Opening Golf to the World
The Women's Amateur
Savannah De Bock and Farah O’Keefe battle to claim quarter-final places at The Women’s Amateur at Muirfield
25 Jun 26
5 mins
Farah O’Keefe was pushed all the way by English teenager Lauren Crump before taking her place in the quarter-finals of the 123rd Women’s Amateur Championship.
The American, who is the highest-placed player left in the field at number three on the World Amateur Golf Ranking®, had to show all her mental and physical strength to see off the 16-year-old outsider on a challenging day at Muirfield. As the wind picked up, the fog rolled in and temperatures dropped on the East Lothian coast, O’Keefe eventually emerged from the tightest of last-16 matches with a one-hole victory. After an exhausting Curtis Cup in which she won all five of her matches for the victorious USA team, it has been another tiring week for O’Keefe who keeps rising to the challenge. In the morning, she needed four extra holes to see off Australia’s Kirra St-Laurent in the last-32. After a quick turnaround at lunchtime, her match with Crump was a battle in which neither player led by more than a hole. As O’Keefe later acknowledged, it was a remarkable effort by the young Hill Valley player who had come from behind in her morning round to beat Australian Jazy Roberts at the 19th. O’Keefe said, “I’m running on fumes. I feel like I played a pretty ridiculous amount of golf in the last three months, two to three months. So, I don't know, I feel like my body's kind of at this point where I'm in between exhaustion and feeling great all the time.
English teenager Lauren Crump ran Farah O’Keefe close at Muirfield in The Women’s Amateur Championship.
“But this is what Tour players do, they push themselves and so our game is super physical even if people don't believe it is. Walking four, five miles every day or twice in a day, sometimes it wears you out a little bit but there's nothing that some good sleep can't fix.
“Lauren’s going into her last year of high school. I think this is incredible experience and she's a really good player. She did an incredible job. She's so young. She's going to have so much time to learn and get better.”
Having won the ANNIKA Invitational Europe in Sweden by a record-breaking ten shots last week, a bright future lies in store for Crump, whose ambition for the week had been to reach the match play stages.
Crump added, “Although I didn't win, I'm really proud of how I finished. To take it to the 18th was pretty amazing. Just to see her (Farah) play is pretty amazing. When I won ANNIKA, I was pretty hyped coming into this event and obviously did quite well in the stroke play. My goal was to get through the stroke play so whatever happened in the match play just happened.”
An absorbing day at Muirfield also featured two remarkable comebacks. Matilda Bjorkman, who beat Scotland’s Sheridan Clancy 3&1 in the morning, found herself four down to American Eva Pett after six holes of their afternoon match. The Swede never had the lead until the 15th, when she seized control and closed out a 2&1 triumph.
Savannah De Bock from Belgium has used her knowledge of Muirfield to progress to the last-eight at The Women’s Amateur Championship.
Savannah De Bock was another who never gave up. After beating France’s Sara Brentcheneff by one hole in a hard-fought morning round, she was four down after six to Arianna Lau. As her opponent struggled on the greens, the Belgian birdied the 8th and ground out a series of pars that earned her a 2&1 victory.
De Bock said, “I think we were both surprised by the wind. I struggled quite a bit at the start, then I got a little better. It was definitely a tough match (against Arianna) and not in the way we like it. It was just very challenging for both of us.
“I was four down and I was like ‘now let's get back because that's not acceptable’. I was just like so mad. Unfortunately, that led to more bad shots. In the end I figured that it was time to put my mind towards playing golf and stop being mad, so that's what I did and it ended up being fine.”
Some of the day’s best golf was played by Valentine Delon who made it through with a 3&2 win over Sweden’s Meja Ortengren. Having beaten American Samantha Olson 2&1 in the morning, Delon continued her form into the afternoon, most notably with birdies at the 8th, 10th and 12th.
Behind the 18th green at Muirfield, Delon celebrated her win with compatriot and room-mate for the week, Camille Min Gaultier, who made it a French double with her victory by one hole over Canada’s Lauren Kim in the last-16.
“It was a tough day. This afternoon was really windy. I was just trying to make pars because I knew, in these windy conditions, par would be fine. I had a couple of birdies that were important at a good moment. This afternoon I holed a really good putt on the 10th and did a really good par on the 11th. On 16, I hit the best shot of the day, a 5-wood into the wind to 15 feet.
Valentine Delon is one of two players from France in the quarter-finals of The Women’s Amateur Championship.
“It's nice to see two French players in the quarter-finals. We share the same room this week. We played in some championships last year together and made it to the final. We want to see the French flag on the top.”
Three other English players came up short after brave efforts in the last-16. Sophia Fullbrook lost by two holes to Spain’s Andrea Revuelta, while Nellie Ong lost by one hole to another Spaniard, Cayetena Fernandez. Patience Rhodes was beaten 4&3 by American Morgan Ketchum.
The winner of this year’s Championship gains entry to the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, the US Women’s Open presented by Ally, The Amundi Evian Championship, the Chevron Championship and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Augusta National Women's Amateur.
Spectators are welcome at Muirfield for the Championship and can attend free of charge. The R&A will provide live stream coverage of tomorrow’s quarter-finals and semi-finals and Saturday’s Final (plus highlights) on R&ATV and The R&A's YouTube channel, with coverage also broadcast by Sky Sports.