It was a historic Monday at the 11th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Daniel Island Club’s Ralston Creek Course, as Florida natives Hannah Hall, 18, of Orlando and partner Iris Lee, 13, of Rockledge, defeated Kathryn DeLoach and Elizabeth Sullivan in 22 holes, tying the longest match in the championship’s history.
DeLoach and Sullivan, both of Athens, Ga., rallied from 3-down at the turn of the Round-of-32 encounter with birdies on Nos. 10, 11, and 13 to tie the match. From that point forward, both sides rattled off eight consecutive pars to force a fourth playoff hole, where Hall stuck her tee shot to 10 feet on the 149-yard par-3 22nd, and then calmly holing the match-sealing putt. Notably, the winning birdie was the side’s first since carding a 2 on the par-3 ninth.
“I was actually in between clubs,” said Hall, who has signed to play at the University of Kansas this fall. “But I ended up hitting the same club I hit yesterday, stuck it to about 10 feet, and made it. It was fun.”
Earlier in the day, stroke-play medalists Nikki Oh and Jude Lee continued their dominant week on the Ralston Creek Course, earning a 3-and-2 victory over Sadie Goodman and Yasmina Oralkhan.
The incoming Stanford University freshmen took four holes to settle in before rattling off birdies on Nos. 5, 7, 9 and 10 to take a 4-up lead with eight holes to play. No. 32 seeds Goodman, of West Harrison, N.Y., and Oralkhan, of Brooklyn, N.Y., responded on the par-5 12th with a birdie of their own to claim their only hole of the match. The ensuing five holes were tied, including heroic birdies from both sides on Nos. 12 and 13, to seal the match for the U.S. National Junior Team duo, which has yet to record a bogey in 52 holes of play.
Fellow U.S. National Junior Team member Grace Carter, a semifinalist in last year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior, also found success in the Round of 32, earning a 4-and-2 triumph with partner and fellow Floridian Alexandra Snyder over Fay Jia and Kuree Little.
Carter, 15, of Jupiter, and Snyder, 15, of Orlando, entered the match as the No. 21 seeds and made seven birdies in the 16-hole match, sealing the minor upset over the No. 12-seeds with a birdie on the 384-yard, par-4 16th hole.
“Grace played really well today,” said Snyder of her teammate, “and I was able to sink a few clutch putts towards the end, which really helped out.”
One of the more captivating matches of the day came from a duel between University of Mississippi teammates Sophie Linder and Mary Miller, and 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball runners-up Athena Singh and Keira Yun.
It took 17 holes of back-and-forth play for Linder, 21, of Carthage, Tenn., and Miller, 20, of Savannah, Ga., to eliminate Singh and Yun, 2 and 1. The tandem of college teammates was 3-up going into the 14th hole when Singh and Yun rattled off back-to-back birdies to cut the lead to 1-up. A tie on No. 16 brought the match to the 366-yard, par-4 17th, where Linder flushed a 115-yard approach to 6 feet and converted the match-sealing birdie putt.
“I think we hit a lot of good shots today,” said Miller, a sophomore who transferred from Georgia Southern. “We had many opportunities to make putts and finally had a couple drop in the middle of the round, which gave us a bit of a lead. They [Athena Singh and Keira Yun] hit some pretty good shots on those two holes (14 and 15) … but we just stayed consistent and hit some good shots coming in to close it out.”
Florida State’s Haley Davis and University of Florida’s Katelyn Huber squared off against 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champions Alexa Saldana (University of Houston) and Savannah Barber (University of Oklahoma). The Florida duo found themselves with a 1-up lead after the opening nine holes, before catching fire on the second nine with four birdies over their next six holes to close out their match, 4 and 3.
“Haley made a bomb [long putt] on Hole 12 after I made a short slider for par, and that freed her up to attack, which put some pressure on the other side,” said Huber in regard to the side’s second-nine boost. “On the back, we were both giving ourselves chances for birdie, something we weren’t doing a great job of on the front nine, but it picked up.”
What’s Next
Match play continues Tuesday with the Round of 16 and quarterfinals, beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT. The quarterfinal matches are scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. The semifinal matches and 18-hole final are scheduled for Wednesday. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.
Notable
- The 22-hole match between Iris Lee/Hannah Hall and Kathryn DeLoach/Elizabeth Sullivan was tied for the longest match in championship history. In 2019, Isabella Rawl and Karlee Vardas secured a 22-hole victory over Megan Buck and Shannon Johnson during the Round of 32 at Timuquana Country Club, in Jacksonville, Fla. Buck and Johnson competed this week but failed to qualify for match play.
- Connections in the matchup between Kimberly Dinh/Mary Janiga Kartes and Morgan Ellison/Katie Scheck run deep. Kartes was the former assistant coach at the University of Texas-San Antonio when Ellison competed on the golf team. Ellison’s side prevailed on Monday, 2 up.
- Out of eight exempt sides that began the championship, only four advanced to the Round of 16 (Oh/Lee, Miller/Linder, Bella Dovhey/Sophia Dyer and Ellison/Scheck)
- Eight of the 11 players aged 15-and-under advanced to the Round of 16, including the youngest player in the championship (Iris Lee, 13).
Quotable
“I’ve luckily made it to match play every time I’ve played, but I feel like you have to stay patient and expect your opponent to make a birdie. You just can’t let your guard down. Stuff like that is the advice I try to give.” Sophie Linder on advice she’s imparting to teammate Mary Miller with five U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Balls under her belt
“I think we were able to focus more on our group, as opposed to where we stood among the full field, which helped us focus more.” Grace Carter on what she thinks is the major difference between match and stroke play
“It helps build confidence. When I’m rolling in a bunch of putts, I feel very confident over the ball. The same goes for Katelyn. When you see your partner hit a shot on the green, you know you can take a breath and relax … That’s something that helped me today, knowing that she was okay and I could take advantage of my putt or attack a tight pin.” Haley Davis on using the momentum of consecutive birdies to help win her match
“I was really tired and really stressed. My dad gave me a good mindset, so I tried to follow that.” Iris Lee, the youngest player in the field, on her 22-hole match
