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It came down to the final putt, on the final green, of the final day, but Annika Ishiyama claimed victory at the SCGA Women’s Amateur Championship for the second time in three years.
Ishiyama, who won the same prestigious title at The Saticoy Club in 2024, survived a three-way battle in the final group of Wednesday’s championship round where each of her playing partners held the lead, or a share of it, at least once.
One of those competitors, Ashley Yun, won the SCGA Women’s Amateur Championship in 2022 at San Diego CC. Yun started three back of Ishiyama’s lead and made a double bogey on No. 8, but flipped the switch on the back nine to pull into a three-way tie at even par by the 14th hole.
With just four holes standing between an eventual victor and the Fischer trophy, Ishiyama, Yun and Sophia Lin were deadlocked in what then felt like a match play competition.
Carnage would ensue at the 15th hole, a par 5 that reads as Valencia CC’s least difficult hole on the scorecard. Lin, who had played solid throughout the round, blocked her tee shot into the right tree line more than 100 yards behind her two co-leaders. Her second shot never got out of trouble and only advanced 40 yards further, still leaving her well back of her playing partners’ drives. Her third shot hit a third consecutive tree and bounced 90 degrees left into the fairway, still not quite up to where the other tee shots had landed. Lin would finally get on the green with her fifth shot, but a three-putt triple bogey put an end to her championship hopes late on Wednesday.
Yun made a routine par on No. 15 while Ishiyama failed to get up-and-down after her second shot left her in trouble way left of the green. Two poor chip shots resulted in a lengthy par putt that she couldn’t convert. With three holes left, Yun was leading by one shot.
Ishiyama didn’t seem bothered that she made bogey on a scoreable hole at a very inopportune time. Instead, she stuck her tee shot on the par-3 16th to five feet and made a birdie to better Yun’s par to reclaim a share of the lead.
On No. 17, Ishiyama pulled her tee ball left into the trees and did not have an accessible straight-on window to the green. Undeterred and full of imagination, she pulled a 6-iron from 160 yards and played a sweeping low rope hook that landed 30 yards short of the green and rolled all the way up onto the putting surface for a long look at birdie. It was the shot of the championship and one that allowed her to convert an unlikely par and stay even with Yun headed to the 54th and final hole.
Both Ishiyama and Yun played two great shots, respectively, to leave them with stock wedge approaches to reach the green in three on the closing par 5. Ishiyama went first and had the right line, but her ball came up one yard short from catching a mound on the green that would have released it down towards the hole for a high-percentage birdie look. Yun went second and flew the green in what many might deduce as adrenaline getting the better of her.
Yun was able to putt from just off the back of the green but came up four feet short. With a downhill look to win the championship, Ishiyama also left her putt short by a couple of feet. With dozens looking on from the patio, Yun burned the edge on a par putt from a length she hadn’t missed from all day. It was her very first three-putt of the round (she only took 28 putts on Wednesday) and just her second time failing to save par. What felt like an automatic formality ended up running three feet past the hole to open up the door for Ishiyama.
With no hesitation, Ishiyama buried her par to win her second SCGA Women’s Amateur Championship. On a day where she missed five fairways, eight greens and made six bogies, she never quit. She hung in the entire way, playing as the leader and the pursuer, and was unflappable when it mattered most.
As part of the SCGA’s mission to provide a pathway to the national stage, Ishiyama earned an exemption to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. She also renewed her 10-year exemption in the SCGA Women’s Amateur Championship and earned a spot in the California Women’s Amateur Championship and the SCGA Women’s Match Play Championship.
