Arundel senior upsets No. 1 seed in U.S. Women’s Amateur
Crofton Country Club’s Elyse Smidinger lost to Brook Pancake in the second round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Thursday at Rhode Island Country Club. But the tournament provided some of the best memories in the brief career of Smidinger, a senior at Arundel, who has played competitive golf for just four years.
In her first appearance in the Women’s Am, Smidinger survived a five-for-one playoff for the final berth in match play on Tuesday, and then upset medalist and top-seeded Jihee Kim of Korea in the opening round of match play on Wednesday.
Smidinger, the runner-up last month to Tennessee sophomore Kaitlyn Rohrback in the Maryland Women’s Amateur, surged to a 4 up lead on Kim on her way to a 2 and 1 victory. On Thursday morning in the round of 32, however, Smidinger fell to a more experienced foe, Pancake, a senior at Alabama, 2 and 1.
Pancake, of Chattanooga, Tenn., went on to defeat another high school player, Nicole Morales of South Salem, N.Y., 4 and 3, to advance to the quarterfinals on Friday morning. The finals are set for Saturday.
