Loveland’s Lehigh sisters, the record-tying stroke-play co-medalists, see their run end in quarterfinals of U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball; Lauren has now made quarters twice in USGA championships
By Gary Baines – 5/14/2024
Through the first 3 1/2 days of competition, things went nearly picture perfect for Colorado sisters Lauren and Katelyn Lehigh at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in San Antonio.
The golfers from Loveland shared stroke-play medalist honors and tied the event’s 36-hole scoring record. They never trailed in their first match and advanced 5 and 3. And though they lost the first two holes of their round-of-16 match on Tuesday morning, they didn’t lose another hole in beating the youngest team in the championship. That put 23-year-old Lauren Lehigh into the second quarterfinal of her USGA career, the first coming in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Alas, golf being golf, Tuesday afternoon’s final-8 match didn’t follow the script. Lauren, who just concluded her college career at the University of New Mexico, and Katelyn, a junior-to-be at Fresno State, couldn’t manage a birdie in the final eight holes and saw their bid for a national title end. Two fellow college golfers, from Virginia — Melanie Walker (University of Missouri) and Sydney Hackett (Western Kentucky) — handed the top seeds a 1-up defeat in the quarters.
The Lehighs had been looking to join then-Colorado State University teammates Katrina Prendergast and Ellen Secor as players with strong Colorado ties who have won the USWAFB. Prendergast and Secor earned the title in 2018.
In the quarterfinals, the Lehighs were 2 up after five holes, having lost to a birdie on No. 2, then winning three straight with birdies. But the Coloradans wouldn’t win another hole and the Virginians bounced back with birdies on 6 and 8 to tie things up.
After No. 8, the only hole that produced a result other than a better-ball tie was the par-3 13th, where Walker and Hackett birdied. The last five holes produced ties with better-ball pars. Lauren Lehigh had a 6-foot birdie try on No. 18 to force extra holes, but it missed.
All told for the quarterfinal match, the Lehighs were a better-ball 3 under par.
In Tuesday morning’s round-of-16 match, the Lehighs rebounded from a slow start — they were 2 down after two holes — to defeat the youngest team in the championship, 14-year-old Southern Californians Rina Kawasaki and Claire Lin, 3 and 1.
Kawasaki and Lin won the first hole with a par and the second with a birdie to put the Lehighs behind for the first time in match play — but the Californians wouldn’t win another. The Lehighs eagled the short par-4 eighth and birdied the 10th to tie the match, then went ahead for good with a winning par at No. 12. Birdies at 15 and 17 clinched the victory. The Lehighs finished 5 under par for 17 holes.
The Lehighs have each won two girls 5A state high school individual titles in Colorado. This season, Lauren established the University of New Mexico women’s single-season scoring record, while Katelyn claimed her first individual college title.
The Lehighs, one of six sets of sisters in the original field in San Antonio, were competing in the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball for the first time, though Lauren qualified for the 2016 national championship but pulled out because of a scheduling conflict. The Lehigh sisters first tried to qualify together for the USWAFB in 2016, falling just short of earning a berth in the 2017 championship.
Results for teams with strong Colorado connections who competed in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in San Antonio:
MATCH PLAY QUARTERFINALS ON TUESDAY
Sydney Hackett, Ashburn, Va., and Melanie Walker, Burke, Va., def. Lauren Lehigh and Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland, 1 up
MATCH PLAY ROUND OF 16 ON TUESDAY
Lauren Lehigh and Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland, def. Rina Kawasaki, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., and Clairey Lin, Palos Verdes Estates. Calif., 3 and 1
MATCH PLAY ROUND OF 32 ON MONDAY
Lauren Lehigh and Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland, def. Grace Ridenour and Emerson Dever, North Carolina, 5 and 3
STROKE PLAY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Advance to Match Play Round of 64
T1. Lauren Lehigh and Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland 66-62–128
Failed to Advance to Match Play
Hadley Ashton and Logan Hale, Erie 67-73—140
CU teammates Morgan Miller and Maria Eidhagen Harrouch 72-69–141
For all the scores, CLICK HERE
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com