Perth’s Hannah Green is suddenly the top seed left in the US Women’s Amateur Championship.
Green, a member at Mt Lawley, began the matchplay phase today as the fourth-ranked player of the remaining 64 at the Portland Golf Club in Oregon.
But after a day of shocks, the Golf Australia national squad member is now the highest remaining qualifier after the top three Americans were all bounced.
Green prevailed 3&2 over Californian Brigitte Dunn to book a showdown with 29th seed Bailey Tardy, of Georgia in the round of 32 tomorrow.
Melbourne’s Wanasa Zhou was another to press deeper into the world’s premier amateur event, thrashing Ohio’s Molly Scapic 6&4.
The University of Arizona student cruised after winning the opening four holes, setting up a Round of 32 match with world No.488 Elizabeth Wang.
Sadly, Sydney’s Cathleen Santoso bowed out with a 5&4 loss to Florida’s Anna Newell, while Adelaide’s Jenny Lee performed admirably but fell 1-down to Mathilda Cappeliez.
Lee’s scorecard gave her one of the better scores of the day at even par through her 18 holes, but the Frenchwoman prevailed in a high-quality match.
Green raced out of the blocks against Dunne to be 4-up through five holes, but Dunne slowly pegged back the margin to be just 2-down with three to play.
But Green rolled in a 5m birdie putt on the par-4 16th to seal victory at the same time as co-medallists Angel Yin (5&4) and Jennifer Hahn (4&3) and No.3 seed Nelly Korda (1-down) each bit the dust.
Green’s match against Tardy tomorrow should be a highlight, with both women having experience in big tournaments.
Tardy is the North and South Amateur Champion and earned qualification for the US Women’s Open and medallist honours at the 2013 US Girls Amateur, while Green has played professional events in Australia, Korea, Japan and New Zealand this year, finishing as a runner-up to Lydia Ko at the NZ Women’s Open.
Two matchplay rounds are scheduled tomorrow.