Lauren Olivares (Ben Adelberg/Back of the Range Photo)
A few minutes after securing her place in the quarterfinals of the 124th Women’s Western Amateur at Onwentsia Club on Thursday, Elise Lee checked her phone.
There was a missed call – from 2023 Women’s Western Amateur champion Jasmine Koo.
“She’s my best friend,” Lee said. “I have to respond.”
Koo is on the west coast this week, taking advantage of her last opportunity to play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior, where she has also advanced to the quarterfinals. The California natives have been tracking one another and offering encouragement as they chase their respective titles.
“She told me to win it,” Lee said. “I told her to win hers.”
Lee is two steps closer to lifting the W.A. Alexander Cup after surviving two rounds of match play on Thursday. The Northwestern commit cruised through her morning match, beating Texas’ Bohyun Park, of Korea, 6 and 4. Her afternoon match against Justice Bosio, of Australia, couldn’t have been closer – or more dramatic.
Lee entered the par-3 18th with a 1-up lead but pulled her 5-wood into a greenside bunker. With Bosio safely on the green, Lee executed the shot of the day, splashing her ball out and watching it roll toward the hole for five seconds before it dropped in for a clinching birdie.
“I knew all I had to do is bounce it out of the bunker and let it trickle in,” Lee said. “I read it correctly, and it was a good bunker shot.”
Three more rounds of match play will decide the Women’s Western Amateur champion.
Medalist Farah O’Keefe of Austin, Texas, rolled through her matches on Thursday, beating Texas teammate Hsin Chun Liao, of Taiwan, 5 and 3 in the morning and dispatching Auburn’s Casey Weidenfeld, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, 3 and 2 in the afternoon.
The Big 12 Player and Freshman of the Year trailed for all of one hole over the two matches, making a bogey on the first hole against Weidenfeld to start 1 down. O’Keefe won the next hole to square the match and then took four of the next 10 to secure her place in the quarterfinals.
“I’ve started to take on the mentality of trying to put my foot on [the opponent’s] throat early in the match,” O’Keefe said. “Even if we’re best friends, I’m still going to try to beat your brains out.”
She’ll face NC State’s Lauren Dainia Olivares, who breezed through her matches on Thursday as well. Olivares, of Celaya, Mexico, didn’t drop a hole in her morning match and advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Caitlin Peirce, of Australia, 5 and 3.
Olivares was 1-up through 10 holes against Peirce, then played Nos. 11-15 in 3-under par to end the match.
Stretches like that were rare as the golf course continues to recover from torrential rains earlier this week. Riana Mission, of Las Vegas, Nevada, advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Kary Hollenbaugh in 19 holes and said she had to be strategic on Onwentsia’s 6,400-yard layout.
“This wind has made this course pretty tough,” the rising senior at San Francisco said. “It’s drying out slowly. We’re getting a little bit of roll but not always. It played long, and with these big greens, you have to be able to read the greens and keep it close to the hole.”
Alice Hodge, of Larchmont, New York, took down Annabell Pancake, of Zionsville, Indiana, 3 and 1 in the Round of 16. Pancake was looking to win the championship after finishing runner-up in 2022.
Also advancing to the quarterfinals are Clemson’s Isabella Rawl, of Lexington, South Carolina; Wake Forest’s Macy Pate, of Winston Salem, North Carolina; and Texas’ Huai-Chien Hsu, of Taiwan.
The Women’s Western Amateur continues with quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Friday. The championship match will be played Saturday morning.
Held without interruption since 1901, the Women’s Western Amateur is among the oldest and most prestigious annual championships in women’s amateur golf. The tournament is conducted jointly by the Women’s Western Golf Association and the Western Golf Association.
The championship features the top amateur and collegiate players from across the globe. The winner at Onwentsia this week will join a list of past champions that includes legendary stars Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Nancy Lopez as well as modern standouts like Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Stacy Lewis and Ariya Jutanugarn.
Recap courtesy of Western Golf Association
ABOUT THE
Women's Western Amateur
Held without interruption since its inception in 1901, the Women's Western Amateur is among the oldest annual championships in women's amateur golf. Each year, it attracts many of the top amateur and collegiate golfers in the world. The list of past champions spans more than a century, from legendary stars Patty Berg (1938) and Louise Suggs (1946, 1947) to modern standouts like Brittany Lang (2003), Stacy Lewis (2006) and Ariya Jutanugarn (2012).
ENTRY INFORMATION
The Women's Western Amateur is open to amateur
women who have an up-to-date 18-hole
handicap index
that does not exceed 5.4 under the World Handicap
System. The championship begins with 36 holes of stroke-
play qualifying, after which the field is cut to
the low 32
players for match play. In the event of a tie for the
32nd position, a sudden-elimination playoff
will determine
the final match play qualifiers. Five rounds of 18-hole
matches will decide the Women's
Western Amateur
champion.
View Complete Tournament Information