EUGENE, Ore. — LSU sophomore Megan McChrystal won two holes late to score a 2-and-1 victory over University of North Carolina senior Sydney Crane Wednesday in the first round of match play in the United States Women’s Amateur Championships being played at the Eugene Country Club.
McChrystal is now in the final 32 players for the 108th amateur title and to advance to Friday will have to go through two matches to reach the final eight. McChrystal will play at Noon CDT against Julia Potter of Granger, Ind., the 11th seed in the match play qualifying. Potter will be a junior at the University of Missouri. She won her opening round match, 3 and 2, over Dottie Ardina of the Philippines.
Highlights of the play on Thursday can be seen on The Golf Channel (Cox Digital Channel 250 in Baton Rouge) from 3-5 p.m. CDT.
The match between McChrystal and Crane never had a margin better than 1 UP until the final margin which came after McChrystal posted her first birdie of the day on the par-5 485-yard 16th to go 1 UP and clinched the match on the par-4, 342-yard 17th with a par 4.
Neither player birdied a hole in the match until McChrystal’s pivotal birdie on the 16th, but it was McChrystal’s play on the par five holes that played key roles in the outcome. Down a hole, McChrystal pared the 522-yard sixth hole to Crane’s bogey to get the match back all square and took a 1 UP lead on the 14th, a 521-yard hole with another par five. Crane came back to tie the match on the par 4 14th as McChrystal bogeyed setting the stage for the finish of the match by the player who led LSU in stroke average as a freshman.
McChrystal, playing out of Stuart, Fla., was six-over on her card with the one birdie, while Crane had no birdies and was eight over on her golf ball.
In other LSU women’s golf news, sophomore Nicole Crochet fired rounds of 80-77-74 to fire rounds of 77-74 to finish second in the Collegiate Players Tour Stop in San Antonio. The event was played at The Club at Sonterra. Crochet finished 54 holes at 15-over 231, two shots out of the medalist spot of 229 (81-73-75) by Megan Dowdy of Leander, Texas.
LSU redshirt freshman Mary Michael Burns of Baton Rouge finished in a tie for 11th at 253 (84-86-83).