Iwanaga Races Out of the Starting Blocks

Ooltewah, Tennessee, United States: Anna Iwanaga carded a five-under-par 67 to take the first-round lead at the 126th US Women’s Amateur Championship in her championship debut at The Honors Course.

A member of the Japan team that triumphed at the Asia-Pacific Women’s Amateur Invitational Team Championship for the Queen Sirikit Cup in Indonesia in May, Iwanaga started her US Women’s Amateur campaign on the 10th hole and wasted little time getting into a rhythm. 

She made three birdies on her opening nine holes, at the par-four 10th, 12th and 15th, before adding three more on her closing nine at the first, sixth and ninth. Her only blemish came at the par-three eighth, where she made bogey.

“Today, out of the four par-fives, I only had one birdie,” said 17-year-old Iwanaga. “Tomorrow, the goal is to birdie all of those.”

Iwanaga arrived at The Honors Course with an impressive resume of success. Earlier this summer, she reached the Round of 16 at the US Girls’ Junior, falling in a tight 22-hole match, finished runner-up at both the Australian Women’s Amateur and The Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, while also placing third at the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs.

In 2025, Iwanaga won seven World Amateur Golf Ranking events, including the Girls 15-18 Division of the Junior World Championships in San Diego, and captured a professional title on Japan’s Step Up Tour. She was runner-up at the Japan Women’s Amateur and tied for fourth at the Canadian Women’s Amateur.

Two shots behind Iwanaga at three-under 69 are Chinese Taipei’s Lin Jie-en and American Madison Dabagia.

Lin, who was four-under through 16 holes, bogeyed the par-five 17th on what was otherwise a clean card. She’s looking to add to an impressive resume that includes a start at the US Women’s Open presented by Ally this summer.

“I changed my driver after [the US Women’s Open], and am hitting it better now,” said 15-year-old Lin. “It wasn’t great today, but my irons were pretty good, so I was able to make some easy putts.”

Dabagia, aged 22, made five birdies against two bogeys in her opening round. Dabagia recently graduated from Indiana University, where she earned All-Big Ten Second Team honours as a senior.

Four players, including Iwanaga’s Queen Sirikit Cup team-mate Yurina Hiroyoshi, Korean Oh Soo-min and US National Junior Team member Asterisk Talley, are three shots back at two-under.

Also well placed to progress to the match play stage are Korean Park Seo-jin, China’s Liu Yujie, Australian Jazy Roberts and Hong Kong, China’s Arianna Lau (all tied 21st on 72).

A further shot back in a share of 32nd place are Australian Rachel Lee and China’s Isabella Yan. Joint 46th on 74 are Japan’s Isaki Sakashita and Rina Kawasaki, China’s Grace Xu and Australians Amy Hodgkins and Ella Scaysbrook.

On the cut-off mark of 75 is Koreans Hoo Joon-yeong and Jen Lee.

Among those who will need to improve on day two if they’re to qualify are reigning Japan Women’s Amateur champion Aira Nagasawa and Thai Pimchompoo Chaisilprungruang and Chinese Taipei’s Liao Hsin-chun and China’s Anna Wu Ruoan (all 76); China’s Xiao Kaili, Australians Raegan Denton and Rianne Malixi of the Philippines, the 2024 champion (all 77).

All 156 competitors will play a second round of stroke play at The Honors Course on Wednesday after which the field will be trimmed to the low 64 scorers and ties. If a play-off is necessary to determine the final spots in the draw, it would take place late Wednesday afternoon.

Match play begins on Thursday with the Round of 64 and continues until Sunday’s 36-hole championship match. Golf Channel has live coverage of the opening round of match play on Thursday. The network will continue live coverage through Sunday’s final.