HARRISON, N.Y. — NCAA champion Rachel Heck of Stanford advanced to the U.S. Women’s Amateur semifinals Friday, beating Kan Bunnabodee of Thailand 3 and 2 at Westchester Country Club.
Heck took a 2-up lead with a par win on the par-4 15th and finished off Bunnabodee with a birdie win on the par-3 16th. Bunnabodee plays at Purdue.
Heck, from Memphis, Tennessee, will face Jensen Castle of West Columbia, South Carolina, the University of Kentucky player who beat Emily Mahar of Australia 6 and 5.
In the other semifinal, Valentina Rossi of Argentina will face Hou Yu-chiang of Taiwan. Rossi plays at Michigan State, and Hou at Arizona.
Rossi beat Stanford player Brooke Seay of San Diego in 19 holes, and Hou topped 15-year-old Cara Heisterkamp of Westlake, Ohio, 4 and 3.
In May, Heck capped her freshman year at Stanford with the NCAA individual title, her sixth victory of the season. No. 2 in the women’s world amateur ranking, she’s trying to join former Georgia star Vicki Goetze (1992) as the only players to win NCAA Division I individual and U.S. Women’s Amateur titles in the same year. Her father, Robert, is working as her caddie.