Auburn graduate student Megan Schofill won the 123rd U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Bel-Air Country Club Sunday, defeating LSU graduate student Latanna Stone 4 and 3 in a 36-hole final that matched friends who have known each other since first meeting when they were in eighth grade.
“It’s definitely a dream come true, but I’d be lying if I wouldn’t say I’m still in shock,” Schofill said. “I feel like it still hasn’t set in yet. Latanna played a great match. It was really fun to be able to walk the fairways with her. And I felt like we both played really solid golf.
“I can’t put into words the emotions I’m feeling and it’s just such an honor to be able to say that I won this year.”
Schofill praised her boyfriend, C.J. Easley, a member of the Mississippi men’s golf team, who was her caddy.
“The whole day — I’m usually a pretty nervous person before I tee off, and I was really struggling last night and this morning, just super anxious and just really nervous and just obviously wanted the outcome to go my way,” Schofill said.
“I felt like C.J. really helped me stay calm. He’s like, regardless of the outcome nothing is going to change. No one will look at you differently. You’re still going to be the same person. Your friends and family still going to love you.
“I felt like that really helped me. He just kept telling me every hole, all right, 18 more, 18 more good holes, one shot at a time.
“When we got down to 10, 10 more great holes. Come on. You can do it. You can do it. I felt like him being on the bag, I really don’t think without him any of that would’ve happened this week.”
Schofill took the lead for good when Stone three-putted the par-4 15th hole for a bogey, starting a streak when she won three consecutive holes. Schofill sank a 55-foot birdie putt from the back of the green at the par-3 16th, then hit a 9-iron approach on the par-4 17th to within a foot for a conceded birdie and a 3-up advantage that she would take into the lunch break.
“I felt like that was huge going into the second 18,” said Schofill, who is 21st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Stone is ranked 34th. “I felt like the momentum was on my side because I won 15, 16, 17. A lot can happen in 18 holes, so I was able to just keep it together.”
Stone, a 21-year-old from Riverview in West Central Florida, had a birdie putt on the first hole following resumption of play to reduce Schofill’s lead to 2-up, but was unable to get closer.
Schofill, a 22-year-old from Monticello in Northern Florida, regained a 3-up lead when she parred the next hole, which Stone bogeyed. Stone birdied the par-4 24th hole, but Schofill birdied the next two holes to go 4-up.
The golfers halved each of the next five holes. Stone birdied the par-5 32nd hole which Schofill bogeyed. Stone’s putt for par on the par-4 lipped out and she conceded the hole, giving Schofill the match.
“I feel like we both played really good golf out there and I’m so happy for Megan, I really am,” Stone told Golf Channel. “I feel like we’re both kind of the underdogs and for us to get a chance to show how we can play really means a lot.
“Even though it didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it, I’m just so happy and grateful to be here and have this opportunity and experience to play golf.”
On Friday, Stone suffered what she described as “like muscle strain.” On Sunday, she moved gingerly through the entire match and was constantly playing from 25 to 30 yards behind Schofill.
“This course is no joke,” Stone told Golf Channel. “It’s very hilly and getting a muscle strain was not ideal. I was trying, you know? I was walking really slow, and I lost some power in my swing. Trying to get through the ball really hurt, but that was all I could have done.”
In addition to a gold medal and custody of the Robert Cox Trophy for one year, Schofill also receives an exemption from qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open and an invitation to the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The victory will also likely give her exemptions into three of women’s golf’s major tournaments — the Chevron Championship, AIG Women’s Open and Amundi Evian Championship.
At age 22, Schofill is the oldest champion of the U.S. Women’s Amateur since Marcy Newton who was 22 when she won in 2000.
Schofill finished in a three-way tie fifth in stroke play at 4-under 136, five shots behind the record 131 by Briana Chacon, a Whittier resident who is an Oregon graduate student and graduate of La Serna High School in Whittier. Chacon lost in the round of 32 to Western Kentucky junior Catie Craig 4 and 2.
Schofill defeated Jackie Rogowicz, a 2019 Penn State graduate who works as an investment analyst, 7 and 6, in the round of 64, Stanford sophomore Kelly Xu, a Claremont High School alum, 3 and 2 in the round of 32, 20-year-old Australian Caitlin Peirce in the round of 16 in a match that went 19 holes, 17-year-old Anna Davis from the San Diego suburb of Spring Valley, 2 and 1, in the quarterfinals and Stanford senior Rachel Heck, 3 and 2, in a semifinal Saturday.
“She truly played better golf than anyone else in the field this week,” Auburn coach Melissa Luellen said. “She swung the club so beautifully and when she lost a hole she fought right back.”