34th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Home

What Happened

*-Record-setting 36-hole stroke-play score

Clark and Peng put on quite a display in a back-and-forth match, combining for nine birdies. They tied holes 2 and 8 with birdies.

“I was joking earlier [that] this course owes me birdies,” said Clark, a former collegiate player at UCLA who posted 83-76 in stroke play. “I came out here with a different mindset and just hit good shots. That’s all I was focused on. I was like, ‘Let’s not think about where the pit of doom is on this green, let’s look at the pin. We know how far it is. Let’s just put a good swing on it.’”

With Peng, a former standout at Yale University, leading by one hole on the par-4 14th, Clark knocked her approach to two feet for a winning birdie to tie the match. She then won the par-5 15th with a par after a short miss by Peng.

“We had a lot of fun out there, catching up and just chatting,” said Peng, who won the stroke-play portion by eight strokes. “It’s disappointing to come up short, but it also has me excited to come back in the future and play in the event again.”

While Peng bowed out, most of the higher seeds prevailed on Monday. Eighth-seeded Erin Houtsma, of Denver, Colo., was the only other top-eight seed to be eliminated, falling 1 down to Andrea Kosa, of Canada.

Defending champion Ina Kim-Schaad, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., easily cruised into the Round of 32 with a 5-and-4 win over Lauren Shoemaker.

No. 2 seed Shannon Johnson, of Easton, Mass., the 2018 champion; No. 3 seed Jamie Freedman, of Aventura, Fla.; fourth-seeded Lara Tennant, of Portland, Ore., a three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion; fifth-seeded Lana Weant, of Lubbock, Texas; sixth-seeded Megan Buck, of North Easton, Mass.; and seventh-seeded Lauren Greenlief, of Ashburn, Va., the 2015 champion; also advanced. Buck eliminated four-time U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi, 1 up.

What’s Next

The Round of 32 will begin at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, followed by the Round of 16 in the afternoon, beginning at 12:30 p.m. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday, with the 18-hole championship match set for Thursday at 9 a.m. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• Samantha Postillion, the daughter of the last medalist to lose in the Round of 64, lost her Round-of-64 match to Lauren Greenlief on Monday, 4 and 3.
  
  
• Top seeds and medalists have had a rough going of late in first-round matches. Jennifer Peng became the fourth No. 1 seed I the last five USGA amateur championships to be ousted in the Round of 64. The previous three: Rachel Kuehn (U.S. Women’s Amateur), Mark Goetz (U.S. Amateur), Tim Hogarth (U.S. Senior Amateur).
  
  
• Shannon Johnson had some familiarity with her first-round opponent, Susan Curtin. The two are good friends and transplanted Massachusetts residents. Johnson prevailed in a tight match, 2 and 1.
  
  
• California, Florida and Texas led the way in match play with five players apiece qualifying. Georgia, New York and Virginia all had four.
  
  
• Eleven of the 32 matches on Monday did not reach the 15th hole.
  
  
• Sarah Gallagher, of Canton, Ga., defeated Berkeley Hall Club member Maggie Leef, 8 and 7. Leef, 61, was the oldest competitor in the field to reach match play. It is the eighth time in championship history that a match was decided by that margin. The record is 9 and 8, which has happened twice. There have been three matches decided by 9-and-7 margins.
  
  
• Only seven lower seeds won first-round matches, with 17 of the top-20 seeds reaching the Round of 32.
  
  
• Looking ahead to the Round of 32, 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Lauren Greenlief faces four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Ellen Port at 9 a.m. Port also has won three U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur titles.

Quotable

“Preparing for a USGA event living in New York City. Taking the 6 [subway train] an hour to the Bronx to play the world’s first public golf course, Van Cortlandt, which I promise you the greens do not look like these, is tough.” Aliea Clark, who is in the second year of a three-year graduate program at New York University, on preparing for her U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur debut

“It’s things like this that remind you of why you love the game so much. Even now, everyone has their own lives, but it’s really cool to play in a tournament where everyone’s brought together by their pure love of the game and to keep playing.” – Jennifer Peng on competing in her first U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur

“I’ve learned a lot about myself in match play, just playing in this the last few years. Today was much more consistent. I’ve been fighting my swing a little bit the last couple days and I think I might have figured something out this morning, so that’s promising.” – defending champion Ina Kim-Schaad

“I felt like I was a lot steadier today. [I’m] just trying to stick to my routines and pick my targets and the short game came around finally. That was key. I was starting to hit some better wedges and chip shots so that’s what helped me get it done today.” – 2017 champion Kelsey Chugg on her 4-and-3, Round-of-64 victory over Noelle Maertz

“I made match play in the [U.S. Women’s] Mid-Am the last three years and I’ve always lost in the first round. It’s been a huge monkey on my back to win that first match … So, it felt like I just won the Mid-Am there because I’ve wanted to win a match so bad.” – Allison Schultz on rallying from a 3-down deficit to defeat Chelsea Collura, 1 up.

“I kept thinking when I played match play for the Deaf Olympics, I was three down and ended up winning on the 19th hole. So I just kept telling myself, ‘Golf is a funny game; it’s not over,’ and I just kept staying patient.” – Kaylin Crownover, 29, of Tampa, Fla., on her 1-up victory after trailing by two with six holes to play. Crownover, who lost most of her hearing at age 2, won a gold medal in the 2017 Deaf Olympics in Turkey.

Joey Geske is a coordinator of championship communications for the USGA. Email him at jgeske@usga.org.

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