At U.S. Women’s Am, 2 massive comebacks had different endings

There was a point during Saturday’s semifinal proceedings at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Ore., when the final appeared written in stone.

Walking off the 11th green, Megha Ganne, the No. 11 seed, was four down to Australian Ella Scaysbrook. A short while later, Lyla Louderbaugh went three down with three to play against Brooke Biermann, the 22-year-old Michigan State graduate.

It appeared it was going to be Biermann vs. Scaysbrook for the Robert Cox Trophy.

Then, a historic hour broke out along the Oregon coast.

We’ll start with Louderbaugh. The Kansas rising junior won the 16th hole when Biermann made a sloppy bogey. Then, Louderbaugh poured in birdies on 17 and 18 to send the match to extra holes.

” I mean, what a putt to keep it rolling. Being from Missouri, I know her, and so it was a fun match. I mean, that putt on 18 was great. She had to make it and she did,” Biermann said of Louderbaugh’s roll on 18 to extend the match.

Even with her lead gone, Biermann didn’t despair. She kept her head up in the blustery conditions and marched to the 10th tee with a smile on her face.

“If I’m not happy, I don’t know why I would be doing this,” Biermann said. “I mean, all I’m thinking, like walking up 18 is two little cute deer babies and I think their mom — I was more focused on that, probably my fault. But very cute and to me I was like what is special place. Whatever happens, happens. I’m here, I’m with my family. Like feel like I already won in a sense with like what a great week I’ve had.

“So like it’s all perspective.”

Both players’ tee balls found the fairway at the tenth, and Biermann hit her approach to 15 feet. Louderbaugh’s sailed long over the green, and her third had little chance of staying on the putting surface with the green sloping back-to-front and the wind howling. Biermann two-putted for par to survive Louderbaugh’s onslaught and punch her ticket to the final.

That leads us back to Ganne vs. Scaysbrook.

Scaysbrook held a four-up advantage with seven to play, but that’s when Ganne started to fight back.

“I don’t say exactly what I was thinking, but you can imagine,” Ganne said. “I think I was a little bit flustered in that moment because I felt like I was gaining some momentum after I went back to 3 down on 10. I reminded myself that I have literally won so many matches from two down, three down, four down. Matches start on the back nine — no matter what the score is — turning onto the back nine.

“Reminded myself of that and how many times I’ve done it. Today is no different.”

Scaysbrook made a mess of the par-3 12th, giving Ganne an easy win. The Australian then missed a four-footer to tie the 13th, and the lead was down to two.

Ganne, the 21-year-old rising senior at Stanford, birdied the par-3 15th to cut Scaysbrook’s lead to one. When the Australian hit her tee shot into the penalty area on 17, the door was open for Ganne to claw all the way back, which she did with a five-footer for par.

Both players made bogey on the par-5 18th to send the match to extra holes and make the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur the third edition in the 125-year history to have both semifinal matches go beyond 18.

On their 19th hole, Ganne stuck her approach inside 10 feet for birdie while Scaysbrook flew her second shot over the green. After failing to get her ball on the putting surface with her next two shots, Scaysbrook conceded to give Ganne the win.

Ganne’s monumental comeback was born of a methodical approach. There was no avalanche that swept Scaysbrook away, just the methodical chipping away that has now put Ganne 36 holes away from the Robert Cox Trophy.

“I think something that I’ve been trying to work on is not to like really buy into the whole momentum thing,” Ganne said. “Momentum is something you create in your head. Obviously, if you can ride the high of it, it’s good. But if you rely on it, you will not play well in the times you don’t feel as though you have momentum. I didn’t feel like I had any pretty much the whole day, if I’m being honest. I think like not relying on that feeling and just knowing that — like you don’t tell yourself a story. All you need to do is just go hit good shots, and something will happen for you if it’s meant to be; today was meant to be.”

On Sunday at windy Bandon Dunes, Ganne and Biermann, who once faced off in the Drive, Chip and Putt at Augusta National, will go head-to-head for the greatest prize in women’s amateur golf.

After Saturday’s fireworks, the two amateurs will have to dig deep to deliver the encore fitting this 125-year-old championship — a championship that brings out the best in Ganne, who made the semifinals in 2019 as a 15-year-old before losing to Albane Valenzuela. After authoring a massive comeback Saturday, Ganne has one more rewrite planned for her U.S. Women’s Am story.

“If you told yourself at 15 this is where you would be, you would be pretty proud of yourself,” Ganne said, when asked if she flashed back to 2019 when she was down four to Scaysbrook. “I was like, you’re exactly the type of person that could make this happen right now. Let’s just go do it.”