Playing with future Duke teammate Megan Furtney, Center Grove junior Erica Shepherd has advanced into the match-play bracket of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, California.
The pair finished Sunday tied for 11th among 64 teams in stroke play with a two-round total of 139. They will play in the round of 32 today.
The field will be whittled down from 16 teams to four on Tuesday, with the semifinals and final taking place Wednesday.
Shepherd and Furtney, who posted the lowest qualifying score in the event’s history with a 61 on April 11, started strong on Saturday with five straight birdies on the front nine before ending the day tied for second at 66, two shots back of the lead.
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“We got off to a really good start,” Shepherd said of Saturday’s round. “We were obviously making a lot of birdies. When one of us wasn’t making a birdie, we had an easy par putt, so to have the other one there helped take that pressure off you.”
Sunday didn’t go quite as well, as Shepherd and Furtney wound up with a 1-over-par 73 to slide down the leaderboard a bit.
