Auburn’s Telfer advances to U.S. Women’s Am quarterfinals

Auburn’s Telfer advances to U.S. Women’s Am quarterfinalsAuburn’s Telfer advances to U.S. Women’s Am quarterfinals
USGA/Chris Keane

ROCKVILLE, Md. – With back-to-back match play victories Friday, Auburn junior Kaleigh Telfer made it through to Saturday's quarterfinals at the 120th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. 

Telfer trailed by three with four holes to play in her first match, a Round of 32 matchup against Virginia Tech's Emily Mahar, but the WGCA All-American rallied to win holes 15, 16 and 17 and force extra holes. She then made par on the 20th hole to win the match. 

After a short break, Telfer turned around and knocked off Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest in the Round of 16 with a 2&1 victory that included three birdies and 11 pars through 17 holes. 

"Telf is considered one of the top amateurs in the world, and she's an Auburn Tiger," Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen said. "She represents us beautifully. Our program has elevated. It was elevated before her good performance, but I like when you have good performances and then you continue to back it up. That's what Telf and Megan and Mychael have done this week."

Fellow Auburn teammates Megan Schofill and Mychael O'Berry joined Telfer in this year's U.S. Women's Amateur from Woodmont Country Club (Par 72, 6,561 yards). 

Schofill also won her first match of the day Friday, beating Tennessee's Nicole Whiston, 4&3, to advance to the Round of 16 for the second straight year. However, the Auburn freshman came up short against Emilia Migliaccio, the No. 4 amateur player in the world, in a back-and-forth match that went 22 holes. 

O'Berry, who finished 10th in the stroke play portion of the tournament, lost her Round of 64 match Thursday but returned to caddie for Telfer on Friday. 

"In between shots, Telf doesn't really want to think about golf," Luellen said. "And so I think it's really great that she's got her teammate and her friend in Mychael that was on the bag today."

Telfer will face Rose Zhang in the first quarterfinal match Saturday. The duo is scheduled to tee off at 7 a.m. ET from the first hole. Live scoring can be found on USGA.org.