Macy Pate completed a fantastic comeback to win her opening-round match play battle with Colombian Ana Sofia Murcia in 22 holes — the final four were played Friday morning when darkness suspended play Thursday at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee.
Pate lost to Australian Rachel Lee 5 and 3 in the Round of 32. Pate rallied from an early 2-hole deficit to tie the match through six holes, but Lee won five of eight holes to close out the match.
What began as a good day for four Triad golfers ended in disappointment for all but one Thursday.
Though three Triad golfers and another who plays collegiate golf in the region advanced to the 64-player match-play bracket, only Macy Pate was still alive in the competition at the end of the day. And Pate had work to do Friday morning to get out of the opening round.
The Winston-Salem resident and Wake Forest golfer won the final two holes of her match against Murcia.
After losing three of the first four holes to Murcia, Pate won Nos. 5, 11 and 12 to tie the match. Murcia roared back to win Nos. 14 and 15 with birdies before Pate forced the playoff with a birdie at 17 and a par at 18.
Before play was suspended, Pate’s teammate Morgan Ketchum, also of Winston-Salem, as well as Emily Mathews of Mebane, who plays for Virginia Tech, and High Point University golfer Makayla Grubb of Stafford, Virginia, lost their first-round matches.
Canadian Michelle Xing knocked off Mathews 3 and 2, Ketchum lost to Korean Soomin Oh 1-up and Grubb was eliminated 4 and 3 by 17-year-old Californian Asterisk Talley, who was runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Girls’ Junior in 2024.
Ketchum, who pulled with one with a birdie at 17, failed to birdie 18, allowing Xing to win with par. Grubb won No. 3 with a par to take the lead, but didn’t win another hole. Xing birdied the 16th hole to close out Mathews.
