San Diego team overcomes Coloradan Katelyn Lehigh & Californian Amelia Garibaldi after never leading until match-ending birdie at U.S. Women’s Four-Ball; Ashleigh Wilson & Kaitlin Zingler also ousted in round of 32
By Gary Baines – 5/12/2025
Some losses are more difficult to accept than others.
The one suffered by Katelyn Lehigh of Loveland and her Fresno State teammate, Amelia Garibaldi of Stockton, Calif., on Monday in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball might sting a little bit.
You see, Lehigh and Garibaldi tied for third place over the weekend in the stroke-play portion of the Four-Ball, and they held seemingly comfortable leads in Monday’s first-round match at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club.
Lehigh — a quarterfinalist in this event last year with her older sister Lauren — and Garibaldi were 3 up after 12 holes and 2 up after 16 on Monday. But that didn’t keep them from losing in 20 holes to high school golfers Kate Hu and Zoe Jiamanukoonkit from San Diego.
Including the extra holes, Hu and Jiamanukoonkit won five of the last eight, while Lehigh and Garibaldi prevailed on just the 16th hole of regulation during that stretch. The San Diego teenagers won the 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th holes with birdies and the 17th with a par. Jiamanukoonkit closed out the match with a 60-foot made putt on the 20th hole after draining a 70-footer on the 15th.
To make the loss all the more painful is that Hu and Jiamanukoonkit’s only lead of the day came when they birdied the 20th hole to win the match.
Lehigh, a two-time 5A girls state high school champion and now a senior-to-be at Fresno State, and Garibaldi finished 2 under par best ball for 20 holes on Monday, a total which included an eagle on the par-4 eighth hole. Hu and Jiamanukoonkit also finished 2 under, but went 4 under for the last six holes. Jiamanukoonkit has committed to play her college golf at Cal-Berkeley.
The other team with strong Colorado ties that made match play in Oklahoma also fell in the round of 32. Team Colorado player Ashleigh Wilson of Highlands Ranch and University of Denver golfer Kaitlin Zingler of Lakewood never led in their match and lost 2 and 1 to Arizona teenagers Anya Mathur and Tribolet.
Wilson and Zingler narrowed their deficit to 1 down with a winning par on the 14th hole but couldn’t tie the match down the stretch as even a birdie on 16 was matched by Mathur and Tribolet. The Arizonans — bound for Yale and Nebraska respectively, for their college golf — closed things out with a winning par on 17.
Wilson and Zingler ended up 1 under par best ball for 17 holes on Monday, while the Arizonans were 3 under.
Here are the results of the Coloradans who competed in the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball:
MATCH PLAY ROUND OF 32 (MONDAY)
Kate Hu and Zoe Jiamanukoonkit, San Diego, def. Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland/Amelia Garibaldi, Stockton, Calif., 20 holes
Anya Mathur, Scottsdale, Ariz./Ailis Tribolet, Chandler, Ariz., def. Ashleigh Wilson, Highlands Ranch/Kaitlin Zingler, Lakewood, 2 and 1
STROKE PLAY (SATURDAY AND SUNDAY)
Advance to Match Play
3. Katelyn Lehigh, Loveland/Amelia Garibaldi, Stockton, Calif. 68-68–136
18. Ashleigh Wilson, Highlands Ranch/Kaitlin Zingler, Lakewood 70-71–141
Failed to Advance to Match Play
Aubri Braecklein, Northglenn/Sofia Benavides, Mexico 74-73–147
For all the scores, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com