JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Megan Furtney and Erica Shepherd atoned for a semifinal loss a year ago by winning the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball on Wednesday with a strong start and a steady finish at Timuquana Country Club.
Furtney and Shepherd, high school seniors who plan to play for Duke next year, made their fourth birdie on the par-5 seventh hole to build a 3-up lead, and lost only one hole the rest of the way for a 2-and-1 victory over Jillian Bourdage and Casey Weidenfeld.
Furtney is from South Elgin, Illinois, and Shepherd from Greenwood, Indiana.
''I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a hundred more times. We know each other’s game so well and we’re so good about communicating with each other on the golf course,’' Furtney said. ''I think we’re one of the few teams out here who didn’t use caddies this week. I like to say that we kind of caddie for each other in a sense. We kind of know what kind of shots each other, like what we’re capable. So kind of being able to talk those through and have a lot of options open is really important for us as a team.’'
Shepherd won the 2017 U.S. Girls Junior and tied for 23rd in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Furtney recovered from losing the tip of her pinky finger in a freak accident in 2017.
Bourdage and Weidenfeld are high school teammates in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
In the morning semifinals, Furtney and Shepherd beat Amari Avery and Alexa Pano 4 and 3, and Bourdage and Weidenfeld topped Sadie Englemann and Rachel Heck in 20 holes.