U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR FOUR-BALL
Top Seeds Yen, Young Are No. 1 in Oklahoma
For the fifth consecutive year, a teenage duo captured the first USGA title of the season. Natalie Yen, 18, of West Linn, Ore., and Asia Young, 16, of Bend, Ore., rolled to a commanding 5-and-3 victory — the second-largest margin in a final in the championship’s young history — to win the 10th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball on a hot and windy Wednesday at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club in Nichols Hills, Okla. The duo defeated 17-year-old Kentucky residents Athena Singh and Keira Yun in the final match.
Teeing off just 45 minutes after wrapping up their 2-and-1 semifinal win over Fay Jia and Cherry Zhang, Yen and Young wasted no time finding their rhythm, taking a 1-up lead on the opening hole, thanks to Young’s steady two-putt par. True to the form they showed all week, both players contributed when it counted. After Young found trouble on the par-4 fourth — landing in a fairway bunker and needing two more shots to reach the green — Yen stepped up, sinking a 10-foot birdie putt from the fringe to push their lead to 2 up.
"I think overall, we trust each other to play our games, and we know we're trying our best,” said Yen, who is headed to Texas A&M this fall. “We may have different styles on certain holes. But at the end of the day, I think we both know that we're both able to score.”
After a tough fourth hole, Young bounced back in impressive fashion, becoming the only player in the group to reach the par-5 fifth green in two shots. Capitalizing on her length —she and Yen had been consistently outdriving their opponents all match — she tapped in for birdie to extend the side’s lead to 3 up, before draining a 30-foot birdie putt on the next hole for a commanding 4-up lead through six holes.
"We won those three holes in a row from 4 to 6, and I think my putt on 4 really helped us kind of feel like, okay, now we can really start firing,” said Yen.
“Being up a little with momentum on your side just lets you play a little more fearlessly,” added Young, a rising junior at Laurel Springs High School, in Bend.
Singh and Yun briefly halted their opponents' momentum by tying holes 7 through 11, but the eventual champions delivered a decisive blow on the 12th, winning the hole with a routine par to go 5 up. Singh and Yun managed to take their only hole of the match with a par on No. 14, but the contest came to a dramatic close on the par-3 15th. Young nearly aced her tee shot, spinning the ball back to within 15 feet. With composure well beyond her years, the 16-year-old calmly drained the birdie putt to clinch the match — and a USGA title — in spectacular fashion.
"Honestly, in this match we weren't going in with high expectations,” said Singh. “We were just kind of in disbelief that we got to the final match, so I think both us and our parents, all of us were pretty much saying, ‘We got here; doesn't matter how we play; just try to play our own game and see how it goes.’”
The runner-up finish does come with its perks, and the duo is exempt into the next three iterations of the championship, provided the side remains intact.
“I couldn't ask for a better partner, so just knowing I get to play another three years with her and how far we made itthis time, hoping maybe one time we can come back with a win,” said Yun.
Earlier in the day, Yen and Young edged out California teenagers Fay Jia and Cherry Zhang 2 and 1 in a closely contested match that went back and forth until the 13th hole, when the eventual winners pulled ahead for good. In the other semifinal, Singh and Yun led from start to finish, also winning 2 and 1 over the 17-year-old Floridian duo of Bella Dovhey and Sophia Dyer.
“It was just really fun to play this kind of format, especially playing match play. It's just such a different game, especially with the added teammate part. That was just super cool.” - Semifinalist Sophia Dyer on her main takeaways from the week playing alongside partner Bella Dovhey
“I think my biggest takeaway is all the top tournaments that I've played, like amateur events and U.S. Open qualifiers, all of their greens are very hard, so you can't just land it there like junior tournaments do. You have to roll it up and you have to hit fades and draws and avoid the bunkers. So I think the more I play -- I mean, I played more than a week here and I've learned how to control that, so I think going into the SCGA (Southern California Golf Association) Women's Amateur and some top tournaments like that, I think it'll really help me because I've learned a lot in this past week.” - Semifinalist Fay Jia on her biggest takeaway from playing at Oklahoma City Golf & C.C.
“I definitely learned how to play on a difficult golf course, and I think that is going to help a lot with my course management in other tournaments.” Runner-up Keira Yun on her biggest takeaway from the week
“Bandon will be cool for me. My mom grew up in Coquille, which is about 10, 15 miles I think from Bandon. I've played the Oregon Am out at Bandon Trails and played the [Oregon] Junior Am out there, but for me to go out there and be in my home state, kind of last tournament as a junior before I start college, you know, to be in Bandon somewhere close to where my mom grew up is going to be really special.” - Natalie Yen on her exemption into the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes
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