Kuehn’s 36-hole total of six-under 138 was two strokes better than Southern Methodist University rising senior Kennedy Pedigo.

Kuehn, the No. 23 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, joins her mum, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, as a USGA medallist. Brenda was medallist in the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs, losing in the 1995 final.

Could this finally be the year the medallist drought in this championship ends?

Kuehn certainly has the credentials – and pedigree – to become the first top seed to claim the Robert Cox Trophy since Amanda Blumenherst in 2008. She will need to win six matches over the next five days to accomplish that feat.

Of course, Kuehn, competing in her eighth USGA championship and second U.S. Women’s Amateur, knows the first hurdle is winning Wednesday’s Round-of-64 encounter. With a field this talented, there’s no time to rest on laurels or celebrate what transpired in stroke play.

Maddison Hinson-Tolchard was the best of the Aussies through the strokeplay, she is joined in the top-64 by Grace Kim and Emily Mahar. PHOTO: USGA.

“I think you get to this level and everyone can play, so you just got to take one match at a time and not take anything for granted,” said Kuehn, who won the Women’s North & South and Ladies National Golf Association titles in 2020. “The seeding doesn't really mean anything at this level. Everyone can go out there and have a good round, and match play is having just a little bit of a better round than your opponent.”

Since missing the match-play cut last month as the defending North & South champion, Kuehn has focused all of her attention on ball-striking. There were signs of improvement last week when she was the joint runner-up in the inaugural Sea Island Women’s Invitational in Georgia.

On Tuesday, it also didn’t hurt to get a fortunate break on the par-4 eighth to keep the round from going awry. Following a bogey on the par-4 seventh – her only blemish in the round – Kuehn faced a 188-yard approach. Her 5-iron shot skipped across the pond fronting the green and she managed to convert a 10-footer for par.

From there, she registered consecutive birdies on Nos. 9 and 10, and finished off the day with a 236-yard, 3-wood approach to the 520-yard, par-5 18th, setting up a two-putt birdie.

“I think it’s a ball-striker's course,” said Kuehn of Westchester’s West Course, which hosted a PGA Tour event for more than 40 years and was the site of the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship won by Inbee Park. “If you can hit the middle of the fairways and greens you're bound to play well.”

Pedigo qualified for match play for the first time in three attempts in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, thanks to a seven-birdie performance that became a 68 and 36-hole total of 140. Her round was highlighted by a 50-foot birdie on the par-3 16th hole.

University of Arkansas fifth-year senior Brooke Matthews went one better than Pedigo with an eight-birdie performance en route to a six-under 66 (141 total) and the best round of the week. On Matthews’ bag this week is fellow Razorback and 2019 Latin America Amateur champion Alvaro Ortiz, who won his first professional event in March on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica.

“Happy to have him here,” said Matthews. “He helps me a lot.”

Maddison Hinson-Tolchard was the top Aussie qualifier, sharing 20th at one-under, Emily Mahar and Grace Kim joining her in the Round of 64 with two round totals of three and four over respectively.