Late bogey proves costly for Anika at US women’s amateur

By Rahul Banerji

A late bogey was enough to seal Anika Varma’s fate in the stroke-play rounds of the ongoing 120^th US Women’s Amateur Championship at Woodmont Country Club in Maryland on Wednesday.

The 16 year old, the first Indian entrant in the prestigious event, was recovering strongly from a poor start to the second round when her third bogey of the day proved to be the last straw.

Anika finished on 6-over 150 (75-76), one shot below the cut line. Fifteen players were on the bubble, necessitating a playoff to choose the final six entrants into the match-play section of 64.

Starting from the 10^th tee in the hurricane-delayed second round, the young Indian was out of sorts to begin with, dropping six shots over her first nine holes.

Bad run

After two early pars, Anika bogeyed the par-4 12^th and 14^th. But there was worse to come as she double-bogeyed the par-5 15^th and the par-4 17^th before rounding off with par.

Her inbound nine was a spectacular turnaround.

Pars on the first three holes were followed by successive birdies on holes 4 and 5. At this point, Anika had closed to within one shot of the cut but a third and final bogey on the par-4 7^th proved fatal to her hopes.

Another birdie and a par to finish were in the end, not good enough to see her at least into the play-offs.

At last year’s US girls amateur championship, Anika, then 15, went through the stroke-play rounds and reached the Round of 32 where she was eliminated by her 18-year-old opponent.

Top finish

Interestingly, one member of of Anika’s flight – Valery Plata of Columbia – finished the initial qualifier in joint second place.

At the top of the order, four-time contestant Rachel Heck returned cards of 69 and 71 (4-under 140) to earn medallist honours in the first phase of the competition, according to the USGA website.

She was one of only three competitors in the 132-player field to post consecutive sub-par scores, the USGA added.

“The course is in perfect condition,” said Heck, who is headed to Stanford University next.

“It’s pretty tight, so we were focusing on hitting fairways, hitting greens, not trying to do anything crazy. That’s kind of been my game plan and it’s worked out well so far.”

Three players were two strokes behind her on 2-under 142 – Phoebe Brinker.; Plata and the no. 4 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, Emilia Migliaccio.

Good recovery

Defending champion Gabriela Ruffels, of Australia, bogeyed two of her first three holes, but played her final 15 holes bogey-free. Three birdies on her back nine gave her a 1-under 71 and the sixth seeding for the playoffs.

South Africa’s Kajal Mistry recorded the biggest turnaround of the day tied the low round of the day with a 3-under 69 – an improvement of 12 strokes from her opening 81.

She then needed to survive the 15-for-6 playoff with a birdie on the first playoff hole to make the elimination rounds alongside Indian-American Gurleen Kaur.

Two rounds of stroke-play will be held on Friday after the weather wiped out any golf on Tuesday with the quarters and semi-finals slated for Saturday.

The 36-hole championship match will take place on Sunday, the USGA added.

Also read: Anika sits mid-pack after US women’s amateur opening round