Final 4 at Breezy Bandon Dunes: Biermann, Ganne, Louderbaugh, Scaysbrook

Winning matches at the quarterfinal stage of a USGA championship is always a difficult task, whether it is the talented opponent greeting you on the first tee or just the enormity of the moment.

Add sustained winds from 15-20 mph – with gusts into the mid-30s – and that challenge gets multiplied in spades.

For the second consecutive day, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort showed its teeth for Friday’s matches, making the quarterfinals as much about survival as the physical skills of the talented competitors.

In some cases, players faced as much as a five-club wind; No. 63 seed Ella Scaysbrook, of Australia, hit a wedge into the par-4 11th hole in Wednesday morning’s 15-for-6 playoff and during her 5-and-4 quarterfinal win over Taylor Kehoe she needed a 7-wood to reach the putting surface.

Brooke Biermann, of Wildwood, Mo., a 3-and-2 winner over No. 64 seed Ariana Lau, went from a pitching wedge for her approach into No. 5 in the Round of 64 on Wednesday to a 3-wood on Friday.

Scaysbrook and Biermann will be joined in Saturday’s semifinals by Stanford University rising senior Megha Ganne, of Holmdel, N.J., and University of Kansas rising junior Lyla Louderbaugh, of Buffalo, Mo.

“Even when you punch into the wind, like whatever you do, it's just going to come back at you basically,” said Biermann, who graduated from Michigan State in May and qualified for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills. “I was justtrying to focus on what I could control, and that's just like solid contact andtrying to pick the best club for me.”

Ganne, the No. 11 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®, eliminated world No. 6 Eila Galitsky, of Thailand, 2 and 1. It was the third consecutive top-20 player Ganne has defeated en route to her second semifinal U.S. Women’s Amateur appearance, but first since she was 15 years old in 2019. On Thursday, she eliminated world No. 14 Anna Davis and No. 20 Kary Hollenbaugh.

Louderbaugh, bidding to become the first left-handed winner in U.S. Women’s Amateur history, took out world No. 1 Kiara Romero, of San Jose, Calif., in a 20-hole thriller.

Six years ago, Ganne was an incredulous teen when she took Albane Valenzuela to 19 holes in the semifinals at Old Waverly Golf Club. Much has changed since. Now the four-time Drive, Chip & Putt national finalist is a standout at Stanford, where she helped one of the country’s top programs claim the 2024 NCAA title. A year ago, she had to withdraw from the U.S. Women’s Amateur on the morning of the first round due to food poisoning.

“I've been to the semis before when I was like a baby,” said Ganne. “So, I don't remember much. But I do remember that I wanted to be in the final. I didn't get this last time, so definitely thinking about how to make my way there [this year].”

Against the long-hitting Galitsky, the 2023 Asia-Pacific Women’s Amateur champion and the 2025 Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Year, Ganne played the equivalent of 2-under-par golf (with match-play concessions) over the 17 holes of the match. Birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 gave her a 3-up lead, one that Galitsky never could overcome, despite trimming the deficit to 1 down with a winning par on No. 11.

“My golf coach (Katie Rudolph) and I have always made sure I know how to hit it underneath the wind, low, knock-down shots,” said Ganne, a member of the victorious 2022 USA Curtis Cup Team. “It's a shot that I have a lot of comfort with. That's pretty much the golf swing I was using for every approach that I hit out here today.”

Louderbaugh, who got exempt into the championship by virtue of winning the Kansas Women’s Amateur by eight strokes earlier this summer, is having a coming-out party this week. Virtually unknown nationally and No. 249 in the WAGR, she showed tremendous composure against Romero, the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion who rallied from 2 down with two to play to force extra holes. Louderbaugh hit poor approach shots on both 17 and 18 – the latter into the penalty area right of the green – and seemed to have lost all the momentum against her much more decorated opponent.

On the 19th hole – No. 10 at Bandon Dunes – she appeared to secure the victory only to see her 10-foot birdie putt have a hard lip-out. But on the 20th hole, the par-4 11th, Romero’s 8-iron approach was blocked to the right of the green and she was unable to convert her 15-footer for par. Louderbaugh, who won the NCAA Columbus (Ohio) Regional by eight strokes for her first collegiate title, calmly two-putted from 25 feet, holing a short 2-footer to close out the victory.

“It feels awesome,” said Louderbaugh, 20, who was ousted in the Round of 64 in her first U.S. Women’s Amateur last year. “This is definitely one of the biggest moments of my career, and it's super exciting to see my game [and] how it compares to the world No. 1. I'm there. Like I have what it takes to be right there with her. I'm really proud of myself for that.”

Louderbaugh will face Bierman in the first semifinal on Saturday morning. The two squared off last year in the Missouri Women’s Amateur, with the latter prevailing en route to the title.

On Friday, Biermann overcame a chip-in eagle by Lau, an incoming freshman at Northwestern University, to rally yet again for a win. Biermann stuck a beautiful approach on No. 11 to 3 feet for a winning birdie to tie the match, then won the next two holes to seize control. Winning pars at 15 and 16 ended Lau’s bid to become the first No. 64 seed to win a USGA championship.

Scaysbrook, meanwhile, has a chance to become the second No. 63 seed to take this title, joining Jensen Castle, who achieved the feat four years ago at Westchester Country Club. Like Castle, Scaysbrook emerged from a playoff to garner one of the last spots in the draw. She also has plenty of experience playing in windy conditions, having competed many times in Melbourne, which has a similar climate to southwestern Oregon.

The 19-year-old got things rolling right from the outset, holing a long putt from the fringe at the opening hole. After a Kehoe birdie on No. 7 trimmed her lead to one hole, Scaysbrook won three consecutive holes that included an eagle on the par-5 ninth.

“Just go out tomorrow and see what happens,” said Scaysbrook, who hopes to join 2019 champ Gabriela Ruffels as a Women’s Am champ from Australia. “I'm proud I made it this far anyway.” 

What’s Next

Saturday’s semifinal matches are scheduled for 10:40 a.m. and 11 a.m. PDT, with the 36-hole championship match on Sunday set to start at 9:30 a.m. followed by a lunch break and then the resumption of the match at a time to be determined. Golf Channel has live coverage of the semifinals from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT.

Notable

• The semifinalists receive a two-year U.S. Women’s Amateur exemption. The 126th championship will be contested at The Honors Course, in Ooltewah, Tenn., from Aug. 4-9, while the 127th U.S. Women’s Amateur will be played at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club (Course No. 2).
  
  
• Starting in 2026, the champion of the U.S. Women’s Amateur will receive the Joanne Gunderson Carner Medal. Carner, who grew up in the Seattle area, claimed five U.S. Women’s Amateur titles before embarking on a professional career, where she won a pair of U.S. Women’s Opens. Her eight USGA titles are the most by any female golfer.
  
  
• Duane Smith, the husband of LPGA Tour player Sarah Jane Smith, took over caddie duties on Friday for Australian Ella Scaysbrook. The couple lives in Orlando, Fla., but annually houses players from their native country each summer as part of Golf Australia’s development program.
  
  
• Megha Ganne’s mom, Sudha, flew in from New Jersey on Saturday and joined the quarterfinal match on the fourth hole. Her father, Hari, has been her all week, along with Ganne’s coach Katie Rudolph.
  
  
• Robin Oliver remains the only Bandon Dunes caddie left in the field, carrying for Lyla Louderbaugh. Bandon Dunes caddies have been on the bag for eight of the nine champions at the resort. The lone exception was Tyler Strafaci in the 2020 U.S. Amateur, who had his father, Frank Strafaci, on his bag.

Quotable

“Honestly, the whole way through I felt pretty good. I was definitely blown away by how powerful of a player Eila is and how far she hits it. I think that was a little bit intimidating off the bat to be playing against.” – Megha Ganne

“I'm very glad I have my dad (Bill Biermann) on the bag. He seems to have a good eye and feel for that stuff. I usually make the decision, buthe's also a great like person to bounce ideas off of.” – Brooke Biermann

“I probably shouldn't do that. I graduated [in May], but my whole [Michigan State] team was like, the body language you have out there is insane. You're going to hurt yourself.  But even with like a lot of iron shots, I'm like, this and this. You know what? I don't know. I can't control it. I have a lot of movement out there. I guess I tell myself Scottie Scheffler has it too. He doesn't do that on putting, but … I know I have a little bit of movement.” – Biermann when asked about her body movements on iron shots and putts

“Going to school in Kansas I'm used to the wind and the cooler temperatures. There were definitely some holes that kind of caught me off guard, but overall, I think my caddie (Robin Oliver) also helps me kind of judge and pick lines out for the wind. But I'm used to flighting it down and having it kind of penetrate through the wind. You kind of just have to visualize and draw it up in your head, and I do a really good job of that.” – Lyla Louderbaugh

“It's definitely something that you want to do on the first hole, like hole the putts when you have that confidence that you can do that for the rest of the round. [It] gives [you] a bit of confidence when you do something like that.” – Ella Scaysbrook on the long birdie putt she converted from off the green at the par-4 opening hole

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.