Hannah O’Sullivan of Paradise Valley, Ariz., captured the 54th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship with a 3-and-2 victory over Sierra Brooks of Sorrento, Fla., in a battle of 17-year-olds at Portland Golf Club in Portland, Ore.
O’Sullivan, a senior at Hamilton High in Chandler, Ariz., who has committed to USC, fell 3 down after 15 holes in the morning but rallied by winning the 16th and 18th before taking the lead by winning four of the first eight holes in the afternoon.
The match was all square through 29 holes before O’Sullivan won three of the next four and wrapped things up with a halve at No. 34.
“I can’t really describe how good it feels,” said O’Sullivan, who became the youngest winner on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s triple-A circuit, when she captured the Gateway Classic while still 16 in February.
“It was just such a tough match today, and to be able to come out on top, it’s just incredible. I just feel so blessed.”
In the semifinals, O’Sullivan outlasted Mathilda Cappeliez of France, 1 up, thanks to a birdie on the 17th hole, while Brooks defeated Bethany Wu of Diamond Bar and UCLA, 4 and 2.
Brooks, who will attend Wake Forest in the fall of 2016, won only three holes after holding her 3-up lead in the morning.
“When we came back out (from lunch), she definitely played 100 percent and she definitely brought it on,” said Brooks, who won the Women’s South Atlantic Amateur and Women’s Southern Amateur earlier this year.
“I struggled a little bit, but I still played well, and she just played better, and she made more putts, and in match play that’s what it always comes down to.”
Brooks and O’Sullivan received exemptions into the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open Championship, which will be played July 7-10 at CordeValle in San Martin, about a 30- minutes from where O’Sullivan grew up in Cupertino.
O’Sullivan also received a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur and one-year exemptions into the Ricoh Women’s British Open Championship, the ANA Inspiration, and Evian Championship.
Brooks received a three-year Women’s Amateur exemption.
