Seventeen-year-old Kristen Gillman has had quite the summer vacation.
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Australian golfers will be well represented in the match play phase of the US Amateur Championship in Portland in Oregon, four of the five who entered the event are through to the knockout stage.
Gillman has been on a whirlwind tour since profitable the 2014 Novice at Nassau Nation Membership in Glen Cove, N.Y., with a 2-up victory over Canadian Brooke Mackenzie Henderson.
But Lee, a member of Australia’s winning Astor Trophy team this year, showed she’s made of stern stuff with birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth holes to finish just two behind American joint leaders Jennifer Hahn and Samantha Wagner. She played alongside defending champion Michelle Wie for two rounds.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship will be televised once match-play begins on Wednesday, August 12 from 2 p.m.to 5 p.m. MDT on Fox Sports 1.
A Windermere, Florida, resident, Wagner competed in her first U.S. Women’s Open in early July at Lancaster Country Club; where she missed the 36-hole cut. That was her fourth career LPGA event.
“You realize you’re in Scotland if you stroll outdoors of the lodge and listen to bagpipes”, she posted to Twitter.
“Staying patient was a big factor”, Hahn said. “I didn’t play golf for three days after I went back home (from the Girls’ Junior), so I took a break, which is good”.
“It’s been my dream to have everybody out there watching me”, Secor said. The youngest player is Anne Chen, a 14-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas.
The victor of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur receives automatic qualification into the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open, provided she remains an amateur.
Twenty-one golfers finished stroke play under par, and that list included Caroline Inglis and Cathleen Santoso of the University of Oregon.
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There were a record 1,303 entries, breaking the previous mark of 1,209 set past year.
