Alwoodley, Yorkshire, England: Mannat Brar’s brave run at The R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship was ended at the semi-final stage.
Bidding to become the first Indian to reach the final, Brar was defeated 3&2 by Poland’s Matylda Krawczynska in a tense last-four encounter at the northern English venue.
On Friday morning, 17-year-old Brar had eliminated Switzerland’s Sarah Uebelhart one-up in the quarter-finals.
Still on a high following that success, Brar won the opening hole of her afternoon semi-final clash with Krawczynska.
But the 18-year-old Krawczynska, who has won three successive Polish Junior Amateur Championships, eased her way into the contest and made a decisive move around the turn.
Krawczynska, who beat Sweden’s Amanda Gyllner in her morning quarter-final, rolled in a putt of 20 feet on the eighth for a spectacular eagle and then made birdies at 10 and 11 to forge a commanding three-hole advantage.
Brar kept chipping away valiantly, but Krawczynska kept her rival at arm’s length with a classy, considered display and closed out a keenly fought tussle on the 16th green.
“It was the toughest match of the week so far,” said Krawczynska, who will face Sweden’s Havanna Torstensson in Saturday’s 36-hole final.
Brar, a three-time participant in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, can take heart from her performance which should see her close in on a place in the top-500 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. She began the week in 661st place.
Having tied for fourth in the stroke play phase at Alwoodley with a 36-hole total of 142 (70-72), Brar won her first-round match play tie against England’s Matilde Santilli one-up.
The Indian then thwarted the ambitions of the English twins, Emily and Annabel Peaford.
In the second round, Brar beat Emily at the 19th before harnessing the conditions on Thursday afternoon and easing to a 6&4 win over Annabel in the third round.
The previous best performance by an Indian in the The R&A Girls’ Amateur came from Avani Prashanth in 2022 when she made it through to the quarter-finals.
