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What Happened

Pano, who will represent the USA in next month’s Junior Solheim Cup in Scotland, and Jin never had to sweat out the cut, even if they were literally sweating on the golf course. Temperatures climbed into the low 90s with a heat index near triple digits.

Incoming Auburn University freshman Megan Schofill, 18, of Monticello, Fla., and Louisville University senior Lauren Hartlage, 21, of Elizabethtown, Ky., each finished one stroke back at 139.

Hartlage, who posted a 71 on Tuesday, had a chance to earn medalist honors outright with a birdie or tie Pano and Jin on No. 18, but a wayward drive led to her only bogey of the day. She began the round with 14 consecutive pars before collecting birdies on Nos. 15 and 17.

“I definitely wanted to make par on the last hole,” said Hartlage, who lost in the Round of 64 last year. “It’s always not a good feeling getting a bogey. But I feel good about my game, so I’m excited about the next few days.”

Schofill, who reached the Round of 32 in last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of Tennessee outside of Nashville, is coming off a disappointing showing at SentryWorld two weeks ago in the U.S. Girls’ Junior, where she failed to qualify for match play after being in a 13-for-2 playoff. During the break between competitions, Schofill realized it was more mental than physical.

“Just playing a little bit smarter on the golf course,” said Schofill after a 2-under 70. “I putted really well here this week, and I just really wanted to make the cut because U.S. Girls’ is the first [match-play] cut I’ve ever missed [in three USGA events].

“If you hit it well off the tee, you set yourself up well for a lot of birdie opportunities, and luckily I’ve been hitting it pretty straight with my driver, so I’ve been able to score a good bit this week.”

Finishing two strokes back at 4-under 140 were University of Southern California junior Gabriela Ruffels, 19, of Australia; Vanderbilt junior Morgan Baxendale, 20, of Windermere, Fla.; and 2018 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup competitor Annabell Fuller, 16, of England.

What's Next

The Round of 64 is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. CDT, with FS1 broadcast live from 3-6 p.m. CT.

Notable

• The stroke average improved by 1.3 strokes in Tuesday’s second round, from 75.72 to 74.32.
  
  
• Reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champion Lei Ye, of the People’s Republic of China, advanced to match play, but runner-up Jillian Bourdage, of Tamarac, Fla., missed by two strokes.
  
  
• Bethany Wu, of Diamond Bar, Calif., a member of the 2016 USA Curtis Cup Team, eagled the 361-yard, par-4 14th hole. The 2019 UCLA graduate saw her 94-yard approach with a 54-degree wedge go into the hole on the fly for a 2, one of two eagles on the hole this week. She qualified for match play at 2-under 142. Wu’s eagle was one of five recorded during stroke play.
  
  
• The youngest and oldest competitors in the field – Gianna Clemente, 11, of Warren, Ohio, and Sally Krueger, 61, of San Francisco, Calif. – failed to advance. This was Clemente’s first USGA championship and Krueger’s 30th, including this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, where she earned low-amateur honors to garner a spot in this week’s championship.
  
  
• Gina Kim, of Chapel Hill, N.C., made the biggest move in Round 2. The low amateur in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open improved 11 strokes from Monday’s 77 to a 6-under 66, matching the lowest round of the week.
  
  
• Two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Julia Potter-Bobb, 31, of Indianapolis, Ind., was the lone mid-amateur (25 and older) of the seven in the field to make match play.
  
  
• The lone Mississippi player in the field, Conner Beth Ball, of Starkville, failed to advance, but incoming Mississippi State freshman Ashley Gilliam, of Manchester, Tenn., qualified with a 36-hole total of even-par 144.
  
  
• Gabriela Ruffels, of Australia, shot 4-under 140 in stroke play. She is the daughter of Wimbledon and US Open mixed doubles runner-up Ray Ruffels, who partnered with hall-of-famer Billie Jean King in both events. He also won the 1977 Australian Open doubles title with Allan Stone. Her mother, Anna-Maria Fernandez, captured the 1981 AIAW singles title at the University of Southern California and helped the Trojans to a pair of AIAW national titles in 1979 and 1980. She won five WTA titles as a pro. Gabriela is a rising junior at USC. Her older brother, Ryan, competes on various professional golf tours.
  
  
• Some notable USGA champions/past Curtis Cup players also missed the cut, including U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champions Lauren Greenlief (2015), Kelsey Chugg (2017) and Shannon Johnson (2018), along with U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball co-champions Ellen Secor, Mika Liu and Hailee Cooper. Also failing to advance was two-time USA Curtis Cup competitor Mariel Galdiano and 2018 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup competitor India Clyburn.

Quotable

“I love match play. I just won the North & South [Women’s Amateur] a couple weeks ago [at Pinehurst], and I really enjoy match play, especially coming from a tennis background, kind of that one-on-one. So we’ll see how it goes.” – Gabriela Ruffels on switching formats from stroke play to match play

“You’ve just got to hit your spots. I don’t think it’s too long. I was talking to my coach [at USC, Justin Silverstein], I think you’ve just got to stay patient, pick your holes that you want to be aggressive on but then kind of lay off on the harder holes. Yeah, I feel like I did a pretty good job of that.” – Ruffels

“I really like this golf course. It definitely suits my game. It reminds me a lot of my home course.” – Megan Schofill

“There’s always improvements to be made. I could work on some 50-yard shots, and I think I’m going to go do that. Like I said, it’s all consistency on this golf course and focusing on every shot, so if I can keep what I'm doing and make a few improvements, I hopefully can have a good week.” – Alexa Pano on preparing for match play

“Yeah, I feel like a young 20-year old right now, a little bit of a throwback.” – Two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Julia Potter-Bobb on qualifying for match play for the first time since she was a 20-year-old junior at the University of Missouri

“I’ve played a couple match-play tournaments already this summer, and I’ve played in this event and made match play the last two years, so I’m definitely used to playing match play. It’s a lot of fun because you can do a lot of things differently than stroke play. I’ve been playing pretty aggressively for me these last two days, so I’ll probably stick to that. We’ll probably talk it over tonight and see what the game plan is, but probably not much different.” – Lauren Hartlage on her mindset for match play

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.

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