World No 3 Farah O'Keefe closes in on Anna Nordqvist feat in Women's Amateur
American comes through two tight matches at Muirfield to progress to last eight
Farah O’Keefe, the world No 3, is edging closer to emulating current Solheim Cup captain Anna Nordqvist by going from bridesmaid to bride in the space of 12 months in The R&A Women’s Amateur Championship.
O’Keefe won two tight games at Muirfield on Thursday - beating Australian Kirra St-Laurent at the 22nd in the morning then winning one up against England’s Lauren Crump in the afternoon - to reach the last eight in the event’s 123rd edition.
The American, who won five games out of five in the Curtis Cup in Los Angeles a fortnight ago, now faces compatriot Morgan Ketchum on Friday morning and looks determined to go one better than 12 months ago at Nairn, where she lost in the final to Spain’s Paula Martin Sampedro.
Nordqvist lost in successive finals in 2006 and 2007 before making it third-time lucky as the Swede claimed the coveted crown at North Berwick in 2008.
‘I’m running on fumes’
“I’m running on fumes,” said O’Keefe. “I feel like I played a pretty ridiculous amount of golf in the last three months, two to three months. So, I don't know, I feel like my body's kind of at this point where I'm in between exhaustion and feeling great all the time.
“But this is what Tour players do, they push themselves and so our game is super physical even if people don't believe it is. Walking four, five miles every day or twice in a day, sometimes it wears you out a little bit but there's nothing that some good sleep can't fix.”
Though it wasn’t to be for 16-year-old Crump on this occasion, don’t be surprised if she eventually gets her name on this trophy. On the evidence of a record-breaking ten-shot win in the ANNIKA Invitational in Sweden last week, a bright future lies in store and O’Keefe acknowledged that.
“I think this is incredible experience and she's a really good player,” she said. “She did an incredible job. She's so young. She's going to have so much time to learn and get better.”
Melrose member Sheridan Clancy, the sole Scot to reach the knock-out stage, lost to Swede Matilda Bjorkman in the last 32.
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