JESSICA ROSS OUT OF US WOMEN’S MID-AMATEUR

Clandeboye’s Jessica Ross suffered an agonising exit from the US Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, losing her round-of-32 match to Katherine Zhu of San Jose on the 19th hole.

Ross seized an early advantage, racing to 3up by the fifth. However, a difficult stretch of bogey, double-bogey and bogey through the 7th, 8th and 9th holes wiped out her lead, leaving the match tied at the turn.

On a rainy day in New Jersey – where inclement weather eventually forced play to be suspended later in the evening – Zhu double bogeyed the 10th to hand the advantage back to Ross. The contest drew level once more when Ross bogeyed the par 3 12th.   

Ross reclaimed the lead with a par on the 14th and held it all the way to the 18th hole, when a cruel late bogey-five by Ross on the final hole sent the match back down the 1st. 

Zhu, who was a semifinalist in last year’s Mid-Amateur, capitalised on the extra hole. She birdied the 582-yard, par-5 1st to claim a dramatic 1-up victory after Ross could only make a par.

Later in the afternoon, Zhu lost in the round of 16 to two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Champion Julia Potter-Bobb. Zhu was 3-up with four holes to play, but Potter-Bobb—playing while four months pregnant—won four straight holes to steal the match 1-up on the 18th.

Photo: Jessica Ross congratulates Katherine Zhu for winning their match on the 19th hole. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)