Oh leads US Amateur

National Squad member Su-Hyun Oh, 18, shot a 4-under 66 on Monday and owns a one-stroke lead following the first round of stroke-play qualifying at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, being held at the 6,297-yard, par-70 Nassau Country Club.

“I’m playing quite solid,” said Oh, a quarterfinalist at the 2013 Women’s Amateur. “Just giving myself a lot of opportunities and making a few.”

Oh, eighth in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™, carded six birdies against two bogeys. Her 40-foot birdie from off the green at the par-4 11th provided a spark to her inward nine.

“I thought, just get it somewhere there and it just went in,” said Oh, runner-up at last month’s Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship. “It felt good. I’ll take it any day.”

 Oh, whose parents emigrated to Australia from South Korea when she was an infant, has been tipped for greatness since she qualified for a start in the Women's Australian Open at Metropolitan in 2009 as a 12-year-old student at Mackinnon Secondary College. A member of Metropolitan Golf Club's winning division one pennant team this year, she is completing her VCE studies this year and intends playing the LPGA Tour qualifying series later in 2014 and turning professional.

 The championships are being played over 36 holes of stroke, followed by six rounds of matchplay golf.

Oh’s 66 is tied for the third-lowest 18-hole score in championship history, and is a Nassau women’s course record. Others to card a 66 at the Women’s Amateur include Natalie Gulbis (1999), Amanda Blumenherst (2008) and Lydia Ko (2011 and 2012). Yumi Matsubara set the championship record of 64 last year at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina.

Hannah O’Sullivan, 16, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., sits in solo second at 3-under 67. O’Sullivan, who finished third at last week’s Junior PGA Championship, closed with four birdies over her final six holes.

“I just started hitting the ball better,” said O’Sullivan, who needed only 25 putts on the round. “I was putting great all day and just gave myself better opportunities and drained the putts.”

Megan Khang, 16, of Rockland, Mass., holds third position after a 68. She is followed by a quartet of players tied for fourth at 69: 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior quarterfinalists Bethany Wu, 17, of Diamond Bar, Calif., and Andrea Lee, 15, of Hermosa Beach, Calif.; 2014 USA Curtis Cup Team member Alison Lee, 19, of Valencia, Calif.; and 2013 Girls’ Junior medalist Bailey Tardy, 17, of Norcross, Va.