Su-Hyun Oh dominated defending champion Emma Talley in Thursday afternoon’s round-of-16 match, notching a 9-and-8 win at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, being conducted at the 6,297-yard, par-70 Nassau Country Club.
Oh, 18, of Australia, and Talley, 20, of Princeton, Ky., halved the first hole. But from that point forward, the match belonged solely to Oh. Her conceded birdie from 2 feet at the par-3 second set the tone for the match.
“When I hit it close, it was a good start,” said Oh, the runner-up at last week’s Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship. “It always helps when you go on a good start in match play.”
That good start kept rolling, with Oh winning the next eight holes for the runaway victory. She played to the equivalent of 4 under par, with the usual match-play concessions, while Talley, who clinched the winning point for the USA at the Curtis Cup Match in June, struggled to 8 over.
“Sometimes you run into someone that’s playing really well,” said Talley. “We started out basically the same. She just made her putts and I didn’t.”
“Emma didn’t play her best, but she also had some really bad breaks in the middle,” said Oh, who reached the round of 16 with a 4-and-3 win over Liz Breed in the morning’s round of 32. “In the end, it all just went my way.”
Oh’s margin of victory was the championship’s largest since 2005, and is the second-largest victory in championship history. Angela Park eliminated Jennifer Ackerson by the same 9-and-8 margin in the third round at Ansley Golf Club in Roswell, Ga. Only four players have completed the 10-and-8 victory sweep, and none since Mary Lena Faulk in 1954.
Oh will next meet Kristen Gillman, 16, of Austin, Texas, in Friday’s quarterfinals. Gillman, who won last week’s Junior PGA Championship by 11 strokes, advanced with a 5-and-3 victory over Stanford University sophomore Casey Danielson, 19, of Osceola, Wis.