Rose Zhang, Rachel Kuehn drop out of US Women´s Amateur
HARRISON, N.Y. (AP) - Defending champion Rose Zhang tumbled out of the U.S. Women´s Amateur in the first-round of match play Wednesday, with qualifying medalist Rachel Kuehn one of seven of the top eight seeds to fall.
Elle Nachmann, a sophomore from Boca Raton, Florida, who carries a 4.0 GPA in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, beat Zhang 1 up at Westchester Country Club.
The 18-year-old Zhang, from Irvine, California, won the U.S. Girls´ Junior two weeks ago at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She won he Women's Amateur last year Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland.
"Coming into this week I just didn´t have the best game," said the Stanford-bound Zhang, the top-ranked amateur in the world. "I had to grind through stroke play, and then in match play obviously you can´t make any mistakes."
Nachmann tied it with a par on the par-4 15th, took the lead with a par on the par-3 16th and matched Zhang with a par on the par-4 17th and a birdie on the par-5 18th.
"I´m feeling amazing," said Nachmann, ranked 1,968th. "I knew that she was going to be a tough competitor. It really, really makes me confident."
Nachmann will face third-seeded Brooke Matthews of Rogers, Arkansas. Matthews, who plays at Arkansas, beat Brittany Shin of Cape Coral, Florida, 5 and 4.
Kuehn, a Wake Forest player from Asheville, North Carolina, fell 1 up to Kentucky's Marissa Wenzler of Dayton, Ohio. Wenzler will face Hailey Borja of Lake Forest, California, a 3-and-2 winner of Yilin Liu of Irvine, California.
Wenzler survived a 12-for-2 playoff Tuesday to get into match play.
Wenzler´s Kentucky teammate, Jensen Castle of West Columbia, South Carolina, who earned the other spot in the playoff, beat No. 2 seed Kennedy Pedigo, of Fort Worth, Texas, 3 and 2.
Second-ranked Rachel Heck, the NCAA individual champion at Stanford, had the biggest margin of victory, beating Karen Tsuru, of Carlsbad, California, 7 and 5.
