Farah O'Keefe survives scare as Americans aim to create more Muirfield memories

Taking all of that into account, it would be no surprise if the first staging of The R&A Women’s Amateur Championship there fell to someone flying the Stars and Stripes. Especially not when eight of the 32 players still standing after the first knock-out round fit that description.

They include world No 3 Farah O’Keefe and Anna Davis, the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. O’Keefe survived a scare in her opening head-to-head encounter while Davis enjoyed a more comfortable passage.

On a day when Spaniard Paula Martin Sampedro, her conqueror in last year’s final at Nairn, was knocked out, O’Keefe had to dig deep to avoid suffering the same fate in glorious summer sunshine but a testing breeze.

One down with one to play against compatriot Kacey Ly, O’Keefe extended the match with a par at the last before squeezing through with a par at the first extra hole, where Ly found sand off the tee.

“I do feel like I held it together,” admitted O’Keefe, who won five matches out of five for the US in the recent Curtis Cup in Los Angeles. “Mentally, I was super, super strong. So that's the key to match play. That's the key to any kind of winning golf, having a strong mental game. No matter how you hit the ball, as long as you're good between the ears most of the time you'll be pretty well off.”

The 21-year-old finished joint-second in the stroke-play qualifying earlier in the week and has made the journey over here for one thing. “The desire, the want to finish one better (than last year) is definitely there,” said O’Keefe, who now takes on Australian Kirra St-Laurent in the second round on Thursday morning.

“I've played a ridiculous amount of golf in the last two to three months. I'm just trying to make sure that physically I'm ready to go. I know I'm capable of it, there's no question there. It's just making sure I do all the right things and give myself an opportunity at the end of the week.”

Sampedro’s chance to retain the coveted crown ended in a 19th-hole defeat to Canada’s Ann-Sophie Bourgault, who came through a play-off - it involved nine players battling for the final six spots - on Tuesday night to qualify for the match-play phase.

“The win is definitely up there,” said Bourgault. “I would say that this is probably one of my biggest accomplishments so far. I've never played such a big tournament in match play format before. Yesterday I was going into a play-off to get into match play, so the whole thing has been a battle.”

On a mixed day for the French, Camille Min Gaultier, another player to survive that play-off, knocked out England’s Lily Hurst, the leading qualifier, but Rianne Malixi suffered a surprise exit at the hands of Spaniard Cayetana Fernandez.

Left-hander Davis cleared her first hurdle, as did Scot Sheridan Clancy, who is now a Melrose member after flying the flag for Lake Karrinyup in Australia over the past few years.