Bandon, Oregon, United States: Arianna Lau and Ella Scaysbrook dug deep into their reserves of stamina to take centre stage at the 125th US Women’s Amateur.
Hong Kong’s Lau and Australian Scaysbrook both survived a nerve-racking morning play-off to reach the match play phase and then produced shock victories in the Round of 64, eliminating co-medallists Rianne Malixi and Asterisk Talley.
Incoming Northwestern University freshman Lau holed a 13-foot eagle putt at the par-five 18th to overcome defending champion Malixi, the 18-year-old from the Philippines. Scaysbrook, meanwhile, swotted aside the challenge of American Talley 6&4.
“I’m just really grateful, especially today,” said Lau, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Girls’ title. “It taught me how to handle pressure, especially in match play,” added the 18-year-old who spent the first three hours of her morning grinding just to get into the match play draw.
Part of the 15-for-six play-off for the final spots, she played six holes on Bandon Dunes’ inward nine before outlasting 2025 US Women’s Open qualifier and 2024 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion Sarah Lim for the last spot. Lau holed a four-foot birdie putt on 18 after Lim three-putted for par, missing a six-footer for birdie that likely would have extended the play-off.
She then took a three-up lead after five holes over Malixi, who in 2024 became just the second player in history to win the US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Amateur in the same year. Malixi battled back and tied the match on the 17th green when Lau missed a four-footer for par.
With both players in the fairway on the 508-yard closing hole, Malixi hit a perfect three-wood to 10 feet. Lau answered with a three-wood approach from 230 yards that kicked off a slope and stopped 13 feet from the flagstick. She converted the eagle putt and incoming Duke University freshman Malixi missed.
Talley, a member of the US National Junior Team who was coming off a win last week in the Girls Junior PGA Championship and jumped to 13th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), never won a hole against Scaysbrook. She was two-down after three and then lost four consecutive holes from 11.
Scaysbrook, who has spent the past two months in the United States competing in tournaments, also survived the Wednesday play-off, gaining the penultimate spot with a birdie on the par-three 12th, which statistically was the toughest during stroke play. The runner-up in the 2025 Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs birdied three of the final four holes against Talley.
In the Round of 32 on Thursday morning, Scaysbrook faces Avery Weed while Lau will take on Emilia (Migliaccio) Doran, the lone mid-amateur to qualify for match play at Bandon Dunes who is also working as an on-course reporter for the network broadcasting the championship.
Joining Lau and Scaysbrook in the Round of 32 are Chinese Taipei’s Cindy Hsu Huai-chien, China’s Xu Ying, Australian Jazy Roberts, and Eila Galitsky and Pinky Pimchompoo Chaisilprungruang, who will face each other in an all-Thailand contest on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Galitsky, the 2023 Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific champion and number seven in the WAGR, ousted Madison Murr 4&3 while Pimchompoo enjoyed a similar winning margin against Australian Momo Sugiyama.
In another intriguing Round of 32 contest, Hsu finds herself up against Xu. Both had narrow wins against American opponents on Wednesday. Hsu beat Alona Avery on the 19th hole while Xu eked out a one-up success over Abbey Schutte.
Next up for Roberts, who edged Macie Elzinga on the 19th, is a tie with another American, Rayee Feng.
Among those bowing out in the Round of 64 were Thailand's Pimmada Nena Wongthanavimok (lost to Weed 3&2), Japan’s Mana Yoshizaki (one-down to Lauren Oliveras) and Hong Kong’s Wu Siu-ue (one-down to Lyra Louderbaugh).
Like Lau and Scaysbrook, Wu qualified via the morning play-off.
Not so fortunate, though, were China’s Liu Yujie, Korean Park Seo-jin and Japan’s Mamika Shinchi, all of whom were eliminated in the play-off.
The only double-round day of match play takes place on Thursday with the Rounds of 32 and 16, beginning at 7:15 am and 1:10 pm (local time). Match play continues with the quarter-finals on Friday, semis on Saturday and the 36-hole championship match on Sunday.
