Intriguing Round of 32 Face-Off for Iwanaga and Lau

Durham, North Carolina, United States: Anna Iwanaga and Arianna Lau will face-off in a mouth-watering clash of the Asian heavyweight in the Round of 32 at the US Girls’ Junior Championship.

Japan’s Iwanaga and Hong Kong’s Lau were among four players from the region to make it through the opening round of match play at Old Chatham Golf Club on Wednesday.

Their reward is a head-to-head contest on Thursday with the winner progressing to the final 16.

The only other Asia-Pacific players to survive the Round of 64 were Australian Amelia Harris and Singapore’s Chen Xingtong, last year’s runner-up.

Both have tough matches this morning – Harris facing Canada’s Shauna Liu and Chen squaring off with American Madeleine Conser.

There was disappointment for China’s Liu Yujie, the number two seed following the 36-hole stroke play segment at the start of the week, who suffered a last hole defeat to American Juliet Oh.

Other Asia-Pacific players to be eliminated in the opening round of match play were Liu Yujie’s compatriot Rebecca Wang, Chinese Taipei’s Annika Chen and Lin Jie-en, Australian Lara Thomsen and Koreans Kim Seo-ah, Min Yi-soo and Amy Lee.

To set up their Round of 32 meeting, Iwanaga and Lau both had to see off American opponents, which they did comfortably. While Iwanaga eased to a 5&3 success against Nina Choe, Lau defeated Ava Zhang 3&1.

A member of the Japan team that triumphed in the Queen Sirikit Cup in Indonesia in April, 17-year-old Iwanaga is the top-rated player in the field at 16th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

For her part, Lau, currently 32nd in the WAGR, is a former Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Girls’ champion who was a member of the APGC team that won the Solheim Cupo-style Patsy Hankins Trophy against Europe last year.

After shooting an opening-round nine-under 63 here that featured the USGA championship record for lowest nine-hole score by a female (28), Australian Harris posted a disappointing 75 in round two. Still, she earned the number five seed and wasted little time defeating China’s Wang, 6&5. 

“Match play is just a completely different mindset,” said Harris, 74th in the WAGR. “So, I just forgot about the last few days and just acted like I was going out and trying again to do my best.” 

Harris quickly put the second stroke play round behind her, building a six-up lead through the first seven holes. Wang would win the next two holes, trimming the lead to four-up heading into the turn, before the 2026 Australian Girls’ Amateur champion finished off her opponent with birdies on 11 and 13.  

“Everything,” said Harris when asked about what parts of her game were working during her match. “Today on the range, I was hitting it really well, and on the course, I was hitting [my] driver a lot straighter, hitting [my] irons a lot straighter, and putting a lot of them in. So, I think everything was good.” 

Just hours after surviving the play-off with a birdie on the 18th hole, Oh, an incoming University of Pennsylvania freshman, stunned Liu Yujie, with another birdie on 18. Liu was coming off an eight-under-par 64 in Tuesday’s final round of stroke play to finish one shot back of medallist Clairey Lin and earn the number two seed in the bracket.

The match was tight throughout, with neither player taking an advantage greater than one-up. Tied going into the final hole, Oh rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt to send Liu packing. 

“We both hit our drives really straight. We were literally copying each other’s shots, everything neck and neck,” Oh said of the deciding hole. “I had to hit my approach first and ... even though the pin was in a tough spot, I was just going for it. I pulled it left and thought: ‘We’re probably going to need to play more than 18 holes.’

“I told my caddie she (Liu) was going to do something crazy, then she went into the bunker. She hit her third shot right next to the hole, and I was left with a 20-footer for birdie. My caddie saw it breaking left to right, while I thought it was the other way, but I trusted her read because she’d nailed a similar one [for me] in the play-off ... and it went in.

“I wasn’t trying to play as aggressive today. I knew she was the number two seed and I was okay if I didn’t win, because I was just happy that I made the cut. We were both not playing the greatest. It was a tough round because we were both playing equally the entire time.” 

For the match, Oh shot the equivalent of one-under 71, with the usual match play concessions, while Liu posted a 73.