BANDON, Ore. – For the first three days at Bandon Dunes, benign conditions had seemingly reduced the coastal David McLay Kidd design to a pitch and putt.
But on Thursday, the winds returned in a flurry – sustained in the high teens with up to 30 mph gusts – and the flushers took advantage.
Or, as the kids say, balled out.
That included World No. 1 Kiara Romero, the uber-athletic Oregon junior, who didn’t even reach Bandon’s iconic par-4 16th hole in either of her matches on this marathon day. Her 4-and-3 victory over Duke’s Andie Smith in the Round of 16 moved Romero through to her first U.S. Women’s Amateur quarterfinals.
“My game was kind of rolling all day,” said Romero, who shot 4 under with just two bogeys in 28 holes.
Oregon head coach Derek Radley, on Romero’s bag this week, would agree.
“Dude, this wind, it really doesn’t matter when you hit it as pure as she does,” Radley said. “Her ball flight just holds so tight. It’s just so different.”
Romero shut things down after an exhausting stretch of golf that included the final group at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (she slipped to T-7), an impressive postseason that included wins at conference and regionals, and then a record-setting week at the U.S. Women’s Open (she fired 67 in the final round at Erin Hills). She traveled to Lake Tahoe with her family this summer before inviting good pal Anna Davis to Eugene last week for some practice. Romero’s trek down to Bandon last Friday was the first time she’d ever set foot on property, which is located less than three hours from campus.
Even with the driver taken out of her hands at times, Romero has quickly taken to the resort layout.
So, too, has her quarterfinal opponent, Lyla Louderbaugh, a rising junior at Kansas, who has some athlete in her as tall, former basketball player.
Louderbaugh is ranked No. 249 in the world, well behind Romero, whom she played with in stroke play at the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior (Romero won that week), but higher than she was before last spring, when she enjoyed a breakout final round at Arizona State’s event. Since that closing 66 at Papago, her first bogey-free round in college, Louderbaugh has won an NCAA regional, finished third in the Missouri Women’s Amateur and won the Kansas Women’s Amateur.
“She’s just been in this zone ever since ASU and has this sense of confidence about her,” Kansas head coach Lindsay Kuhle said. “I don’t think she’s paying much attention to who she’s going up against tomorrow. She’s focused on her own game.”
Added Louderbaugh, who beat both 2027 standout Asia Young and Cal State Amateur champion Katelyn Kong on Thursday: “I’ve really been able to control my game in a way that I’m really liking when I’m on the golf course.”
Romero and Louderbaugh tee off at 1:50 p.m. Pacific, with the winner getting the victor of incoming Northwestern freshman Arianna Lau and Michigan State grad Brooke Biermann. All Lau has done is taken down medalist and defending champ Rianne Malixi and Wake grads Emilia Doran and Carolina Chacarra. Biermann played 41 holes on Thursday as both her matches went to extras.
On the other side of the bracket is a player with equal firepower to Romero. South Carolina sophomore Eila Galitsky might be the longest women’s amateur in the world as she can top 105 mph swing and over 270 yards of carry. Ranked sixth in the world, Galitsky won her second career college event this past spring in a playoff over Lottie Woad, whom she also beat in singles at the Patsy Hankins Trophy this year.
Galitsky, who lost her first two holes to Texas A&M freshman Natalie Yen on Thursday afternoon, joked that she loves Bandon because of its “90-yard-wide fairways.” She’s OK with the wind, too; like Romero, it takes a lot to affect her ball.
“I think it would be super boring if everybody just, you know, fairway, green, made the putt for birdie,” Galitsky said. “This one is like, OK, you hit the fairway. You are got to flight down your second shot. It’s 100 yards. You’re playing in almost like 140 yards.
“It’s a lot more thinking, and it’s a lot more fun.”
Speaking of fun, it might not get more entertaining than Galitsky versus Stanford senior Megha Ganne on Friday. Ganne, a two-time first-team All-American, arguably had the toughest batch of opponents on Thursday in Auburn’s Anna Davis and Ohio State’s Kary Hollenbaugh. This is Ganne’s first quarterfinal appearance since she advanced to the semifinals at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
“I think one thing I remember from being in the semifinals is like as soon as you knock down this first round of 64, feels like I can just do that again and again and again,” Ganne said. “That’s a feeling that I had when I was on a run there, I was so trying to recreate that and remember that feeling I had.”
Count Ganne among those hoping for the wind to come. She’ll be especially pleased with Friday’ forecast, which might see even tougher conditions.
“I thrive a little bit more in those conditions compared to normal conditions,” Ganne said. “So hopefully keeps up for me.”
