Acharya Overtakes Ledwein in Women's Match Play; Kellar Escapes Lillie

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CHASKA -- The sixth hole at Dahlgreen Golf Club played a large role in both matches during the semifinals of the MGA Women's Amateur Match Play Championship. 

Taylor Ledwein, the defending champion, was in good shape when she arrived at the 181-yard par 3, which was the 15th hole in matches on Tuesday, because they started at the 10th tee. The 21-year-old former two-time Minnesota state Class AAA (the large-school class) high school champion from New Prague, was 1 up on former two-time Montana Class B high school champ Jasi Acharya, 35. Ledwein then had two chances to increase her lead. But she missed a 4-foot putt for par, and Acharya made a 3-footer for her bogey.

Having dodged that bullet -- and still only 1 down, instead of 2 -- Acharya proceeded to win the par-5 seventh hole (508 yards) and the par-4 eighth (341 yards), and she got up and down for par at the par-4 ninth (360) to win the match 1 up. 

The victory puts Acharya -- a former professional who played for several years on the LPGA's feeder tour, the Symetra -- into the final Wednesday morning against Grace Kellar. 

Kellar, 20, who was the No 1 player for the University of Minnesota during the 2018-19 season, defeated teammate Kate Lillie 2&1 in the other semifinal. 

She could have made it easier on herself, but after making the turn 1 up, she missed a series of relatively short birdie putts. She and Lillie both hit good tee shots at the sixth but had relatively long birdie putts. Kellar was on the fringe, and slightly closer than Lillie, who was on the green. Lillie went first, missed her birdie putt and left herself a 4-footer for par. Kellar then blew her birdie putt 8 feet past the hole. It looked as though Lillie was about to tie the match, but Kellar made her come-backer for par -- and Lillie missed, thus falling 2 down.

That was the only time either player varied from par on the front nine. They matched pars on the 508-yard, par-5 seventh and the 341-yard, par-4 eighth, and the match was over.

Kellar was even par for the day. She was an equal-opportunity scorer on her first nine, making three pars, three birdies and three bogeys, before making eight pars in a row on the front nine. 

Her first bogey came on her first hole, No. 10, a 362-yard par 4. She bounced back two holes later, with a birdie at the par-3 12th (140 yards), but she followed that with a bogey at the 13th (396, par 4). She drew even with her second birdie, at No. 16 (380, par 4), and the long-hitting Gopher junior-to-be took the lead -- for good, as it turned out -- by making a birdie at the 460-yard, par-5 17th hole. Kellar bogeyed the 18th hole (362 yards), but so did Acharya.

Lillie, who was 3 over for the 17 holes she played Tuesday, had her chances to make birdies on the front nine, but she couldn't find the hole with her putter, either. Kellar's misses were from closer range -- 15 feet at the 346-yard, par-4 first hole, 10 feet at the 152-yard, par-3 second, and 5 feet at the 448-yard, par-5 third -- but when she really needed to make one, at No. 6, she knocked it in. 

Acharya, who got her amateur status back last summr -- and promptly shot a course-record 63 on her way to a victory in a tournament at Whitefish Lake Golf Club in Montana -- got started Tuesday with a birdie at her first hole, No. 10. Ledwein, who will be a junior at Nebraska this fall, responded with a birdie at the par-3 12th, and she went 2 up with pars at the 13th and par-3 14th (160 yards). Acharya cut that in half with a birdie at the 375-yard, par-4 15th.

She slipped 2 down again when she bogeyed the par-5 17th, but she parred the 18th, thereby reducing her deficit to 1 down once again.   

Acharya levelled  things with a birdie at the par-5 third (448 yards), then gave the hole she had just gained back again by making a bogey at the fourth (302, par 4). 

After she and Ledwein tied the sixth, Acharya won seventh with a par. Ledwein made a double bogey there, after her wedge shot caught a tree, and the ball dropped into a water hazard. Par was also good enough to win the eighth. 


2019 MGA Women's Amateur Match Play Championship

At Dahlgreen Golf Club

Par 72, 6,163 yards

Chaska

Semifinals

Jasi Acharya def. Taylor Ledwein 1 up

Grace Kellar def. Kate Lillie 2&1