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U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR FOUR-BALL

Manic Monday at Maridoe: 2 of 3 Medalists Survive Round of 32

By Amy Morton, USGA

| Apr 26, 2021 | Carrollton, Texas

Kentucky teammates Jensen Castle (left) and Marissa Wenzler had the Round of 32's biggest upset, ousting the No. 2 seed. (Darren Carroll/USGA)

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What Happened

Two of the three co-medalist sides – as well as the runners-up from 2019 – advanced to Tuesday’s Round of 16 on Monday at Maridoe Golf Club. The youngest side of the 64 teams that started the week continued to progress as Gianna Clemente, 13, of Warren, Ohio – who carded her second career hole in one on Sunday – and partner Avery Zweig, 14, of McKinney, Texas, earned a 3-and-2 victory over the most veteran side to qualify for match play, Meghan Stasi, 42, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Dawn Woodard, 46, of Greenville, S.C.

“They got off to a hot start, and we were just lucky enough to hang on, and we knew that the stretch of holes from 9 through 13 was going to be extremely difficult, and that's where pars would win,” said Zweig. “That's what I was looking forward to all day, and I'd say we handled it pretty well.”

No. 1-seeded Paris Hilinski, 17, of Palm Beach, Fla., and Alexa Pano, 16, of Lake Worth, Fla., eliminated the final side to qualify for match play, Carlota Palacios of Spain and Jennifer Rosenberg of Laurel Hollow, N.Y., 3 and 1. Palacios and Rosenberg earned the No. 32 seed on Monday morning, advancing out of a 5-for-1 playoff.

“They just made every single putt and played really well,” said Pano, the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up, of her competitors. “We both were really confident on the back nine. I was secured for par and Paris was taking her reads and draining everything she looked at. I had a really clutch partner today.”

The third duo of medalists, Yale University teammates Ami Gianchandani, 21, of Watchung, N.J., and Kaitlyn Lee, 19 of Scarsdale, N.Y., were ousted, 2 and 1, by Jensen Castle, 20, of Columbia, S.C., and Marissa Wenzler, 20, of Dayton, Ohio. The two members of the University of Kentucky women’s golf team got a boost when their UK teammates, Laney Frye, 18, of Nicholasville, Ky., and Maria Villanueva, 20, of Mexico, caddied for them after missing out on the match-play bracket.

“We didn’t have caddies during the first two rounds so it was great having our teammates around,” said Wenzler. “All four of us being together was fun. We did a really good job staying in the moment.”

Jillian Bourdage, of Tamarac, Fla., and partner Casey Weidenfeld, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., who lost in the championship match in 2019 in their home state and earned the No. 4 seed on Sunday, also moved into the Round of 16 with a 1-up victory over High Point University teammates Sarah Kahn, of Windermere, Fla., and Samantha Vodry, of Little Elm, Texas.

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Ashley Chow (left) and Katie James had reason to smile as the SMU teammates advanced to the Round of 16. (Darren Carroll/USGA)

What's Next


The Round of 16 on Tuesday will commence at 7:30 a.m. CDT and will be followed by the quarterfinals in the afternoon. The semifinals and 18-hole final will take place on Wednesday.

Notable

  • A total of nine sides that feature current or future college teammates qualified for match play, although only three of the nine won their Round-of-32 matches on Monday. Winning sides included Bradley University (Taylor Ledwein/Megan Welch); Southern Methodist (Ashley Chow/Katie James); and Kentucky (Jensen Castle/Marissa Wenzler). The six college sides who lost on Monday were Yale (co-medalists Ami Gianchandani/Kaitlyn Lee), North Texas (Lauren Cox/Katie Finley); Samford (Bailey Dunstan/Kelley Topiwala); Washington State (Madelyn Gamble/Hannah Harrison); High Point (Sarah Kahn/Samantha Vodry); and Tulane (Carlota Palacios/Jennifer Rosenberg).

  • Tulane teammates Palacios, of Spain, and Rosenberg, of Laurel Hollow, N.Y., survived a five-hole, 5-for-1 playoff to garner the final match-play spot. The playoff, which carried over to Monday, ended when they birdied the par-3 14th hole to eliminate teenagers Ariel Gonzalez and Vania Simont of Mexico, who had shot 69 on Sunday after opening with a 79. 

  • At five holes, the stroke-play playoff tied the 2018 championship for the longest in Women’s Amateur Four-Ball history. This year’s playoff also included the most teams ever (5). Four teams played off in 2016 at Streamsong Resort (for three spots) and in 2017 at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club (for two spots).

  • The cut, which came at 4-over 148, was the highest in championship history, topping the 2-over 146 score from the first year on the Pacific Dunes course at Bandon Dunes. The three co-medalist teams shot 6-under 138 at Maridoe, which is also the highest 36-hole medalist score in the six editions of the championship. The previous high medalist was 134 (10 under), by Annick Haczkiewicz and Sydney Smith at El Caballero in 2018.

  • Exactly half of the higher-seeded sides prevailed on Monday – eight of those in the lower half of the bracket, including the Nos. 27, 28 and 31 seeds, moved on to the Round of 16.

Quotable

Gianna Clemente, 13, on making it to match play during her first U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship: “I don't have a lot of match play or four-ball experience, but getting to play with Avery [Zweig] is one of the highlights. I went in with a mindset where I was just lucky to be out there to play, so I think we definitely had a great day, and we executed very well.”

Ashley Chow, on hitting her 5-hybrid approach to within inches of the hole to go 6 up against No. 5-seeded Lauren Greenlief and Katie Miller Gee: “My ball-striking has not been good this week, so I have been doing a lot of punch shots to manage it. I love a punch fade. That hole set up perfectly for it. I clubbed up one and used the contours to let it trickle down to the hole.”

Grace Summerhays on playing with partner Sydney Bryan: “The main thing for four-ball is to play your own game. There is some strategy in it, but we know our own games and accept the good and bad shots as they come. Our skillsets are similar in the sense that we hit the ball the same distance and are solid putters. We communicate really well.”

Jennifer Rosenberg reflecting on her experience with partner Carlota Palacios after earning the No. 32 seed: “We went into this with very little expectations. Carlota is burnt out. She has been playing for three months straight. I am returning from injury. We just wanted to come out here and have fun. We did exactly that and worked so hard. The past few days have been perfect, just like a movie. We loved it and had an awesome time.”

Meghan Stasi, asked if she plans to return with partner Dawn Woodard: “We're not going anywhere. We'll keep trying it. Don't mess up a good thing. I don't think anybody else will play with us, so we'd better stick with each other. We make it an adventure.”

Amy Morton is an assistant manager of communications for the USGA. Email her at amorton@usga.org. Senior staff writer David Shefter contributed.

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