Right off the bat, Valencia High student Alison Lee ran into a difficult matchup early at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
For most of the round, she held off the seventh-ranked junior player in the country, but Andrea Lee birdied the final hole of the day for a 1-up victory on Wednesday at The Country Club in Cleveland.
Alison, 17, made it through the first two rounds of the tournament at 5-under, putting her tied for third in the stroke-play portion of the tournament.
After that, she was matched up with Andrea Lee, a 13-year-old from Hermosa Beach in the first round of a 64-player match-play tournament.
Two holes into Wednesday’s round, Alison was 1-up after she eagled No. 2, but Andrea quickly snatched the lead away with back-to-back birdies on 3 and 4.
From there, Andrea nursed a one or two-hole lead until Alison managed to chip away and get back to all square after 17 holes.
Andrea carded a birdie on the 385-yard par-4, and Alison couldn’t follow.
Last month, Alison, a soon-to-be Valencia senior, made the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open and finished tied for 60th before taking second in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, another prestigious junior United States Golf Association event.
After that, she climbed to No. 3 in the American Junior Golf Association rankings.
Also competing in the tournament was Hart High graduate and Purdue University freshman Kendall Dusenberry, who missed the cut on Tuesday after finishing with a two-day score of 17-over and tied for 135th place.
661-287-5535