Jensen Castle barely made it into the Match Play field at the US Women’s Amateur. She was the 63rd seed in a 64 player bracket.

The University of Kentucky golfer has not played like a golfer who just got into the draw, she is playing like the player to beat as the championship reaches the semi-final round.

Castle, from West Columbia, finished her semi-final match almost as quickly as possible. She beat Emily Mahar 6 & 5 to advance to the final-four.

Castle birdied the first hole to take the lead and after Mahar evened the match on the second hole Castle put the hammer down.

She made the turn at 5 up and closed out the match on the 13th hole with a win and a 6 & 5 decision over the Virginia Tech golfer.

“I didn’t realize I won,” said Castle. “I thought we were going to the next hole after [No. 13]. That’s how out of it I was. She was ready to hug me. I’m like, right now?” she said.

The two-time South Carolina High School champion now will face the world’s second ranked women’s amateur and reigning NCAA Champion, Rachel Heck from Stanford.

Heck broke open a close quarterfinal match with Kan Bunnabodee from Thailand by winning the 15th and 16th holes to advance to the semi-finals with a 3 & 2 victory.

The other semi-final match on Saturday will be Valentina Rossi from Argentina facing Yu-Chiang Hou from the University of Arizona and Chinese Taipei.

Getting a little ahead of the matches, if Castle should win the championship she would become only the third golfer from the 63rd seed to win a USGA title.

Clay Ogden (2005 U.S. Amateur Public Links) and Steven Fox (2012 U.S. Amateur) are the two previous No. 63 seeds to claim titles.

No golfer from the 64th seed has ever won a USGA Championship.

Coverage of the semi final round is scheduled for The Golf Channel starting at 2:pm on Saturday.

Scores from the Quarter-Final round https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2021/u-s–women-s-amateur.html#!scoring

Rain interrupts second round of the SCGA Amateur

Some golfers finished while others have over half their second round to be played at the South Carolina Golf Association’s State Amateur at The DeBordieu Club in Georgetown.

Bad weather delayed the second round over 4 hours leaving 62 of the final 121 golfers left in the tournament, left on the course when play was suspended because of darkness.

First round leader Oliver Rotermund from Daniel Island was an early starter on Friday and was able to complete his round.

The Bishop England High School golfer shot a 2-under par 70 to go with his opening round 6-under par 66 to hold the lead at 8-under par.

Charleston’s Zac Adams is within 2-shots of Rotermund. Adams has completed 10 holes and will finish his round at 7:am on Saturday.

Greenville’s Harry Reynolds shot a 3-under par 69 to share fourth place with Mitchel Vance from Hartsville and Henry Augenstein from Columbia, but both those golfers have not completed their second rounds.

The best completed second round belongs to Jaime Stanley from Darlington. Stanley carded a 4-under par 68 to move up into a temporary tie for seventh place.

After everyone completes their second round the cut will be made to the low 70 scores and ties with the third round expected to begin around 11:30 am Saturday afternoon.

Partial scores from the second round of the SCGA Amateur https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/2793324