Lau and Australian Trio Progress at Muirfield

Muirfield, Scotland: Australians Jazy Roberts, Kirra St-Laurent and Grace Rho are joined by Hong Kong, China’s Arianna Lau in the last 32 at the 123rd Women’s Amateur Championship.

On a breezy, challenging day at the East Lothian venue, Rianne Malixi of the Philippines, one of the leading qualifiers, lost 3&2 to Spaniard Cayetena Fernandez.

While former US Women’s Amateur champion Malixi was left to ponder what might have been, Lau and the Australian trio all produced outstanding golf to progress to the second round of match play.

Lau was in typically solid form as she overcame American Kylie Chong 3&2. That result has secured her a last-32 clash against England’s Isla McDonald-O'Brien, who eliminated Australian Roberts in the third round last year.

St-Laurent saw off the challenge of American Maye Huang 3&1, while Rho proved too strong for Chinese Taipei’s Liao Hsin-chun, running out a 5&3 winner.

The most comprehensive victory, though, belonged to Roberts who swept aside Carla De Troia of France 6&5.

In Thursday morning’s Round of 32, Roberts, who was the leading Australian performer last year, has been drawn against England’s Lauren Crump.

Rho will take on American Morgan Ketchum while Southern Methodist University student St-Laurent has the dubious honour of lining up against Farah O’Keefe, who had to dig deep to secure a dramatic first-round victory.

World number three O'Keefe, last year’s beaten finalist, kept alive her hopes of going one better this time round with a win over fellow American Kacey Ly at the first extra hole. On a day when defending champion Paula Martín Sampedro was knocked out by Ann-Sophie Bourgault, O’Keefe called upon all her mental strength to make it through.

One down after the 17th, she extended the match with a par at the last and, when Ly found a bunker off the tee at Muirfield’s first hole, O’Keefe saw out the victory with another par.

The 21-year-old American is the highest-ranked player left in the 123rd staging of the championship after Sampedro, who beat her 2&1 in last year’s final at Nairn, lost out in another thrilling match.

Sampedro was also taken to an extra hole, but she pulled her tee shot, could not recover and lost out to a par by Bourgault, who holed out from five feet. Canada’s Bourgault, who came through a play-off to qualify the night before, described it as the best victory of her career. 

The winner of this year’s Women's Amateur championship gains entry to the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, the US Women’s Open presented by Ally, The Amundi Evian Championship, the Chevron Championship and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. 

The R&A will provide live stream coverage of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final (plus highlights) on R&A TV and The R&A’s YouTube channel.