Brianna Do wins US Women's Amateur Championship, outlasting four of her UCLA teammates and beating Wake Forest’s Marissa Dodd on the 18th hole despite playing a limited role during the women's golf season
Rising senior Brianna Do won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship this past weekend at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. Though Do was not a starter for the Bruins in their 2011 NCAA Championship victory, she was the only UCLA golfer to make it to the final, where she defeated Wake Forest freshman Marissa Dodd in a close contest.
Credit: United States Golf Association
By Jacob Ruffman
July 5, 2011 4:01 a.m.
UCLA rising senior Brianna Do took more of a supporting role last season in the UCLA women’s golf team’s journey that culminated in an NCAA title ““ the team’s third and the school’s 107th.
In fact, Do was not one of the starting five Bruins competing in the NCAA Championships.
However, this past week Do stepped into the limelight when she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship held at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. Do defeated Wake Forest incoming freshman Marissa Dodd on the final hole to clinch the title.
Going into the tournament, Do was placed as the 36th seed, lower than four of her head-to-head competitors.
Do was one of five Bruins competing in the event along with Ani Gulugian, Lee Lopez and All-Americans Stephanie Kono and Tiffany Lua. Three UCLA golfers, Do, Lua and Kono, made it to the quarterfinals; Wake Forest was the only other school that had more than one representative at the same stage of the tournament.
In the quarterfinals, Kono, a fellow rising senior, was actually knocked out of the tournament by Do by a score of 2-up.
Lua, a rising junior at UCLA, made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to Dodd by a score of 2 and 1. During that same span, Do defeated Annie Park of Levittown, Pa. by the same score, placing herself into the final.
In the final, Dodd, a 17-year-old phenomenon out of Texas, held the lead or was tied with Do for 33 of the 36 holes, and at the halfway point she held a one-hole lead.
Only four holes into the second round, Dodd had extended her lead to three holes as she birdied the third and fourth holes, but Do came right back and won the next three holes to tie the match.
Going into the back nine, Do and Dodd stayed neck and neck, neither player allowed her opponent to gain more than a one-stroke lead. After 35 holes of golf, they were tied going into a par-4 on the 18th hole.
Do had a chance to put Dodd away with a birdie putt but missed. Dodd was unable to hit her 10-foot par putt, however, securing the U.S. Women’s Amateur title for Do.
Do is the third Bruin to ever win the event, joining Mary Enright, who won the event in 1981 and Tiffany Joh, who won the title in 2006 and 2008.
Compiled by Jacob Ruffman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
