17th-Hole Birdie Gives Kim 1-up Victory over McCauley, But It Will Be Romero vs. Malixi in the Girls Junior Final

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- For Reese McCauley, the U.S. Girls Junior Championship ended early Friday morning. Her Round of 16 match against 17-year-old Canadian Lauren Kim had started late on Thursday, the result of a 3-hour delay for thunder storms, and it was tied at the end of 16 holes when play was suspended for the day. The match was resumed Friday morning, and Kim promptly birdied the 149-yard, par-3 17th hole. Then Kim and McCauley, the 17-year-old former Minnesota State Junior champion from Inver Grove Heights, both parred the 408-yard, par-4 18th, which was all Kim needed for a 1-up victory.

McCauley had made it through stroke-play qualifying on the number with a 151 (75-76), and was the No. 59 seed for match play. In her first match, she was 2 down with four holes remaining but rallied to beat No. 6 Anna Huang 1 up. She then built a 3-up lead on the front nine in her Round of 32 match against No. 27 Pimpisa Rubrong. They basically traded holes on the back nine, and McCauley won 3&2.

Against Kim, McCauley led 2 up after four holes. But Kim won the eighth with a par and the ninth and 12th holes with birdies, before McCauley pulled even again with a birdie at the 14th.

By winning Friday morning, Kim, the No. 22 seed, earned a place in the quartrerfinals opposite the No. 3 seed, Kiara Romero, the only one of the top 9 seeds still alive. Romero proceeded to play 17 holes in 3 under par, and in a turnabout-is-fair-play kind of thing, she finished Kim off, 3&1, by making a birdie at the 17th hole.

In the semifinals Thursday afternoon, Romero, a 17-year-old from San Jose who will be a freshman at Oregon this fall, took on the No. 18 seed, Gianna Clemente. Clemente is the 15-year-old Floridian who was 4 under par on Wednesday afternoon in a 3&2 Round of 16 victory over the No. 2 seed, Anna Davis -- and was 5 under on Thursday morning in a 6&5 demolition of the only other remaining top-10 seed besides Romero, No. 10 Clarisa Temelo.

Clemente took an early 1-up lead against Romero by winning the second hole with.a par, but Romero retaliated with birdies at the par-4 fourth, the 565-yard, par-5 fifth and the par-3 seventh, to go 2 up. Undaunted, Clemente drew even with a birdie at the eighth (420 yards, par 4) and a par at the 10th, and she went 1 up by winning the 14th with a birdie.

But it was Romero who made the final -- and decisive -- surge, winning the 15th wtih a birdie, the par-5 16th with a par, and sealing her 2-up victory with a birdie at the 411-yard, par-4 18th.

So she will play the No. 24 seed, Rianne Malixi, in the final on Saturday. Malixi is a 15-year-old Filipina who closed the door on Leigh Chien, 4&2. Chien, the No. 45 seed, had come backl from 3 down twice this week. In her semifinal against Malixi on Friday afternoon, she found herself 3 down once again, although that was through no fault of her own. She had led 1 up thanks to a birdie at the par-3 third. But then Malixi won the par-5 fifth with a birdie, the sixth with a par and the seventh and eighth with two more birdies.

Chien cut the deficit to 2 down by winning the 10th hole with a par, but Malixi blunted any potential comeback attempt with a birdie at the par-5 11th, and she wound up closing Chien out with her sixth birdie of the match at the par-5 16th.


U.S. Girls Junior Championship

At U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Course -- Blue Course

Par 72, 6,735 yards

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Match Play

Round of 64

No. 1 Yana Wilson def. No. 64 Ashley Kim 5&4

No. 2 Anna Davis def. No. 63 Thanana Kotchasanmanee 4&2

No. 3 Kiara Romero def. No. 62 Claire Wan 2&1

No. 4 Kaili Xiao def. No. 61 Swetha Sathish 1 up

No. 5 Tarapath Panya def. No. 60 Ruilhan Kendria Wang 1 up

No. 59 Reese McCauley def. No. 6 Anna Huang 1 up

No. 7 Emerie Schartz def. No. 58 Veronika Exposito 5&4

No. 8 Sara Im def. No. 57 Leia Chung 1 up

No. 9 Kaitlyn Schroeder def. No. 56 Taylor Baker 6&5

No. 10 Clarisa Temelo def. No. 55 Yujie Liu 2&1

Round of 32

No. 32 Yeji Kwon def. No. 1 Wilson 20 holes

No. 2 Davis def. No. 31 Aphrodite Deng 4&3

No. 3 Romero def. No, 30 Vanessa Borovilos

No. 4 Xiao def. No. 36 Kaatie Li 1 up

No. 37 Kennedy Swedick def. No. 5 Panya 2&1

No. 59 McCauley def. No. 27 Pimpisa Rubrong 3&2

No. 26 Chizuru Komiya def. No. 7 Schartz 5&4

No. 25 Audrey Rischer def. No. 8 Im 2&1

No. 24 Rianne Malixi def. No. 9 Schroeder 1 up

No. 10 Temelo def. No. 42 Martina Yu 20 holes

Round of 16

No. 17 Farah O'Keefe def. No. 32 Kwon 3&2

No. 18 Gina Clemente def. No. 2 Davis 3&2

No. 3 Romero def. No. 46 Natalie Yen 19 holes

No. 45 Leigh Chien def. No. 4 Xiao 3&1

No. 12 Sidney Yermish def. No. 37 Swedick 1up

No. 22 Lauren Kim def. No. 55 McCauley 1 up

No. 10 Temelo def. No. 26 Komiya 2&1

No. 24 Malixi def. No. 25 Rischer 1 up

Quarterfinals

No. 3 Romero def. No. 22 Kim 3&1

No. 18 Clemente def. No. 10 Temelo 6&

No. 24 Malixi def. No. 17 O'Keefe 1 up

No. 45 Chien def. No. 12 Yermish 19 holes

Semifinals

No 3 Romero def. No. 18 Clemente 2 up

No. 24 Malixi def. No. 45 Chien 4&2


Stroke Play

Final results

1. Yana Wilson, Henderson, Nev. 70-68--138 (-6)

2. Anna Davis, Spring Valley, Calif. 68-71--139

3. Kiara Romero, San Jose, Calif. 68-72--140

T4. Tarapath Panya, Thailand 69-73--142

T4. Anna Huang, Canada 74-68--142

T4. Kaili Xiao, China 69-73--142

7, Emerie Schartz, Wichita, Kansas 72-71--143

T8. Sara Im, Duluth, Ga. 71-73--144

T8. Asterisk Talley, Chowchilla, Calif. 72-72--144

T8. Clarisa Temelo, Mexico 70-74--144

T8. Kaitlyn Schroeder, Jacksonville, Fla. 72-72--144

T8. Sidney Yermish, Pinehurst, N.C. 72-72--144

T55. Reese McCauley, Inver Grove Hts. 75-76 --151


Missed cut -- 151 (64 players at 151 or better)

Kathryn VanArragon, Blaine 77-77--154

Oliviia Salonek, Roseville 81-80--161

Lily Vincelli, Rosemount 86-82--168