Sewell Opens With 72 At U.S. Women’s Amateur
113th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship Leaderboard
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Oregon State senior Lauren Sewell shot a 1-over 72 in the opening round of the 113th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship on Monday to put her in a tie for ninth place in the 156-player field.
Sewell hit 11 fairways and 10 greens in regulation at the par-71, 6,488-yard Country Club of Charleston to put herself in great position to advance to match play. The final 18 holes of stroke play will be held on Tuesday, and the top 64 golfers will advance to a bracketed match play beginning on Wednesday.
Sewell started on the par-4, 400-yard 10th hole and dropped in a birdie to get to 1 under. She reeled off six straight pars before taking a bogey on the par-3 17th and par-4 18th holes. After a bogey on the par-4 fourth hole, Sewell got a birdie on the par-4, 368-yard seventh hole and two pars to finish the round with a 1-over 72.
She will tee off at 12:30 p.m. ET on the first hole on Tuesday and be paired with Lakareber Abe from Angleton, Texas and Jessie Gerry from Madison, Wis., for the second straight day.
"Lauren put herself in a great position after the first round,” said Oregon State assistant women’s golf coach Kailin Downs, who is caddying for Sewell this week. “Another consistent round tomorrow should set her up well for match play. She needs to capitalize on a few more birdie opportunities and eliminate a few mental errors she made today and she could easily take it 3 or 4 under par. Overall, with the wind this morning, I was impressed with her 72.”
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship marked the beginning of women’s competitive golf in this country. Along with the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open, the Women’s Amateur was one of the USGA’s first three championships conducted in 1895.
Sewell qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur when she survived a playoff at a qualifier in Elum, Wash. on July 3. She shot a 4-over 76 at the Prospector at Suncadia course and then pared the two extra holes to earn one of the four automatic berths in the 60-player field.
She has played every tournament in her first three years at Oregon State and has a career scoring average of 77.23, currently the sixth best in school history. She shot a 1-under 71-70-71--212 at the Stanford Intercollegiate this past season to equal the third-lowest three-round score in school history and finish in a career-best tie for third place.