YOUNG NSW golfer Ella Skaysbrook has come agonisingly close to winning her way into the final of the US Women’s Amateur Championship.
The 19-year-old from Newcastle, a member of the NSW Golf High Performance squad and now playing out of the Australian Golf Club, Skaysbrook was 4-up after 12 holes against the world’s No. 7 ranked amateur Megha Ganne in their semi-final match, before being beaten at the 19th hole. Ganne would go on to beat Brooke Biermann in the 36-hole final.
While it was a heartbreaking end for Skaysbrook, she had impressed throughout the week at Bandon Dunes in Oregon at the event featuring the best women’s amateur golfers from 17 different countries and 35 US states.
“It means a lot because I was 63 seed, so I didn’t actually have a spot. To make to the semifinals especially means a lot,” Scaysbrook told USGA media after her loss.
“I’m just really proud of myself now that I am one the best I guess, I can compete with the best.”
Ella Skaysbrook won her way through to the semifinals of the US Women’s Amateur.
After sneaking into the top 64 via a 15 players for six spots playoff, Skaysbrook made an immediate impact with a first-up 6&4 win over second seeded American Asterisk Talley.
From there she was dominant in registering 4&3 victories in rounds two and three, before beating Canadian Taylor Kehoe 5&4 in the quarter finals.
While it was Skaysbrook who made the biggest impression, fellow Australians Jazzy Roberts and Momo Sugiyama also performed strongly.
Roberts finished in a tie for seventh in the 36-hole stroke play qualifying event with a six-under par total, three shots behind joint medallists, Talley and Filipino Rianne Malixi.
After winning her first match on the 19th hole, Roberts was eliminated in the round of 32.
As for Sugiyama, like Roberts also from the Gold Coast but currently playing her golf at Purdue University in the US, consecutive rounds of 71 saw her placed well inside the cut off for the top 64 to qualify for the matchplay rounds. Sugiyama was then beaten 4&3 in her round one match.
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