Eun Jeong Seong added to her already impressive summer with a victory at the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Seong, 16, drained a 40-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to secure a 1-up victory in her final match against Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta. The victory comes only two weeks after Seong successfully defended her title at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. She becomes the first player in USGA history to win both the Girls’ Junior and the Women’s Amateur in the same year.
Seong joins Pearl Sinn (1988) and Jennifer Song (2009) as the only women to win multiple USGA titles in the same year, each player having won both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in their respective seasons.
Carta won the NCAA individual title earlier this year while at Duke, and she was looking to match the pair of victories Bryson DeChambeau compiled on the men’s side last summer.
Carta held a 2-up lead through 14 holes before Seong rallied to square the match at the halfway point. Seong led for nearly the entire second half of the match, although Carta extended the proceedings with a lengthy birdie on the 35th hole. Her rally fell just short, though, as Seong made one last putt for victory.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur is open to female amateur golfers with a USGA handicap index not exceeding 5.4.
