Macy Pate continued her march through the North and South Amateur Championship bracket with two hard-fought victories at Pinehurst No. 2, earning her a berth in Saturday morning’s semifinals.
The Winston-Salem resident and rising sophomore at Wake Forest took the lead with a par on the 17th hole and made another par at 18 to halve the hole and claim a 1-up quarterfinal triumph over Mackenzie Lee of Dallas, who plays at Southern Methodist. Both players shot 71 in the duel.
Next, Pate, who was the medalist in qualifying for match play, will take on Californian Kylee Choi of Pepperdine. If Pate wins, she’ll play Lynn Lim of Vanderbilt University or Catie Craig of Western Kentucky University for the championship in the afternoon.
In a first-round match, Kayla Smith of Burlington and the University of North Carolina lost a 4 and 3 matchup with Brooke Biermann of Wildwood, Missouri, a Michigan State player. Smith’s UNC teammate Morgan Streicher lost to Craig 2 and 1 in the second round.
In the men’s competition, Jack Turner of the University of Florida was the first player to gain a berth in the semifinals. Hometown favorite Jackson Van Paris and Sunnehanna Amateur winner Ben Warian were in other quarterfinals still underway Friday afternoon.
