It’s one of the longest weeks in golf, and Brooke Biermann is still standing.
On Sunday, the recent Michigan State grad has a chance to make history.
Biermann built a big lead early and then watched it slip away over the final three holes of regulation before she won her semifinal match at the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Saturday at Bandon Dunes in Oregon. With a two-putt par on the 19th hole, Biermann eliminated the University of Kansas’ Lyla Louderbaugh to earn her place in Sunday’s 36-hole championship match.
Biermann is looking to become the first Michigan State golfer to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which was first contested in 1895.
Biermann, whose dad Bill is caddying for her this week, won the first hole of her 18-hole semifinal match Saturday and never did trail in the match, building the lead to three with three holes to play, meaning she just needed to tie one of the last three holes to advance. But Louderbaugh didn’t quit, and she won the last three holes to force the semifinal match into extra holes, including making 15- and 35-foot putts for birdies on the 17th and 18th holes.
But, on the 19th hole, the first extra hole, Biermann finally finished off Louderbaugh, and she will meet Stanford’s Megha Ganne in the championship match, which starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern time Sunday.
“You know, coming down the stretch, she threw everything she had, which was great golf, and with that, you just have to stay calm,” Biermann said. “Only focus on what I can control.
“Because I can control what she’s doing, so I just tried to focus on hitting good golf shots, which I think I still did.
“All you can control is yourself, and that’s what you’ve got to focus on.”
Ganne had a comeback of her own Saturday, rallying from four holes down through the 11th to win her match. She won four of the last seven holes in regulation, and won on the 19th hole, beating Australia’s Ella Scaysbrook.
It was the third time in U.S. Women’s Amateur history that both semifinal matches went to extra holes. The other times were in 2018 and 1900.
The championship match will be the sixth of the week for Biermann and Ganne.
With the win in the semifinal match, Biermann, a Missouri native who finished her MSU career with the third-best scoring average in program history, earns an invitation to the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera in 2026. She already qualified for the next two U.S. Women’s Amateurs, should she remain an amateur.
She played Saturday in front of MSU head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, who caught a charter flight to Oregon to watch the semifinal matches. Slobodnik-Stoll had two Michigan State players in the quarterfinals. Canada’s Taylor Kehoe, an MSU senior, was eliminated in the quarterfinal round.
Biermann is looking to bring another U.S. Amateur title to MSU, after James Piot, of Canton, won the men’s U.S. Amateur championship in 2021.
“We look at James Piot’s U.S. Amateur trophy every single time we walk through the Lasch (Family Golf) Center. Every single day,” Slobodnik-Stoll told The News over the phone Saturday night. “All our Big Ten trophies are on the walls, every All-American’s name.
“We want those kids to be looking at all those achievements that Spartans before them have had and know they are capable of also achieving this.
“I think this just speaks volumes about our program and how our kids continue to develop.”
Said Biermann: “I love match play. Like, that’s where the fun begins. So I believed that I could do this.”
The last player from a Michigan college to play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship match was Michigan’s Monet Chun, who lost in the 2022 final.
Locals to win the title include Ann Arbor’s Jennifer Song in 2009 and South Haven’s Cindy Hill in 1974.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984