Elise Lee (Ben Adelberg/Back of the Range Photo)
For the first time this week, Farah O’Keefe was in real trouble.
The stroke-play medalist had dropped the first two holes of her semifinal match on Friday afternoon during the 124th Women’s Western Amateur at Onwentsia Club. A scrambling par save on No. 3 was the only reason she didn’t trail Huai-Chien Hsu, her Texas teammate, by three. But O’Keefe wasn’t panicking.
“I was joking with my caddie … ‘I want [Hsu] to be comfortable right now because she’s not going to expect me to hit some great golf shots coming in,’” O’Keefe said. “That was kind of my mentality.”
The Austin, Texas, native didn’t lose another hole on her way to a 2 and 1 victory that preserved her chance to become the first medalist to win the W.A. Alexander Cup since Marissa Wenzler in 2021. The Big 12 Player and Freshman of the Year built a 2-up advantage after 12 holes, then held on with a procession of pars. She closed the match on the 17th green by two-putting from 90 feet, letting out a scream as the winning four-footer dropped.
O’Keefe had to get past two of her Texas teammates to get to Saturday’s final match, also beating Hsin Chun Liao of Taiwan in the Round of 32.
“It’s sad, but in a way, it’s very satisfying,” O’Keefe said. “Our team is tough.”
O’Keefe started her day with a 3 and 1 win over N.C. State’s Lauren Dainia Olivares, of Celaya, Mexico, in the quarterfinals. During the bumpy start against Hsu, she thought back to an experience she had playing for Team USA at the Arnold Palmer Cup earlier this month. She and her partner, Findlay’s Mary Kelly Mulcahy, were 2 down after two holes in foursomes.
“I was getting worried,” O’Keefe said. “She just said, ‘I’m not worried. We have them right where we want them. They’re comfortable. They’re not going to expect this.’”
The duo rallied to win that match 2 and 1 as Team USA defeated the International Team.
O’Keefe will face Elise Lee of Irvine, California, in the final match at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Lee, an incoming freshman at Northwestern, advanced by beating Isabella Rawl of Lexington, South Carolina, 2 and 1 on Friday morning and surviving a tight 2-up match against Macy Pate of Winston Salem, North Carolina, in the afternoon.
After shaking off a hole-in-one made by Rawl on the 160-yard, par-3 fifth in the morning, Lee found herself 2 down through seven holes against Pate. She won Nos. 8, 10, and 11 to take the lead and got to 2 up with a par on No. 13.
A par on 18 clinched her spot in the final.
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.
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