BARRINGTON, RI – LSU women’s golfer Austin Ernst had never won a match in a USGA event before she arrived at the Rhode Island Country Club for the 2011 United States Women’s Amateur.
She’s now on her way to Saturday’s semifinals after a solid 5&4 victory Friday over Stephanie Kono of Honolulu, a member of the 2011 NCAA team champions at UCLA.
Much like the settling conversation after a couple of bad third round holes when they talked on the phone before her final winning round at the NCAA D1 Championship in May, dad Mark Ernst had the right advice again for his daughter.
The pro at Cross Creek Plantation told the LSU sophomore-to-be to treat each round as if it was still stroke play and not worry about what the other player was doing.
It has worked to perfection and it was Ernst’s ability to make par after par with an occasional birdie that made what was expected to be one of the best matches, a complete walk in the park.
“It’s always been nice to have my Dad as my coach growing up and playing against my brother (Drew) has really helped. I’ve always been confident and not much shakes me,” said the Seneca, S.C., native.
Ernst used the stroke play theory to make par on the first seven holes to gain a 2UP lead after Kono made bogey on the par 4 first and the par three fifth.
Then things really turned Ernst’s way on the eighth when she chipped in for birdie from off the green to go three up after just eight holes and the four up with just six holes to play when her approach shot on the par 4-12th led to a conceded tap-in birdie.
On the par 4 13th, it look like Kono would win her first hole of the match, but Kono missed a three-footer for par and the hole was halved and Ernst finished it off on the next hole with a two-putt par as Kono settled for another bogey to send Team SEC – Ernst and caddie University of Arkansas friend Emily Tubert into the semis.
“I was hitting the ball well off the tee (Friday),” said Ernst after the match. “On the greens, I was putting the ball in play. I was rolling it well on the greens. I was lagging it solid up to the pin. I came into it with a different mindset and it has worked out so far. Winning nationals gave me a lot of confidence. Before that I was always pretty much an underdog. So it was just giving me confidence to know I can play against the best. Now I really like match play.”
Ernst, trying to become the first player to win the NCAA D1 Championship and the US Women’s Amateur for the first time since 1992, meets Moriya Jutanugam of Thailand in the semis, who won the 16th (birdie) and 17th (par) holes in an all square match to win 2&1 over Casey Danielson of Osceola, Wis., in the other quarterfinal in Ernst’s side of the bracket.
The matches won’t get easier for the 19-year-old Ernst as the 17-year-old Jutanugam was the low amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open earlier this summer. Her 15-year-old sister, Ariya, has already claimed the U.S. Girls Junior and the PGA Junior Championship and will be on her sister’s bag as caddy Saturday.
In the upper bracket quarterfinals, Brooke Pancake of Chattanooga, Tenn., and the University of Alabama, defeated Erynne Lee of Silverdale, Wash., on the 20th hole, 1 UP; and, defending champion Danielle Kang, of Westlake Village, Calif., was a 4&3 winner over Demi Frances Runas of Torrance, Calif.
The semifinals are set for 9 a.m. CST on Saturday with same-day coverage on the Golf Channel beginning at 2 p.m. CST. Live updates from the matches are on Facebook at www.facebook.com and on Twitter @LSUwomensgolf.
NOTES – The four semifinalists Saturday will be playing their seventh round of the week after qualifying Monday and Tuesday, the round of 64 on Wednesday, two rounds on Thursday and Friday’s round … The winners Saturday meet for a 36-hole final on Sunday … The only LSU player to win the US Women’s Amateur 10 years ago in 2001, Meredith Duncan, sent out a tweet of congratulations on her Twitter account after watching the Ernst match following her first round in the this weekend’s LPGA Futures Event.