Aug. 13, 2010
MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine sophomore Danielle Kang reached the semifinal round of the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship thanks to her 19th-hole victory over UCLA's Sydnee Michaels on Friday.
Kang (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake HS) will next battle Jennifer Kirby, who hails from Canada and plays collegiately at Alabama, in Saturday's semifinals. It will start at 10:15 a.m. ET at the Charlotte (N.C.) Country Club and the day's action will be shown on a delayed basis by The Golf Channel at noon PT.
After winning both of the first two holes, Kang led for much of the match. Michaels eventually tied things up at the 12th hole, but Kang went back ahead after Michaels bogeyed the 15th. A birdie by Michaels on the 17th hole tied the score again. On the 18th, both players recorded a bogey, with Kang narrowly missing a 4-footer for par that would have ended it.
"I didn't realize that I was getting nervous but I guess I was internally," said Kang in a USGA news release about the 18th hole. "I usually tell myself, don't ever get mad on the golf course anymore. Don't show it. But that really got to me. I was like, did you really do that again? I was upset. Going to the playoff hole, I was really upset. Going to the second shot I was still a little shaken up, but my dad told me, `Hey, don't worry about it. We're just giving them more entertainment.' That actually made me smile."
On the first extra hole (on No. 10), Kang was able to two-putt for par while Michaels missed the green with her approach shot and was unable to match Kang.
Kang was able to avenge an earlier defeat to Michaels this summer. Michaels won the Canadian Women's Amateur and Kang was second.
Kang has had an outstanding summer since ending her first collegiate season with a tie for 15th place at the NCAA Championships and earning All-American second team honors from Golfweek. In addition to her showing at the Canadian Women's Amateur, she qualified for the U.S. Women's Open for the second time and went on to be one of only six amateurs to make the cut. Kang ended up in 64th place.
She went on to be the medalist in the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Junior Girls Championship before losing in the quarterfinals of match play to the eventual champion. That was the second time that Kang has been the medalist in stroke play at a USGA championship, having also earned that distinction at the 2009 U.S. Women's Amateur.
Earlier in the tournament, Kang tied for 10th place during the stroke play portion of the competition with an even-par 144 (74-70). She defeated Grace Na (3 & 2) in the first round, 14-year-old Gabriella Then (5 & 3) in the second round and Arizona State's Juliana Murcia Ortiz (1 up) in the third round.
More information about the U.S. Amateur, including live scoring, can be found here: http://www.usga.org/ChampEventSite.aspx?id=17179869348
The Waves begin their 2010-11 season at the NCAA Fall Preview, hosted by Texas A&M, on September 13-15.
