Opening Golf to the World
Girls' Amateur
Keay relishing Girls' Amateur run having started week as reserve
12 Aug 26
6 mins
Melissa Keay wasn’t sure she was going to be teeing it up in the R&A Girls’ Amateur at Craigielaw just a few days ago. Now she’s taking full advantage of playing in the biggest championship of her young life.
The Ralston golfer is through to the second round of match play, the round of 16, after defeating England’s Arianna Virik 4&3 to set up a tie with Switzerland’s Lana Guyot. Keay is one of two Scots to progress along with Loudoun’s Hannah Ounap. Keay was initially on the reserve list but she proudly took her place in the 144-player field comprising some of the world’s best under-18s from 32 countries around the world. “I cut it fine yesterday to get into the knockout rounds,” Keay said. “I birdied the 18th hole which got me to seven-over-par and just inside the cut. So that final birdie proved crucial to me playing today.” Keay was never behind in her match against Virik. “I played actually quite solid today except for a couple of dodgy shots,” Keay added. “I lost a ball (on the 12th) which wasn’t ideal; but I was four-up so it wasn’t a complete disaster. I managed to pull it back to halve the next then won the 14th to go back to four-up. I halved the 15th with a par to get through to the next round.”
Keay will face Lana Guyot in the next round.
Pars are good around the tricky par-71, 6,090-yard Craigielaw course, and Keay made quite a few to defeat the English player.
She said, “It always helps in match play if you can win holes with pars and I won I won five holes with pars today. I made a few birdies too but all I wanted to do was make pars because this is a tough golf course.
“I’m just happy to be through to the next round because I wasn’t even sure I was going to play in this. I was on the reserve list and I didn’t find out I was in the field until last Thursday. I was a wee bit shocked to get in but my goal was just to make sure I made the match play rounds.
“Hopefully I can play more solid golf and get another good result because it’s my first time playing in this championship. It’s obviously a big event, the biggest I’ve ever played in individually, and it’s good to get your name in there among such great players from around the world.
“I enjoy match play because I know one bad hole or a lost ball doesn’t matter the same as it does in stroke play. But I’ve been playing well recently and I’m a lot more aggressive in match play. So you never know what can happen.”
The 17-year-old has another year at home before she jets off to hone her skills on the US college golf circuit.
She added, “I’ve verbally committed to Texas Tech for next September, where Connor Graham is studying. In the meantime, I’m going to try to play as much golf as possible because I want to make the most of my time at Texas Tech. I went out for a visit in November and I was blown away by the facilities and the whole set up. Hopefully I’ll be a much better golfer by then.”
Meanwhile, Ounap nearly withdrew from her first-round match after waking up feeling poorly, but the Loudoun Gowf member soldiered on to defeat Portuguese player Nicole Sardinha 5&4. She now faces a second-round match against Spain’s Aroa Gonzalez Hernandez.
Hannah Ounap also secured her place in the next round of match play.
Thirteen-year-old Stella Walters of Blairgowrie looked like she might be one of three home players through to the second round when she won the first two holes against Iiris Matas. However, the Estonian fought back to win 5&3.
Germany’s Lena Geier, the number one seed, couldn’t emulate the form that saw her top 36-hole qualifying. She lost to Norwegian Marie Sandtorv Lussand by one hole.
Sabrina Wong’s dream of adding this title to The R&A Girls' U16 Amateur she won last year is still alive after a 4&3 victory against France’s Elena Leblond. “I was never down in the match after birdieing the second hole, and I played quite well,” she said.
Only Scotland’s Hannah Darling has won the Girls’ Amateur and the Girls' U16.
She added, “I obviously want to win but there’s a lot of really good, talented players so I’m just going to take it one match at a time and hopefully I can do well.”
Wong, the highest-ranked player in the field, now plays Spain’s Marta Munoz.
Full results from the first round of match play are available here.