Katie Cranston, Last Surviving Qualifier from Minnesota, Bows out of U.S. Women's Am

RYE, N.Y. -- And then there were none. 

On Thursday, Katie Cranston, the last of the players who qualified from Minnesota, was eliminated from the U.S. Women's Amateur. She was beaten 2&1 in the Round of 16 by Brooke Seay.

Cranston, a 17-year-old from Oakville, Ontario, was 2 under par and 2 up against Seay after eight holes at Westchester Country Club. But the 2020 Ontario Junior champion lost the ninth hole with a bogey, and then lost the 10th and 12th to Seay's birdies. Seay won the 13th with a par, and the next four holes were halved, one of them with birdies, one with bogeys.  

Seay, who will be a junior at Stanford University this fall, will play Valentina Rossi of Argentina on Friday morning in the quarterfinals. 

Cranston was seeded 57th into the match-play portion of the tournament, after posting a 36-hole total of 149 (75-74) in stroke-play qualifying. Seay was seeded 24th after qualifying with a 145 (70-75).

In late June, Cranston was the co-medalist in sectional qualifying for the Women's Amateur at Wayzata CC. She and Julia Gregg both shot 69.

Gregg, a junior to be at Arkansas, made it through the stroke-play portion of the Women's Am, as well, by shooting 73-72--145, which put her into a nine-way tie for 20th. She was seeded 26th, but lost 5&4 to 39th-seeded Valery Plata of Colombia in the Round of 64. 

Rose Zhang, the defending champion in the Women's Am, the winner of the 2021 U.S. Girls Junior Championship, and the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, didn't make it out of the first round, either. The 17-year-old Stanford recruit was seeded 30th, but lost 1 down to 35th-seeded Elle Nachman. Both Nachman and Zhang finished their two rounds of qualifying with aggregates of 146.

Another first-round casualty was the medalist, Rachel Kuehn. The soon-to-be junior at Wake Forest shot 71-67--138 in qualifying and was 1 under through six holes of her match against Marissa Wenzler, who had to survive a 12-for-2 playoff just to get into match play, after shooting 150 in qualifying. But Kuehn bogeyed four of the next seven holes to fall 2 down. Although she got one hole back with a birdie at the par-3 16th, she tied Wenzler's bogey at the 17th and halved the 18th with a par to lose 1 down.

As a matter of fact, upsets have been common. None of the top 10 seeds is still alive. But the No. 2 player in the WAGR's, Rachel Heck, escaped the Round of 16 with a 1-up victory over the third seed, Brooke Mattlhews, on Thursday. Heck is seeded 14th, after shooting 74-70--144 in stroke play, but she has shown that she can handle a big stage. She capped off her freshman season at Stanford by winning the NCAA individual championship this spring.

On Friday, she will face the only remaining player with a higher seed  than hers -- No. 11 Kan Bunnabodee, a Purdie junior to be from Thailand. Bunnabodee qualified with 143, and after squeaking through her first two matches ( 1 up and 19 holes), she cruised through the Round of 16 with a 6&5 victory over 59th-seeded Kailie Vongsaga.    


U.S. Women's Amateur

At Westchester Country Club

Par 71, 6,423 yards

Rye, N.Y. 

Stroke play (the top 64 finishers qualify for match play)

1. Rachel Kuehn, Asheville, N.C.                    71-67--138

2. Kennedy Pedigo, Fort Worth, Texas            72-68--140

3. Brooke Matthews, Greenwood, Ind.             75-66--141

T4. Caroline Canales, Calabasas, Calif.           74-68--142

T4. Erica Shepherd, Rogers, Ark.                     74-68--142

T20. Julia Gregg, Farmers Branch, Texas     73-72--145

T54. Katie Cranston, Oakville, Ont., Canada  75-74--149

Missed cut -- 150

Mychael O'Berry, Hoover, Ala.                          76-77--153

Grace Curran, New Lenox, Ill.                           79-79--158

Joanne Free, Gullane, Scotland                        85-76--161


Match play 

Round of 64

(57) Katie Cranston def. (8) Morgan Baxendale, Windermere, Fla. 4&3

(58) Valery Plata, Columbia def. Julia Gregg 5&4


Round of 32

Cranston def. Tess Blair, South Jordan, Utrah


Round of 16

Brooke Seay, San Diego def. Cranston 2&1