First, the shocker: Defending champion Mina Harigae failed to advance to the match-play bracket the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. Harigae, a junior star who just completed the Curtis Cup a couple weeks ago and will play for Duke in the coming collegiate season, shot 80-81 and finished one stroke out of a playoff for the last of the 64 spots available in the match-play bracket.

Now, those scores aren't quite as bad as they might seem. Erin Hills is proving tough. How tough? Amanda Blumenherst and our hero Tiffany Joh each failed to break 75. But both easily qualified, finishing tied for 19th and tied for 21st, respectively, in the stroke-play qualifying.

The co-medalists are Southern Cal golfer Lizette Salas and University of Denver golfer Katie Kempter at 2-under 144 (the Erin Hills par is 73).

The match-play pairings are not yet posted on the WAPL Web site. I'll check a little later and post any interesting first-round matchups I find.

The full stroke-play qualifying scores are here.

Also take a look at this article about Jerry Kelly keeping a promise made to a young Hawaiian golfer to caddie for her if she made the field. She did, and he did.

Update: The USGA points out that Harigae is the first returning defending champ to fail to make it into match play since 1977.

Top first-round match play matches are Tiffany Lua vs. Ryan O'Toole, Kimberly Kim vs. Brianna Do and Amanda Blumenherst vs. Aimee Neff. The T-Joh plays Wonjoo Choi, about whom I know nothing.