Brittany Fan is enjoying the last few months of her amateur golf status.

Senior year at Colorado included an appearance at last month’s NCAA championships, where the Buffaloes finished 19th. In August, her final amateur competition will be at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in Tennessee.

Fan can sandwich a very special filling between those two events — the Manoa Cup match-play championship.

The top-seeded Fan, Monday’s stroke-play medalist, continued her dominant week in Thursday’s semifinals, defeating rising Punahou sophomore Victoria Takai 6 and 4. Fan will meet Maui’s Kaylee Shimizu, who defeated recent Maryknoll graduate Allysha Mae Mateo 3 and 2.

Their scheduled 18-hole championship match tees off at 7 this morning.

Fan had a simple philosophy for Thursday’s semis: Give herself birdie chances.

“If I make the birdie, great; if not, then I’ll take par,” said Fan, who attended Kamehameha but finished her schooling online to increase golf training. “That means she has to birdie to beat me.

“My goal was to minimize my mistakes. My distance (off the tee) gave me an advantage.”

That distance was intimidating. Takai was 3 down after No. 4 and 4 down after No. 6. She battled her way back to within 2 down with a par at No. 8 and a birdie 3 on No. 9.

Then Fan “almost drove the green on 10,” Takai said. “She was hitting all her tee shots.

“I tried my best to keep with it. You never know what could happen. I definitely didn’t have my putting and my short game.”

It was Takai’s first match-play event. “I like it,” she said. “Even if you have one bad hole, you can still come back.”

Fan didn’t have any bad holes after the turn. She won the next three holes, halved No. 13, then closed it out on the par-4 14th.

The last time Fan played in the Manoa Cup, there was no separate women’s division. This is the third women’s championship, the first two titles going to Mari Nishimura, who was not in this year’s field.

“I like stroke play better,” said Fan, who will compete on the Cactus Tour following the U.S. Amateur. “But it’s always good to experience other parts of the game.

“This will be my last Manoa Cup, my second-to-last-amateur tournament. I think I’ve matured and I’m ready for the next stage.”

The next opponent is Shimizu, Monday’s stroke-play runner-up. The 21-year-old Baldwin High graduate has two years remaining at Utah Valley University and “I have never thought about (turning) pro,” she said. “I love college golf and I hope to progress and get better every year.”

Shimizu had an up-and-down match with the BYU-bound Mateo on the front nine, winning the first two holes only to see Mateo go 1 up on No. 7. Shimizu pulled even at No. 8, then won the next three holes, including two with birdie 3s, to lead 3 up.

The pair halved the next two and Mateo birdied No. 14 to again close to 2 down. Shimizu closed it out on the par-5 15.

“I think I was hitting the ball a little better today,” Shimizu said. “I commend Allysha for the great match she played.

“I’ve never played against Brittany. She is playing great. Tomorrow I want to play my game, play the shot at hand.”