Australia’s Sue Wooster will have to wait another year to capture her first US Senior Women’s Amateur title after coming up just short in the 2025 final today.
This week was the Aussie’s 12th appearance in the event and her fourth time coming up shy in the final match, this time losing at the 20th hole against American Dawn Woodard in Virginia.
“I was just so grateful to have made another final,” the 2025 Arizona Women’s Senior Amateur champion said.
“I said to myself, ‘win or lose, so be it.’ It kind of wasn’t like that when I lost. I was very emotional. I’ve been emotional all of my four losses.
“The pressure is just so intense that there’s just this big buildup and then you just release it. You’re delighted if you win and the opposite if you lose, but I’ll get over it quickly.”
After her dramatic 19-hole semi-final win over 2023 champion Sarah Gallagher, Wooster struck first on the second hole of the championship match, before Woodard evened the score with her first birdie of the day on the par-4 third.
The Aussie won the next two holes to build an early 2-up lead but after tying the next three holes, Woodard slimmed the margin with a birdie on the par-5 ninth.
The momentum continued to flip back-and-forth on the back nine, with Wooster regaining her two-up lead on the par-4 10th, before Woodard answered back by winning the next two holes, featuring a clutch par on No. 12 to tie the match.
A par on No. 13 from Wooster would level the match going into the infamous par 3-5-5-3 final stretch of the Cascades Course at The Omni Homestead Resort that has swung matches all week.
A costly bogey from Wooster on the par-5 16th would once again square the match, before the duo halved the 17th, bringing the match to the final regulation hole.
Woodard’s tee shot on the 170-yard par-3 went over the green into the rough, while Wooster landed her shot 15 feet from the hole. After Wooster calmly two-putted for par, Woodard was left with a seven-footer to tie, burying her par putt to extend the match.
After tying the first playoff hole, Woodard found the fairway with her tee shot on the par-5 20th hole, laying up and two-putting for par. Wooster came up short with her approach shot, and was faced with a must-have up-and-down from the rough, missing her 15-footer to extend the match, crowning Woodard as champion.
