Records have fallen. Favorites have, too.
Three days into the 125th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes, the tournament has already left its mark. With four days of match play remaining, here’s what you need to know to get up to date.
History was made
Tuesday dawned clear and still along the southern Oregon coast, stripping Bandon Dunes of its main defense: wind. Plenty of competitors took advantage (the scoring average for the 156-player field was a gaudy 72.37), but none more than Canadian Vanessa Borovilos, a rising Texas A&M sophomore, who recorded 10 birdies en route to the lowest single-round score in the 125-year history of the event. Her 9-under 63 was also one stroke shy of tying the lowest score by a female golfer in USGA championship history.
An engineer engineered an epic comeback
Borovilos’ sparkling round put her through to the Round of 64, where she got a taste of her own medicine from Ashley Kozlowski of Littleton, Colo, a former Purdue golfer who now works as a systems engineer for aeronautics giant Northrop Grumman. Three-down to Borovilos through 15 holes, Kozlowski birdied the remaining three to extend the match before ending it with a par on the second extra hole.
The two top seeds are out
For a while, it was déjà vu all over again thanks to two familiar names: Rianne Malixi of the Philippines and Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. After meeting in the finals of a pair of USGA championships in 2024 (the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur, with Malixi winning both), the two cruised through stroke play this week to finish as co-medalists and appeared to be on a collision course once more as match play got underway. Instead, Talley was steamrolled 6 and 4 by Ella Scaysbrook of Australia and Malixi lost 1-down to Adrianna Lau of Hong Kong, who eagled the par-5 18th to seal the deal (earlier in the day, Lau had birdied the 18th to make it through a 15-competitor playoff to determine the final six match-play slots). The early ouster of Malixi and Talley marked the first time in a decade that multiple medalists were knocked out in the round-of-64 in this event.
A golf broadcaster is in the mix
From hitting shots to calling shots, Golf Channel on-course reporter Emilia (Migliaccio) Doran handled both tasks nicely on Wednesday. A two-time Curtis Cupper and former All-American at Wake Forest, Doran drained an 8-foot putt for birdie on the 20th hole to beat Arkansas rising senior Reagan Zibilski. She then swapped her cap for headsets and switched into her broadcast role. At 26, she is the oldest player remaining in the field. She’ll face Adrianna Lau Thursday morning in the Round of 32.
You can tune in live at home
Thirty-two players remain, but Thursday is a long day, and by the time it’s over, the field will be whittled down to eight. The Round of 32 will be played on Thursday morning, starting at 7:15 a.m. local time, followed by the Round of 16 in the afternoon. That afternoon session will be broadcast live on Golf Channel from 6-9 p.m. ET. Friday’s quarterfinals will air live on Golf Channel in that same window, followed by the quarterfinals Saturday from 3-6 p.m. ET, and Sunday’s 36-hole championship match from 7-10 p.m. ET.
