Cinderella Seeds Lau, Scaysbrook Join World No. 1 Romero in Quarters at Bandon Dunes

Meet the Quarterfinalists

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort woke up on Thursday.

After three days of relatively benign conditions, the omnipresent winds that permeate through this 26-year-old facility on the southwest Oregon coast came out of their three-day hibernation to greet the 32 remaining competitors in the 125th U.S. Women’s Amateur.

By day’s end, only eight managed to keep from being blown off their intended journey: hoisting the Robert Cox Trophy on Sunday.

While reaching this stage of the competition is no breeze, navigating the blustery conditions – gusts into the mid-20s with sustained winds in the 14-19 mph range – as well as talented opponents became a major challenge on a marathon day featuring two rounds of match play.

Two Cinderellas continued their magical run, as the No. 63 and 64 seeds, Ella Scaysbrook, of Australia, and Arianna Lau, of Hong Kong, China, respectively, posted a pair of victories to join world No. 1 amateur Kiara Romero, of San Jose, Calif., 2022 USA Curtis Cup competitor and Stanford star Megha Ganne, of Holmdel, N.J., world No. 6 and University of South Carolina rising sophomore Eila Galitsky, of Thailand, University of Kansas standout Lyla Louderbaugh, of Buffalo, Mo., 2025 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier Brooke Biermann, of Wildwood, Mo., and Canadian National Team member Taylor Kehoe in the final eight.

Lau, 17, an incoming freshman at Northwestern University who eliminated co-medalist and defending champion Rianne Malixi on Wednesday, defeated 2025 Inkster Award winner Carolina Lopez-Chacarra, of Spain, 5 and 4, in the Round of 16 on Thursday. She is the first No. 64 seed to reach the quarterfinals since Kandi Kessler in 1984, a year before the USGA went to true seeding based on stroke-play scores. That year, Kessler did not have the highest stroke-play score among the 64 qualifiers.

A 64 seed has never won a USGA title; Alexandra Frazier (2010 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur) and Aliea Clark (2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) each lost in championship matches.

Scaysbrook, 19, ousted 2024 USA Curtis Cup competitor and University of Southern California standout Jasmine Koo, of Cerritos, Calif., 4 and 3. She is bidding to become the second 63 seed to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur after Jensen Castle achieved the feat in 2021 at Westchester Country Club, in Rye, N.Y. Two other 63 seeds have won USGA titles: Clay Ogden (2005 U.S. Amateur Public Links) and Steven Fox (2012 U.S. Amateur).

Lopez-Chacarra, who graduated from Wake Forest this past spring and moved to No. 15 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® this week, was hampered with foot issues due to the new golf shoes she was breaking in for the competition. She called for medical assistance on the eighth hole with Lau nursing a 3-up lead. But Lau, who now has defeated two players in the top 15 of the WAGR (Malixi is No. 8), never faltered, losing just the par-5 ninth to a Lopez-Chacarra birdie. She played the equivalent of 2-under-par golf (with the usual match-play concessions) in the gusty conditions.

“I knew par was a good score because it's very hard to make birdies in the wind,” said Lau. “I was just hoping to get a spot in match play. I just really cherish this opportunity to play such a good event and just learn, just play, perform well. I'm really excited.”

The windy conditions certainly affected Biermann, who shockingly missed a 2-foot putt on 18 to close out Cindy Hsu, of Chinese Taipei. The 2025 Michigan State graduate mentally recovered to close out Hsu on the 19th hole, making a much more difficult 7-footer for a match-winning par. Biermann treated Thursday as if she was a resort guest, playing 41 holes of golf after outlasting Olivia Duan on the 22nd hole in the Round of 32.

“I told my dad [and caddie Bill Biermann], I seriously think I played that [dead] center and it broke, so I think it's the wind,” said Biermann, who was stunned by the short miss. “I'm going to tell myself that. Seriously I wasn't nervous. All the last three matches, even yesterday, I had made so many great putts under pressure…We'll blame it on the wind. Broke more with the wind.”

Kehoe, Biermann’s former Michigan State teammate, also had a dramatic Round-of-16 match against 17-year-old Rayee Feng, a 2025 U.S. Girls’ Junior semifinalist who was just named to the U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team. Kehoe outlasted the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in 23 holes. Earlier on Thursday, she defeated Julia Misemer, 1 up.  

Romero, a rising junior at the University of Oregon, is seeking to add the U.S. Women’s Amateur title to the U.S. Girls’ Junior championship she claimed in 2023. Having taken over the top spot in the WAGR last week after Lottie Woad turned professional, the 19-year-old has felt comfortable playing just three hours from campus and having Head Coach Derek Radley on the bag. She won Holes 10-12 against Andie Smith in rolling to a 4-and-3 victory after ousting Annika Ishiyama, 6 and 5, earlier on Thursday.

“I think it justadds a little bit more thinking and kind of a game plan to just really make sure you know your numbers out there and you know when to hit those knock-down shots when you're into the wind,” said Romero. “It definitely took a lot of thinking out there just trying to keep the brain quiet and not have too many thoughts.”

Ganne, a semifinalist as a 15-year-old six years ago at Old Waverly Golf Club, in West Point, Miss., defeated a pair of top-20-ranked players on Thursday. She ousted 2024 USA Curtis Cup competitor and Auburn University star Anna Davis (No. 14 in WAGR), 3 and 2, before outlasting world No. 20 and Ohio State All-American Kary Hollenbaugh, 2 and 1. The 21-year-old rising Stanford University senior gained momentum by winning Nos. 14 and 15 with pars, and despite hitting her second shot on 16 into the penalty area to lose the hole, she managed to close out the match on the 17th with a conceded birdie.

“It feels really good,” said Ganne. “One thing I remember from being in the semifinals [in 2019] is like as soon as you knock down that first round of 64, [it] feels like I can just do that again and again and again. That's a feeling that I had when I was on a run there. I was trying to recreate that and remember that feeling I had.” 

Galitsky, the 2023 Asia-Pacific Women’s Amateur champion, ended the hopes of Oregonian Natalie Yen winning a second USGA title in 2025. Yen, an incoming Texas A&M freshman who claimed the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in May with fellow Oregonian Asia Young, battled the long-hitting No. 3 seed to the final hole. After Yen made her putt for 4 on the par 5, Galitsky answered from 5 feet to secure the 1-up win.

Louderbaugh, 20, said her game began to turn around when she posted a bogey-free round at Arizona State’s tournament in March, which led to winning the NCAA Columbus (Ohio) Regional by eight strokes and the Kansas Women’s Amateur earlier this summer by the same margin, an event that saw her card a course-record 63 in Round 2 at Mission Hills Country Club.

“My [Bandon Dunes] caddie [Robin Oliver] says this is typical Bandon weather, so excited to see what the next few days hold for that,” said Louderbaugh. “But I'm used to the wind. [In] Kansas we get a lot of wind. I'm grateful that we get to play Prairie Dunes out in Hutchinson. It gets gusty out there as well. It's kind of a linksy style course. But I knew you're going to miss greens and it's all about grinding to get those pars and going from there.”

What’s Next

Friday’s quarterfinal matches will commence at 1:40 p.m. PDT, while the semifinals on Saturday are scheduled for 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sunday’s 36-hole championship match will begin at 9:30 a.m. and resume after the lunch break at a time to be determined. Golf Channel has live coverage of the quarterfinals from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• All of the quarterfinalists are now exempt into the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur that will be staged at The Honors Course, in Ooltewah, Tenn.
  
  
• The tee markers were moved up on the par-3 12th hole to just 99 yards.
  
  
• Four more matches went extra holes on Thursday, bringing the championship total to 10.
  
  
• Golf Channel on-course reporter Emilia (Migliaccio) Doran, the only mid-amateur to qualify for match play, saw her dual role as player/television analyst end with a 4-and-2 loss to Arianna Lau in the Round of 32. It has been 47 years since a mid-amateur has claimed the U.S. Women’s Amateur (Cathy Sherk).
  
  
• A few hours after being eliminated by Lau, Doran was interviewing the 17-year-old near the 14th green as part of the Golf Channel broadcast.
  
  
• As the recipient of the 2025 Inkster Award, an honor given annually to a top collegiate senior, Carolina Lopez-Chacarra will be headed five hours north of Bandon to compete in the LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic on a sponsor’s exemption next week. The award also comes with mentoring from the five-time USGA champion, who won three consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur titles from 1980-82.

Quotable

“I'm working harder than ever and I'm really happy to see the results, and I knew it was coming. I just needed one good tournament, which was my first bogey-free tournament round at Papago, ASU's (Arizona State’s) tournament. That kind of really set me up for success in a way. I've really been able to control my game in a way that I'm really liking when I'm on the golf course.” – Lyla Louderbaugh

“I think it would be super boring if everybody just, you know, [played for] fairway, green, made the putt for birdie. This one is like, okay, you hit the fairway. You’ve got to flight down your second shot. It's 100 yards. You're playing it almost like 140 yards. It's a lot more thinking and it's a lot more fun.” – Eila Galitsky on playing in the gusty conditions

“Definitely stay patient. I've had a little bit of experience this wind down in Melbourne, [which] is where most of our events are at home [in Australia]. It's pretty similar to this. Similar course, similar everything.” – Ella Scaysbrook

“I think it brings out the aggressiveness in my game and just being able to attack every pin and not a lot to think about, and just kind of put the foot on the gas right from the start.” – Kiara Romero

“I've seen my fair share of Bandon. You know what? I love it. You guys see it, it's beautiful. Yeah, definitely seen a lot of holes, which I'm okay with I guess.” – Brooke Biermann after playing 41 holes on Thursday

“As preparation for tomorrow, get some rest for sure. I'm going to go chill at the hotel. I just had two very stressful matches that I put on myself.” -- Biermann

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