U.S. uses odd tiebreaker to win Women’s World Amateur team title

The United States hadn’t hoisted the Espirito Santo Trophy at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship since 2018, and they had to rely on an odd tiebreaker to snap that streak on Saturday in Singapore.

When the dust settled on Sunday at Tanah Merah Country Club, the United States, Spain and the Republic of Korea were all tied atop the leaderboard at 18 under. Despite the tie, there is no sudden-death playoff or special match-play tiebreaker. Instead, at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championships, it’s the thing that doesn’t normally count that proves to be the difference.

When the 72-hole scores are even, the tiebreaker is the lowest non-counting score.

In this case, that card belonged to Stanford star Megha Ganne, who shot an even-par 72 in the third round. It was a tiebreaker that Team USA was prepared to lean on, if needed, when the week began.

“We are beyond happy. We don’t get to do this often, to play for country, so we were just excited to be here,” Ganne, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in August, said. “We were so impressed at the level of golf from Korea and Spain. It’s a heartbreaking tiebreaker for them, but we knew that the third score yesterday and today could matter.”

“We talked about it as a team that potentially it could come down to the third score,” Farah O’Keefe, a Texas junior, said. “And so I think we were all prepared throughout the week that everybody counted and when the final putt dropped, it just so happened, then a third score counted. And so the fact that we were prepared was huge.”

The first tiebreaker is the lowest non-counting score for the final round, but when Catherine Park, a senior at USC, made a birdie on the 18th hole to match Carolina Lopez-Chacarra with a 71, the tiebreaker moved to the lowest non-counting score from the third round, which went to Ganne.

“With my rules official background, I was very conscious of the tie-breaking element,” U.S. captain Kendra Graham, who worked in Rules and Competitions for the USGA, said. “The first phone call I had with each of them, I told them every single player was in it every single day … if it ever comes to a tiebreaker, we are going to that score.”

The Americans trailed Korea by three shots entering the final round but knew the deficit could be erased quickly.

“We all knew that three shots was nothing,” Ganne said. “That’s just that’s one hole if we all birdie it, so, we just tried to play absolutely the best golf we could, every single one of us.”

They did just that.

Ganne led the team with a bogey-free Sunday 68, while O’Keefe and Park both shot 71 to tie the match, with Park’s closing eight-foot birdie tying it up and handing the U.S. the trophy via tiebreaker.

“I’m just so happy,” Park said. “It’s the pressure of making that eight-footer and then knowing that we won was unbelievable. It has been a dream being here with them, winning this trophy.”

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