Catherine Park wasn’t supposed to play in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship. Little did she know the fate of the United States team would come down to her.
Park, a senior at USC, knocked in an 8-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole Saturday at Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore, moving the USA into a tie with Spain and Korea, the event’s defending champion. With every team at 18 under, the tiebreaker rules went into effect, which compared each team’s non-counting scores. U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megha Ganne, a senior at Stanford who signed for even-par 72 in the third round, had the best non-counting score of the three teams, resulting in victory for the Americans.
The U.S. won its 15th Espirito Santo Trophy behind the brilliance from Park, Ganne and Farah O’Keefe, a junior at Texas. U.S. captain Kendra Graham, who worked in Rules and Competitions for the USGA for more than a decade, said she discussed the rules of the WATC with every player early and often. And in the end, that knowledge and Park’s strong finish resulted in the U.S. winning back the Espirito Santo.
“We are beyond happy,” Ganne said. ‘We don’t get to do this often, to play for country, so we were just excited to be here. We were so impressed at the level of golf from Korea and Spain. It’s a heartbreaking tiebreaker for them, but we knew that the third score yesterday and today could matter.”
Park, who replaced world No. 1 amateur Kiara Romero in the USA lineup due to an injury, birdied each of her last three holes to finish at 1 under on Saturday, and O’Keefe matched Park’s round. The Americans trailed Korea by three shots heading into the final round and even trailed Spain late in the day, but world No. 2 amateur Paula Martin Sampedro bogeyed the 71st hole, dropping Spain back to 18 under.
“I’m just so happy,” Park said. “The pressure of making that 8-footer and then knowing we won was unbelievable. It was been a dream being here with (the team), winning this trophy.”
Soomin Oh, ranked 14th in the world, nearly chipped in for birdie on the 18th to help Korea retain the Espirito Santo, but her attempt just missed the hole.
Chian’s Ying Xu finished at 13 under in the individual competition, four shots clear of the Phillipines’ Rianne Malixi, a freshman at Duke who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior last year, as well as Martin Sampedro and Oh.
Park tied for fifth (-7), O’Keefe was T-11 (-6) and Ganne placed T-15 (-4).
The World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur golf competition conducted by the International Golf Federation. It features teams of three players from across the globe. Each team has two or three players and plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship.
The women compete for the Espirito Santo Trophy while the men play for the Eisenhower Trophy. The men’s competition begins Wednesday in Singapore, also at Tanah Merah Country Club.
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