Bandon, Oregon, United States: Semi-final Saturday at the 125th US Women’s Amateur turned into Drama at the Dunes. For only the third time in the championship’s illustrious history – and the second time in seven years – both semi-final matches went to extra holes, and featured wild comebacks.
Stanford University rising senior Megha Ganne rallied from four-down with seven holes to play to eliminate number 63 seed Ella Scaysbrook, of Australia, in 19 holes.
Brooke Biermann, a 2025 Michigan State graduate competing in her final amateur competition before entering LPGA Tour Qualifying School this fall, also needed 19 holes to eliminate University of Kansas rising junior Lyla Louderbaugh.
It was the third extra-holes match of the week for Biermann, who played 41 holes of match play on Thursday in eliminating a pair of opponents. Louderbaugh, bidding to become the first left-handed champion in US Women’s Amateur history, was three-down with three to play.
For the third consecutive day, breezy conditions permeated Bandon Dunes, although the gusts didn’t get into the 30s like they did for Friday’s quarter-finals when Ganne defeated Thai Eila Galitsky and Biermann saw off the challenge of Hong Kong’s Arianna Lau.
Biermann, 22, and Ganne, 21, will now square off in Sunday’s 36-hole final.
The two finalists are exempt into the 2026 US Women’s Open Presented by Ally at The Riviera Country Club, in California, but the runner-up must be an amateur. The champion has the option of competing as a professional. The winner also will be an automatic selection to the 2026 USA Curtis Cup Team for the Match at Bel-Air Country Club, in Los Angeles, a week after the Women’s Open.
Ganne, competing in her seventh US Women’s Amateur and 11th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), looked to be the latest victim of Scaysbrook, who was bidding to become the second 63rd seed to win this championship (Jensen Castle in 2021) and the second from her country to hoist the Robert Cox Trophy (Gabi Ruffels).
When Scaysbrook rolled in a 40-footer on 11 to regain her four-up advantage, all the momentum was with the 19-year-old.
“I won’t say exactly what I was thinking, but you can imagine,” said Ganne, who last made the semi-finals as a 15-year-old in 2019, where she lost in 19 holes to then-Stanford rising senior Albane Valenzuela. I think I was a little bit flustered in that moment because I felt like I was gaining some momentum after I went back to three-down on 10.
“I reminded myself that I have literally won so many matches from two down, three down, four down. Matches start on the back nine no matter what the score [says]. [I] reminded myself of that and how many times I’ve done it. Today is no different.”
While Ganne took the par-three 12th when Scaysbrook made a double-bogey, her opponent opened the door for Ganne on the par-five 13th hole when she missed a four-foot birdie putt that would have tied the hole. Now only two down, Ganne suddenly had more pep in her gait, and she eventually tied the match with a par on 17 when Scaysbrook’s approach found the penalty area.
“That was the first putt I had seen her miss all day and it wasn’t that short,” said Ganne of Scaysbrook. “Her putting was beyond impressive. Any time she was around the green or near it I knew I could mark her down for a two there.”
Matching bogeys on 18 after both hit poor drives sent the match to the par-four 19th, number 10 at Bandon Dunes. Scaysbrook sent her approach from inside 100 yards over the green, leading to a bogey and a conceded birdie for Ganne.
“Just really proud of myself now that I can compete with the best,” said Scaysbrook, 110th in the WAGR who got the second-to-last spot in the match play draw following Wednesday’s 15-for-6 play-off.
Remarkably, she never trailed in any of her five matches this week until losing on the 19th hole to Ganne, a span of 77 holes. She had not played holes 16, 17 and 18 since Tuesday’s second and final round of stroke play.
For her efforts in reaching the last four, Scaysbrook received a bronze medal and is exempt into the 2026 and 2027 championships at The Honors Course and Pinehurst Resort & Country Club (Course No 2), respectively.
Ganne said she flashed back to that 19-hole defeat to Valenzuela, then a much more established player who had advanced to the championship match two years earlier at San Diego Country Club. Six years later, it’s Ganne who now owns that experience, having battled through injuries and other adversity. A year ago, she had to withdraw at the last minute from the US Women’s Amateur due to food poisoning. She also had a heart-breaking disqualification in her final US Girls’ Junior start in 2022 for signing an incorrect scorecard. She also did not make the 2024 USA Curtis Cup Team after playing in 2022 at Merion Golf Club.
Biermann, 112th in the WAGR, graduated with a degree in human resources from MSU, but this week it’s been all about her theatrics with three extra-hole matches and two decided by 3&2.
Biermann appeared as if she would make it two consecutive 3&2 decisions until Louderbaugh, the 2025 Kansas Women’s Amateur champion, had other thoughts. A Biermann bogey on 16, the result of a poor pitch shot from left of the green, started the comeback. Then Louderbaugh, who secured her first collegiate victory in May at the NCAA Columbus (Ohio) Regional, rolled in birdie putts of 15 and 35 feet on 17 and 18 to send the match to extra holes. In both cases, Biermann had closer birdie attempts to end the match.
“I'm super proud of myself,” said Louderbaugh, who finished second to Biermann in last year’s Missouri Women’s Amateur.
Louderbaugh suffered the same fate as Scaysbrook on the first extra hole with her approach going over the green. Biermann was able to calmly two-putt for par to advance.
“I leaned hard on those two [previous matches] I went into extra holes,” said Biermann, who reached the semi-finals of last month’s Women’s Western Amateur but had never made a cut in any of her five previous USGA championship starts, including this year’s US Women’s Open. “I stayed calm through those and just like relaxed.
“I got to do that [again] today. Coming down the stretch she threw everything she had, which was great golf, and with that, you just have to stay calm and also I guess only focus on what I can control. Because I can’t control what she’s doing, so I just tried to focus on hitting good golf shots, which I think I still did.”