Lei Ye watched Jillian Bourdage flub a five-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to escape with a 1-up victory and become the new US Girls’ Junior champion at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin Saturday.
Ye went 3-up after the first half of their 36-hole duel but needed to produce a pair of birdies on Nos. 33 and 35 to hang on to a 1-up lead as Bourdage kept fighting back with her clutch shots and putts.
But the Florida ace missed the putt that mattered most, enabling the seventh-ranked incoming Stanford U freshman to clinch the victory and become only the second Chinese to win a USGA championship.
Bourdage, who foiled top seed Yuka Saso in the semifinals, forced an all-square match thrice in the afternoon, the last on the par-3 16th with a par. And after Ye birdied the next to regain the lead, she came away with a solid 8-iron approach shot from 130 yards to within five feet on the 18th.
In contrast, Ye’s second shot went to the back of the green but made a brilliant downhill putt from 50 feet to within tap-in range for par.
Bourdage stroked what she thought was a perfect putt but the ball trailed off to the left as it approached the cup, sending Bourdage to her knees in disbelief and Ye in jubilation.
