Louderbaugh Ousts World No. 1 Romero at U.S. Women’s Amateur, Advances to Semifinals
Lyla Louderbaugh needed a moment to herself. After losing two straight holes to send her U.S. Women’s Amateur quarterfinal match with Kiara Romero to extra holes, the Kansas junior retreated to the Bandon Dunes clubhouse restroom.
“I just needed to get off the golf course,” Louderbaugh said. Before walking back out, she looked in the mirror and told herself, “You’ve got this.”
Two holes later, she’d toppled the world’s No. 1 amateur.
Louderbaugh, from Buffalo, Missouri, now faces fellow Missourian Brooke Biermann, a Michigan State grad, in Saturday’s first semifinal. The winner meets either Stanford’s Megha Ganne or Australia’s Ella Scaysbrook in Sunday’s 36-hole final.
Those are the four players left standing.
As for local caddies, there’s just one remaining: Louderbaugh’s looper, Robin Oliver.
Oliver, 55, is a 10-year veteran at the famed Oregon resort, which employs roughly 600 caddies. He started in an office before switching roles after just a year. “I needed to come back to the grass,” said Oliver, whose caddie roots trace to his middle-school days looping at Maple Bluff in Madison, Wisconsin, home of PGA Tour Champions player Jerry Kelly.
This is Oliver’s third USGA championship, following the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur. It’s his first time, though, that his player has won a match.
“These events are fun, they’re stressful,” Oliver said. “This is even more stressful than the other ones because we’re making it pretty deep.”
Before meeting Louderbaugh, Oliver did his homework. What he found was a player breaking out in recent months, starting with her closing 66 to finish fourth in the Jayhawks’ regular-season finale in April. She then won the NCAA Columbus Regional by eight shots over eventual NCAA individual champion Maria Jose Marin, followed by another win this summer at the Kansas Women’s Amateur.
Oliver was surprised when he walked onto the range last weekend to discover that Louderbaugh, a former basketball player, stands nearly 6 feet tall. After their first practice round together, he asked her, “You’re here to win, right?”
Louderbaugh replied, “Yeah.”
To which Oliver responded: “Well, let’s do it.”
Unless needed, Oliver mostly stays out of Louderbaugh’s way, especially during warmups. They often don’t chat until the first tee.
“The more information you give out there, the more it can get in people’s head,” Oliver said, before joking, “I’m just trying to keep her low key and not make her mad at me.”
Louderbaugh adds: “We’re pretty used to each other. He understands when I want his help on the greens and when I don’t want his help on the greens.”
Their partnership was tested down the stretch. Louderbaugh, 2 up with two holes to play against Romero, hit shots into penalty areas on both holes. At the par-5 18th, the lefty’s third shot from the rough came out well right of her intended line and extremely hot, flying the green and disappearing into a gorse bush. Oliver lamented a couple of mis-clubs during the match, though Louderbaugh quickly took responsibility.
She’s thankful to have Oliver by her side, especially in 30 mph gusts.
“There’s definitely a reason they have local caddies out here,” Louderbaugh said. “There are so many shots you don’t see if you don’t have a local because there are a lot of areas that you don’t see from some spots that are perfectly good angles to different pins.”
Case in point: She pounded a drive well left on No. 10 in overtime to set up a deft pitch into the fan, though her 10-footer to win horseshoed out of the cup.
Then on the par-4 11th, she was some 30 yards behind Romero off the tee but put the pressure on the Oregon junior by knocking a long-iron through the stiff breeze and right at the flag, her ball trundling about 40 feet past. Romero set up to attack the flag, but she left her approach right, short-siding herself. Louderbaugh lagged close before rolling in the short clincher.
Louderbaugh has trailed in each of her four matches so far this week – for 25 of the 69 holes she’s played (she’s won 27 holes).
In some ways, she relishes that position.
“I like being kind of like the underdog, and nobody knows my name,” Louderbaugh said, “but I’m here to make a place for my name.”
Oliver wouldn’t mind adding his name to the list of Bandon locals who have looped for USGA champions. Though Tyler Strafaci had his dad, Frank, on the bag at the 2020 U.S. Amateur, locals have caddied for the winners of the other three events – 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur, 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and that U.S. Junior three years ago.
“There’s that pressure on me from the shack,” Oliver said. “I mean, there are 600 guys over there that are rooting for us. The old school caddies who have been here for 20-plus years, they’re like, ‘Bring it home.'”
That’s the goal.
