Moving On!! Stone, Riley To Round of 32 At U.S. Women's Amateur
Latanna Stone on the course Wednesday in Los Angeles at the US Women's Amateur. Photo courtesy of USGA/James Gilbert
BATON ROUGE – LSU golfers Latanna Stone and Taylor Riley posted important opening wins Wednesday in the round of 64 in the United States Women’s Amateur championships at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.
Stone, who will be a graduate student this fall, defeated Southern Cal junior Amari Avery, who is presently ranked 10th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings by a 2&1 decision.
And in more afternoon drama, Riley, who will be a sophomore at LSU this fall, faced Morgan Miller of Austin, Texas, who will also be a sophomore this fall at Colorado. The match went to extra holes and Riley won with a par on the 20th hole.
In the battle of 2022 winning Curtis Cup team members, Stone quickly fell down two holes after Avery made an eagle on the par 5 first and then a par 4 won the second hole. Then on a section of the course she had success on during the qualifying round, Stone won the fifth through eighth holes with an eagle, two birdies and a par to go from 2 Down to 2UP.
Avery would cut the deficit in half with a win on the ninth hole, but Stone, from Riverview, Florida would get it back to 2UP on the par 3 13th hole. The pair traded hole wins on the 15th and 16th and halved the 17th giving Stone the 2&1 decision and advance her to the round of 32.
Stone’s road doesn’t get any easier as she meets the No. 7 ranked amateur from Wake Forest, Rachel Kuehn.
Riley, who has had a strong summer playing in California, won five consecutive holes on the front nine to get a 4UP lead then had to survive an amazing rally by Miller to tie the match on the 17th hole. The pair halved 18 and 19 to go to the 20th hole, the second on the course and Riley was able to get the win with a par when Miller failed to convert.
The daughter of former LSU star Michelle Louviere Riley and father PGA Tour winner and San Diego golf coach Chris Riley, will now face Caroline Canales of Calabasas, California. Canales is a junior on the UCLA golf team.
Both the round of 32 and the round of 16 are scheduled for play on Thursday and the round of 16 will be shown on the Golf Channel beginning at 5 p.m. CT. Rich Lerner, Juli Inkster and Steve Burkowski are in the commentary box with Kay Cockerill / Emilia Migliaccio on course.