BARRINGTON, R.I. – A bogey on the final hole of regulation halted what was a tremendous comeback and knocked LSU’s Austin Ernst out of the United States Women’s Amateur one match shy of the championship final.
Playing against Moriya Jutanugarn, the world’s No. 2 junior girl’s golfer, Ernst found herself 3 Down after three holes when Jutanugarn opened birdie-birdie-par.
But Ernst, who has not played an over par round all week through six trips over the Rhode Island Country Club, wasn’t going down without a fight. By the time they reached the final hole of regulation the match was all square.
On 18, the wind caught Ernst’s drive and sent it into the right rough. A bad lie forced her to lay up well short of the green, while Jutanugarn’s six-iron approach stopped 20 feet above the hole. Ernst’s pitch went six feel by, leaving her a delicate par putt. Jutanugarn carefully lagged her birdie try to three feet below the hole. When Ernst pushed her par attempt, having to settle for bogey, Jutanugarn finished off the match by making her short putt.
That gave her the match 1 UP and advanced her to Sunday’s 36-hole final against defending champion Danielle Kang, who defeated the University of Alabama’s Brooke Pancake, 1 UP. Ironically it was a par on the 18th hole that won that match as well.
Ernst, who had played four rounds of even par, a round of one under and another of two-under, posted another strong round of three-under 68.
But Jutanugarn, who had a 3 UP lead still after six holes, birdied four of the first six holes before Ernst began to rally with a birdie on the seventh that put Ernst 2 Down. The players halved the next five holes to bring the match to the 13th hole.
“It was ridiculous,” said Ernst of the blistering start. “Those first three holes, she just got off to a great start. I looked at (my caddied) Emily (Tubert of the University of Arkansas) and said, ‘I am just going to start throwing darts.’ I knew I had to go right at the pin, that was going to be the only way to cut into the lead. Then I birdie four of the next five.”
Ernst won the 13th hole with a par and then squared the match for the first time since the start of the match with a birdie on the par four 380-yard 15th hole after her opponent hit out of bounds off the tee to set the stage for the drama on 18.
“I shot three under (68), that’s the best I’ve played in match play all week,” Ernst said. “She just beat me, which is how I want to lose. There’s not much more I could have done (Saturday).”
Although she didn’t get the chance to become LSU’s first Amateur Champion since Meredith Duncan in 2001 or the first since Vicki Goetze-Ackerman in 1992 to win the NCAA D1 Championship and the Amateur in the same year, she did put her name out there for another goal – making the 2012 United State Curtis Cup team that will face Great Britain and Ireland next June.
“I’m trying not to think of results,” Ernst said before the semifinals. “If I take care of what I need to take care of, then Curtis Cup will take care of itself. I feel like I just need to take care of business this week. But it’s definitely, definitely something I really want to do.”
For Ernst, now it’s a trip back home to Seneca, S. C. for a few days before returning to Baton Rouge and her sophomore season at LSU. Her LSU Tiger golf team opens the 2011-12 golf season in just one month, Sept. 11-13, at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C.