History was made at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball as seven teams shared medalist honors at stroke-play qualifying. That’s the most for any USGA championship, surpassing the six players who medaled at the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bandon Dunes.
During an unseasonably warm and windy day at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington, the seven sides finished at 11-under 133 to top a crowded leaderboard. A total of 32 teams advanced to match play, with an 8-for-5 playoff moving into a Monday finish.
Defending champs Thienna Huynh, 19, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Sara Im, 18, of Duluth, Georgia, carried their momentum into 2023 as they shared medalist honors thanks to a nine-hole record of 30 on the front nine.
Thienna Huynh and Sara Im at the medalist ceremony during the the second round of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. on Sunday, May 14, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Match play begins on Monday with the Round of 32. With the NCAA Championship being held this week in Arizona, few college players were able to qualify for the event due to scheduling. That leaves a number of hotshot teen tandems in the field. In fact, there were 18 players in the field this week between the ages of 12 and 15.
Two teams of 14-year-olds advanced.
Here are five more teams to watch heading into match play:
Kaitlyn Schroeder started re-watching “The Last Dance” in recent months because she finds inspiration in Michael Jordan’s extreme competitiveness.
EVANS, Ga. — Kaitlyn Schroeder started re-watching “The Last Dance” in recent months because she finds inspiration in Michael Jordan’s extreme competitiveness. Her father, Scott, thinks some of Kaitlyn’s competitive fire came from the summer camps he ran at the University of North Florida. Kaitlyn, who didn’t attend just one week of camp but all the weeks, didn’t like golf at the time, but she hated losing more, and Scott often split up the groups for mini competitions.
Now an 18-year-old, Kaitlyn, last year’s AJGA Player of the Year, loves every part of the grind this game demands and wants nothing less than to be the best player in the world. As the daughter of a men’s Division I college golf, she’s had the rare opportunity to watch PGA Tour player Philip Knowles and current UNF star Nick Gabrelcik go to work daily at the UNF practice facility, which essentially doubled as her second backyard.
“It’s just seeing how hard they work,” said Kaitlyn. “Not hearing about it, but like literally seeing it.”
Kaitlyn Schroeder poses with the AJGA Rolex Player of the Year trophy alongside her parents, Scott and Wendy. (courtesy photo)
Kaitlyn is one of 37 players in the field this week making their debut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where just over half the participants are teenagers. She’ll have her father, Scott, on the bag, noting that she sometimes trusts him more than herself. Scott, a seven-time ASUN Conference Coach of the Year, played collegiate golf at UNF and his wife, Wendy, is a UNF Hall of Fame tennis player.
Scott notes that when Kaitlyn was growing up, former UNF All-Americans Travis Trace and Knowles didn’t let her win in friendly competitions. And none of them made excuses.
“In today’s society right now, everybody finds an excuse,” said Scott. “And for the most part, she’s really good about not making excuses: ‘I just played bad.’ If you’re going to be good, you’ve got to be willing to admit when you play bad and not blame somebody else.”
Kaitlyn, who was homeschooled long before she got serious about golf, graduated from high school last December and enrolled at Alabama as a redshirt freshman this spring. She’s currently taking 13 credit hours and transferred in with 12.
Knowing firsthand how difficult the transition can be jumping into the fall golf season while adjusting to college classes away from home, Kaitlyn thought she’d get her feet wet this spring, even though she can’t compete.
“She brings a competitiveness and a leadership that’s going to be really valuable to us and our culture,” said Alabama coach Mic Potter of what’s to come. He also said that recruiting conversations with Kaitlyn were exceptionally easy given her passion for college football.
Looking back, Scott said Kaitlyn’s trip to the 2018 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, made a big impact because tournament rules allowed spectators to walk on the fairways, up to close to the action.
“I think that was probably when she decided, ‘I want to go do this,’ ” said Scott, “not just be good at golf, but be involved on a team and have a chance to do some of this stuff.
When asked how he knew when to pull back to allow Kaitlyn to grow in recent years, Schroeder said his coaching philosophy is to occasionally allow kids to fail.
“You don’t want them to fall off a large cliff, but you can let them fall off a short cliff,” he said. “Because sometimes they have to fail to be willing to listen more. If you’re only always telling them what to do, at some point, they’ll stop listening.”
With so many potential ANWA competitions still on the horizon, Scott said they’re not putting too much pressure on this week. As Kaitlyn continues to improve, Scott finds himself saying less of the things he used to preach on a consistent basis.
He now coaches Kaitlyn similar to the way he coaches Gabrelcik, who is currently No. 12 in the men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Kaitlyn played her first AJGA event in the ninth grade and last year won both the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior and Junior PGA titles. While some of her junior friends have previous experience at the ANWA and Drive, Chip and Putt competition, Kaitlyn will see Augusta National for the first time this week.
The past two winners of the ANWA have been junior golfers, with then 16-year-old Anna Davis winning last year and Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani triumphing in 2021 at age 17.
Bailey Shoemaker, 18, teamed with Schroeder to reach the finals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball last year. Shoemaker went on to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur and made the cut in three LPGA starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open.
“I think we’re a little bit like Jordan (Spieth) and J.T. (Justin Thomas),” said Schroeder. “We love each other off the golf course, but every time we play, like whether it’s just playing for fun or playing, you know, in a tournament, we want to beat the crap out of each other.”
The teams were determined exclusively through the Rolex AJGA Rankings as of October 12.
Eric Lee of Fullerton, California, and Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, Florida, were named the 2022 American Junior Golf Association’s 2022 Players of the Year, it was announced Thursday.
Lee is the first boys junior from California to earn the honor since 2010, and Schroeder the first girls junior from Florida since 2009. They are both first-team Rolex Junior All-Americans, as well, with their distinctions.
Lee, 17, did not finish outside the top 10 in seven national junior golf events to end the season at No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. He won the season-opening Rolex Tournament of Champions at PGA National. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes. Lee is committed to Cal.
Schroeder, an Alabama commit, had two wins and three top-five finishes. Her wins came at the 31st Rolex Girls Junior Championship at The Loxahatchee Club and the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill. She advanced to the round of 32 at the U.S. Girls’ Junior in Kentucky.
Kaitlyn Schroeder was named the 2022 AJGA Player of the Year. (Photo: AJGA)
The Rolex Junior All-America Teams annually recognize the best junior golfers from around the world. The 2022 class includes 48 boys and 48 girls, ages 14-19, from 24 states and 10 countries. The teams were determined exclusively through the Rolex AJGA Rankings as of October 12.
Lee, Schroeder, and the 2022 Rolex Junior All-America Teams will be honored through the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet on Saturday, Nov. 19.
