Aussie Ella Scaysbrook’s remarkable debut at the prestigious U.S Women’s Amateur Championship came to a heart-stopping conclusion at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, edged out by American 11th seed Megha Ganne in a playoff.
Played in tricky, blustery conditions, the 19-year-old from the Golf NSW state team looked in complete control for much of the contest. She was 4 up through nine holes, building her advantage with superb play on the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th holes – including a brilliant 40-foot birdie putt on the par-5 9th, echoing a similar bomb she holed in her quarter-final.
When she repeated the long-range magic with another 40-footer on the 11th, Scaysbrook was 4 up again, continuing a week in which she had barely been challenged, losing just six of the 69 holes she’d played and never trailing in match play.
Ganne, however, proved a fierce opponent. The American began her fightback on the 12th, winning the short par-3 after Scaysbrook’s rare stumble from a greenside bunker. A missed short putt on the 13th reduced the lead to two, and Ganne’s own long-range brilliance on the 15th brought her within one, having won three of the previous four holes.
The match reached boiling point on the penultimate hole, where Scaysbrook found a scrub-covered cliff penalty area, but recovered magnificently to make bogey. Ganne still took the hole, sending the match to the 18th all square.
Both players bogeyed the 18th to force extra holes, where Ganne eventually sealed victory.
It was an epic contest and a brilliant campaign for Scaysbrook, the No. 63 seed in a 156-player field. After qualifying for match play with rounds of 74 and 71, she powered past a string of highly-rated opponents including American Asterisk Talley (6&4), Avery Weed (4&3), Jasmine Koo (4&3) and Canada’s Taylor Kehoe (5&4) – to reach the final four.
Already the 2025 Avondale Bowl champion and Australian Master of the Amateurs runner-up, Scaysbrook’s performance on one of amateur golf’s biggest stages cements her status as one of the nation’s brightest prospects.
In the other semi-final, Brooke Biermann defeated Lyla Louderbaugh after two playoff holes to set up an all-American final against Ganne.
