ChAmpionShipS mediA GUide - USGA

Defending champion Danielle Kang, 18, of Westlake Village,
Calif., won her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur
Championship, defeating Moriya Jutanugarn, 17, of Thailand,
6 and 5, at the 6,399-yard, par-71 Rhode Island Country Club
in Barrington, R.I.
“I feel great,” said Kang, who had 11 birdies – three of which
were conceded – against one bogey in 31 holes. “I played the
best round I’ve played at a major championship. I played well
last year, but not this well.”
The golf in the championship match was remarkable. There
were 16 birdies combined and birdies won five of the first six
holes, despite rain showers and winds that gusted to 15 mph.
Jutanugarn, the low amateur at the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open,
birdied the first hole with an 8-foot putt to take a 1-up lead.
Her 15-year-old sister and caddie, Ariya, had won the U.S.
Girls’ Junior two weeks prior. They were trying to become the
first family members in history to claim two USGA titles in the
same year.
But the day belonged to Kang. Starting at the third hole, she
reeled off three consecutive birdies. The stretch was marked
by sharp iron play resulting in putts of 18 inches, 4 feet and 5
feet. Kang was 2 up after five holes.
The sixth, shortened to 220 yards for the championship match,
was a drivable par 4 and Jutanugarn drove into a greenside
bunker. After blasting out to within 10 feet of the hole, she
made the birdie putt, cutting Kang’s lead to 1 up.
Her success was short-lived. On the eighth, a 481-yard par
5, Kang hit the green with a 3-wood second shot and was 20
feet from the hole. Jutanugarn’s second shot found a water
hazard. After Kang lagged her eagle putt to within 1 foot,
Jutanugarn conceded the birdie and Kang was 2 up. When
Kang went 3 up at the ninth, it was the first time in the match
that par won a hole.
Kang was a relentless opponent. Beginning on the 11th hole,
she made three consecutive birdies for the second time. The
first came on a 15-foot putt and she went 4 up. At the 12th, she
hit her approach shot to within 2 feet for another birdie and a
5-up lead. Kang made her seventh birdie of the day with an
11-foot putt at the 13th hole.
“I played okay, but she made a lot of birdies,” said Jutanugarn.
Kang was 6 up and with the usual match-play concessions,
seven under par after 13 holes. “My dad, (K.S. Kang, her caddie)
told me I was seven under at one point and I wanted to
get to 10 under,” said the champion. “I know Moriya is a great
player and I knew pars weren’t going to win holes.”
It was Kang’s biggest lead of the match but her opponent held
on. At the 14th, Jutanugarn hit her approach shot to within
Kang Wins the 2011 Championship
U.S. Women’s Amateur 5
a foot of the hole, which was immediately conceded. When
Kang’s 12-footer for birdie slid by, the lead was down to 5 up.
At the 15th tee, the players faced the full force of gusty winds
off Narragansett Bay. Kang’s second shot sailed into a greenside
bunker. Jutanugarn drilled her approach shot through the
wind and her ball bit and skidded to a stop just 10 feet from
the hole. Kang’s bunker shot was 18 feet past the hole and she
missed the putt to make her first and only bogey. Jutanugarn
won the hole with a par, leaving Kang four holes in front.
Jutanugarn was tenacious, making nice up-and-downs from
a bunker on the 16th and from greenside rough on the 17th
to save pars. The holes were halved and Kang remained 4 up,
which is where it stayed into the lunch break.
With match-play concessions, Jutanugarn’s scorecard showed
a 2-under-par score of 69 and Kang a 6-under-par 65.
After the lunch break, Kang continued her fireworks, holing a
12-foot uphill birdie putt on the 19th to go 5 up.
In the damp wind, both players took a lot of time studying the
tricky slopes of the Donald Ross-designed greens. Neither
had a three-putt green.
Jutanugarn rallied over the next three holes. She won her
first hole of the afternoon at the 21st with a 16-foot birdie
putt. Both parred the 22nd hole, Jutanugarn nearly holing a
40-foot pitch. At the par-3 23rd, Jutanugarn made a deuce,
her second birdie in three holes, and Kang’s lead was cut to 3
up.
Kang surged back on the 220-yard, par-4 24th hole. She
nearly drove the green with a 3-wood and landed in greenside
rough. Just as she had in the morning, Jutanugarn drove
into a greenside bunker and her recovery shot burned the
hole, ending 5 feet away. She barely missed the birdie putt.
From just over 2 feet, Kang made her ninth birdie of the match
and went 4 up.
They halved the next three holes with pars. At the 193yard,
par-3 28th, Kang hit a soaring fairway metal to 4 feet.
Jutanugarn’s shot landed in heavy grass in the slope of a bunker.
From an awkward stance, Jutanugarn chipped weakly and
conceded Kang’s birdie putt. Kang was 5 up.
With eight holes remaining, Jutanugarn needed to chip away
at Kang’s lead. But Kang won the 29th hole with another
birdie, her 11th of the match, to again go 6 up.
The 30th hole was halved with pars. Kang was dormie-6 and
the match was near its end. Kang and Jutanagarn halved the
31st with pars and Kang won the match and her second consecutive
U.S. Women’s Amateur title.
Women’s
Amateur