WICHITA, Kan. — Shreveport native and LSU golfer Meredith Duncan joined such golfing legends as Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Julie Inkster and Beth Daniel Saturday afternoon by winning the United States Women’s Amateur golf title at the Flint Hills National Golf Club.
But possibly none of those golfing legends had to endure such a roller-coaster 36 hole final that stretched to a 37th extra hole before Duncan delivered her tee shot on the par 3 10th hole to within two feet and tapped in for a 1 Up victory over a determined 17-year-old Nicole Perrot of Chile.
That came moments after both Perrot and Duncan, with the match all square on the 36th hole, dropped in birdies on the par 5 18th. Perrot first connected from 25 feet up the hill, sparking a minor celebration from members of her family, before Duncan calmly rapped in an eight-footer showing little emotion as she walked off to the first extra hole.
United States Golf Association president Judy Bell would call it the best women’s amateur she had every seen. “I think it should be,” said Duncan. “But I’m a little biased.”
Duncan, six weeks from her first tournament of her senior season at LSU, concluded a summer of Amateur golf rarely seen, first repeating as the
champion of the Women’s Western Amateur, then taking the North-South Women’s Amateur at famed Pinehurst No. 2, before taking co-medalist honors and running through the field in the U.S. Amateur. For the summer, Duncan was 20-1 in match play situations and never trailed through the final 94 holes of the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The 21-year-old Duncan looked like she was going to have little trouble with Perrot, who was trying to become the first winner of the U.S. Women’s Junior title and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in the same year. Duncan moved to 2-up with early birdies on the fifth and seventh, before a birdie at 10 and a par at the 12th would make her 4 UP on Perrot.
With Duncan up four holes at the lunch break, thoughts were on the last few women’s ams which have ended early on the back nine and those thoughts became reinforced when a par on the 20th hole, made Duncan a 5 UP leader.
But Perrot began to get things going and when she made birdies at 10 and 11, the Duncan lead was down to 2-up after 29 holes. For the first time on the day after shooting 6-under 65 in the opening 18 holes and with only one bogey on the day, the Duncan game was wavering just slightly.
Perrot was putting the pressure on and when Duncan had a bad chip on 13, the lead was 1-up and when Duncan three-putted the 34th hole of the match (16th of the second round), the match was all square.
“She (Perrot) was making some clutch putts with a capitol clutch,” said Duncan. “I then had to come back and make some putts on top of her to get to extra holes. She gave me a run for my money on every hole.”
After the drama on 18, Perrot teed off first on the par 3 10th putting the ball past the hole some 18 feet. Duncan’s shot hit and rolled tracking toward the hole, just missing ending the event with Duncan on the tee. Perrot’s shot was short and left and Duncan rolled hers in and raced over and jumped into the arms of her father David, who has been caddying for Meredith through much of the summer tour.
“You’re going to kill your old man,” David Duncan joked with her afterwards. “I was struggling with what to say to her as her father and caddie, there were a lot of emotions. The energy lever at that point with her goes down and the pressure goes up.”
In a summer dedicated to the memory of her late grandfather, coach and best friend — Oree Marsalis — the pressure was overcome with the titles to show for it.