Goose Creek girl comes up just short

Katelyn Dambaugh of Goose Creek surprised herself and others this week by reaching the championship match of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Country Club of North Carolina. But she was unable to close the deal against highly-regarded Doris Chen, 17, of Bradenton, Fla.
While Chen came with intentions of winning after losing in the semifinals last year, Dambaugh was just happy to get through stroke-play qualifying to reach the final. And she had a lead more than halfway through Saturday's 36-hole final before falling 3 and 2.
In the morning 18, Chen made a 45-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh for a 2-up lead. But Dambaugh cut into the lead with a birdie on No. 10 and squared the match with a par on No. 13. Two holes later, Dambaugh took her first lead of the match when Chen had trouble getting out of a fairway bunker.
After the lunch break, Dambaugh increased her lead to 2 up with a par on the 19th hole. But her lead evaporated in the searing heat when she lost holes 24 and 25.
“I was feeling great,” the 15-year-old Dambaugh told USGA officials. “I don’t know what happened. I hit a couple of bad shots, and for some reason, started getting down on myself. I started getting really tired.”
Exhaustion was understandable, with temperatures nearing 100 and a heat index well above that.