clemente birdied five of the first six holes – all inside 10 feet – to reach the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. She played her final 21 holes on Thursday in a remarkable 10-under par, with the usual match-play concessions.
“I guess when you're that far down you just go into fight or flight,” said Clemente when asked about her mindset in the Round-of-32 encounter. “You know you have to start making some birdies. It's kind of like a reflex.”
Clemente is one of two players from the USGA’s inaugural U.S. National Junior Team to make the final eight. The week began with eight players from the team, with four qualifying for match play. Only Clemente and Talley remain after No. 5 seed Borovilos eliminated Shyla Brown, 16, of McKinney, Texas, in 19 holes in the Round of 16.
Borovilos, a 2024 Texas A&M signee who captured the Girls 10-11 division of the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals in 2018 at Augusta National Golf Club, won the 2024 Dustin Johnson World Junior and was second in the Junior Orange Bowl International in January.
Talley, the winner of the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, who later shared low-amateur honors in the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club, survived a 21-hole marathon on Thursday morning against Thanana Kotchasanamee, of Thailand, before grinding out a 2-and-1 victory over fellow U.S. National Junior Team member Scarlett Schremmer, 17, of Birmingham, Ala.
Talley was down multiple times against Schremmer, a University of Texas verbal commitment for 2025, before winning Nos. 14-16. She made a 3-footer for birdie on 14 and a 10-footer on the par-3 16th for a 2.
“It sucks to play with two people that you love to play golf with,” said Talley, a rising high school sophomore, on beating Schremmer. “You want to be their teammates, but sometimes they have to be competitors, and you can't do anything about it.”
Malixi, who fell in the 36-hole final a year ago to current University of Oregon All-American Kiara Romero, survived a scare in the Round of 32, needing 19 holes to eliminate University of Virginia signee and U.S. National Development Program grant recipient Kennedy Swedick, of Albany, N.Y. But a birdie on the par-5 19th hole – El Caballero’s first – sent her into the final 16, where she easily dispatched Yanling Elaine Liu, of Canada, 6 and 5.
In between matches, Malixi managed to fix a small issue with her short irons, which led to a 4-under performance. Malixi arrived in Southern California as the second-highest ranked player in the field at No. 19 in the WAGR. The Duke University commit for 2025 captured the 2024 Australian Women’s Master of the Amateurs and was the runner-up to Talley in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. She also was fifth in the Women’s Asia-Pacific Amateur.
“One key factor for sure is my irons,” said Malixi. “They were a lot better. But I made a lot of clutch putts in both of my matches today. I'll credit that to my putter.”
Prashanth, No. 55 in the WAGR and competing in her first USGA championship, took out 2024 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier Amelie Zalsman, 1 up, and incoming Stetson University freshman Isaki Sakashita, of Japan, 3 and 2. Prashanth was the runner-up to Malixi in the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs and fourth individually in the 2023 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in the United Arab Emirates. She willface Clemente next.
Fang came into match play in her second consecutive U.S. Girls’ Junior as the No. 59 seed and took a laissez-faire attitude into the format. Basically, she had nothing to lose, and on Thursday she handled fellow Southern California Donina Zhou in the Round of 16, 4 and 2. Fang, who advanced to the Round of 32 in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay as a 13-year-old, then eliminated 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball runner-up Brynn Kort, of Henderson, Nev., 5 and 4.
The rising sophomore at Del Norte High in Poway, however, will face her stiffest test of the week on Friday morning: Jasmine Koo.
Messimer, another low seed at No. 58, looked defeated on the par-3 16th tee as she trailed Kathryn Ha, 3 down. But, she won the last three holes and then eliminated the 2024 Virginia State Golf Association Girls’ Junior champion on the 20th hole. Earlier on Thursday, she knocked out Oregon State rising sophomore Raya Nakao, 2 and 1.