Nairn, Scotland: Indian Mannat Brar and the Australian trio of Jazy Roberts, Celine Chen and Momo Sugiyama have progressed to the match play phase at The 122nd Women’s Amateur Championship.
The Asia-Pacific quartet were among the top-64 finishers in the 36-hole stroke play segment at Nairn.
Although China’s Li Menghan narrowly failed to advance, Korean Judy Joo still has a chance to make it through.
The qualifying cut mark fell at five-over-par, with 12 players - including Sugiyama and Joo - involved in a remarkable play-off for the final eight places that lasted more than two hours and still had not concluded at almost 11 pm local time on Wednesday when darkness brought proceedings to a halt.
Switzerland's Romaine Masserey and Joo still could not be separated after six holes and will resume on Thursday at 7:45 am local time seeking to earn the last match play place available.
Lucy Jamieson, Alice Johansson, Vairana Heck, Paula Schulz-Hanssen, Caterina Don, Noa van Beek and Sugiyama progressed earlier in the play-off, while Martina Navarro Navarro, Elsa Svensson and Kajsalotta Svarvar were eliminated.
Roberts, Chen and Brar enjoyed less stressful passages to the last 64.
Roberts added a one-under 71 to her opening 72 to finish in a tie for 11th place, while Brar, whose father is acting as her caddie, also posted a 71 to go with her first-round 73 for a share of 16th spot on 144. Chen carded a second successive 73 to qualify in joint 26th place.
Sugiyama and Joo were forced into the play-off after compiling two-day aggregates of 149. Both struggled on day two with Sugiyama signing for a 77 and Joo a 78.
In the Round of 64, Roberts will face England’s Sophia Fullbrook, Brar takes on German Uma Bergner and Chen tackles American Andie Smith.
Li, joint runner-up at The Royal Junior in Japan in April and sixth at the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Junior Championships in Hong Kong a fortnight ago, suffered the anguish of missing out on match play by one shot.
What made it particularly galling for Li was that she made eight birdies over the two days, but paid a heavy price for two lapses. In her opening 74 she ran up a triple-bogey six at the 14th and her second-round 76 contained a triple-bogey eight at the long 10th.
Should Joo battle through this morning, her reward will be a Round of 64 clash with American Jasmine Koo, who conjured a grandstand finish in the Wednesday evening sunshine to top the stroke play qualifying.
The 19-year-old from California made a birdie on the 17th and an eagle on the final hole in a two-under-par 70 and finished at the head of the standings with a six-under aggregate of 138.
While overnight front-runner, Marie Eline Madsen of Denmark, stumbled on her back-nine, Koo took advantage with a closing flourish.
After her three on the penultimate hole, the Curtis Cup player struck a three-wood into the par-five 18th green which rolled to within 20 feet and set up the eagle opportunity which she seized. That hoisted her to the summit, one shot ahead of Madsen and France’s Constance Fouillet.
Among those on the four-under mark were American Curtis Cup player Catherine Park and Scotland’s Hannah Darling.
