Mia Hammond – Syndication Server

This state champion sophomore who made an LPGA cut has forfeited her high school eligibility

She competed in two LPGA Tour events last year, the Dana Open and the Kroger Queen City Classic.

Mia Hammond, a New Albany sophomore and last season’s Ohio Division I girls golf individual state champion, has signed with a sports management company for name, image and likeness representation — a move that forfeits her high school eligibility.

Columbus-based Sterling Sports Management announced the partnership Tuesday morning, and Hammond’s father and coach, Tom, confirmed her decision to The Dispatch. Mia Hammond has not signed any NIL deals but there are “irons in the fire,” Tom Hammond said.

“It’s more about representation and guidance (through the NIL process) than anything else,” Tom Hammond said. “We’ve had a lot of companies reach out to represent Mia and we don’t want to do anything wrong to jeopardize her college eligibility.”

Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C., currently permit NIL for high school athletes, but Ohio is not among them. An Ohio High School Athletic Association referendum to allow NIL, as the state does for college athletes, failed by a 68-32% margin in May 2022 in a vote of member schools.

OHSAA bylaw 4-10-2 states that “an athlete forfeits amateur status, and thus interscholastic athletic eligibility, if any of the following standards of amateurism are violated … (including) entering into an agreement with a sports or marketing agent.”

Mia Hammond gets ready to tee off on the 11th hole during the second round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship at Kenwood Country Club in Madeira, Ohio. (Photo: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer)

Hammond competed in two LPGA Tour events last year, the Dana Open in Sylvania and the Kroger Queen City Classic in Cincinnati. She made the cut in her LPGA debut in Sylvania, tying for 26th place, but fell short in Cincinnati, and participated in the World Junior Girls Championship in October in Ontario.

“We started talking about (leaving high school golf) last summer,” Tom Hammond said. “We didn’t see her popularity taking off this quickly.”

Mia Hammond has led New Albany to district championships each of the past two seasons, extending the team’s streak to six. She shot rounds of 67 and 69 at state last fall for a two-day score of 136 that set the Division I tournament record, and the Eagles tied Rocky River Magnificat for second place behind Dublin Jerome.

Hammond tied for fourth at state as a freshman.

“The high school season takes a toll as far as the time commitment and the number of tournaments they play,” Tom Hammond said. “It’s a lot of time between (amateur) tournaments and high schools, and typically (the high school season) is when she would take a break from tournaments. And it’s not about having nothing left to prove in high school, although she’d have loved to have won a championship with her team.”

What to watch for as LPGA returns to Cincinnati for the Queen City Championship

There are just eight events left on the LPGA’s 2023 schedule.

After consecutive events on the West Coast in Vancouver and Portland, the LPGA is back in the midwest for the Kroger Queen City Championship.

Kenwood Country Club in Madiera, Ohio, is officially the host venue for the second playing of this event. Ally Ewing won the inaugural tournament a year ago.

Thirteen of the top 25 LPGA golfers in the CME points race are in the field, as is No. 28-ranked Rose Zhang. There will be 144 players in the field competing for a purse of $2 million, with $300,000 going to the winner.

Check out some of the top storylines to follow this week, courtesy of Golfweek’s USA TODAY partner, the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Strong field

There have been 18 different winners on the LPGA in 2023 and 12 of them have made their way to the Queen City. The highest-ranked golfer in the field is No. 2 Ruoning Yin (KPMG Women’s PGA champ). She’s joined by No. 6 Allisen Corpuz (U.S. Open champ) and No. 15 Linn Grant, who won her first LPGA tournament earlier this year in Toledo. Last week’s winner on the LPGA, 19-year-old Chanettee Wannasaen, who won the Portland Classic as a Monday qualifier, will also be there.

In the homestretch

The Queen City Championship is one of the final eight events of the 2023 LPGA season. Since the U.S. Women’s Open in early July, the tour has held 10 events that took golfers to six different countries. Many golfers haven’t had a free weekend since June.

However, after this week, there is a break of about a month, with the LPGA returning Sep. 29.

Grant on a hot streak

Grant, a 24-year-old from Sweden, enters her first Kroger Queen City Championship playing the best golf of her career. She is currently No. 15 in the Rolex Rankings and No. 17 in the CME Rankings. Since her win in the Dana Open, she’s logged six consecutive top-20 finishes and had a top 10 in the CPKC Women’s Open and the Portland Classic

“I feel like it hasn’t changed at all. Obviously, I feel a bit more confident playing the regular weeks now, but kind of just kind of shake off that win and still be able to perform after that without being too excited about it,” Grant said. “I think I’m pretty good at every week kind of reset and figure out how I’m feeling, how my game is feeling, and kind of adjust to that.”

Ohio native Hammond has promising future

Earlier this summer, just five months after her 15th birthday, Mia Hammond made her LPGA debut, winning her qualifier to become the youngest player in the field at the Dana Open.

Hammond, a New Albany, Ohio, native and a sophomore at New Albany High School, tied for 26th as the only amateur in the field. Hammond’s father, Tom, is her coach and caddie and will be on the bag this week at the Kenwood Country Club. Hammond was given a sponsor invite.

“My goal remains the same: Just make the cut after the first two rounds and go from there. I’m just trying to take this experience all in and just enjoy it as much as possible,” Hammond said. “I don’t really have very high expectations for myself going into this week. Just to go out and have fun and just soak it all up.”

Xiyu Lin hopes to breakthrough

Last year, a 21-under 267 was not enough for Xiyu Lin of China to hoist the hardware as she fell by one stroke to Ewing. Lin, 27, is a top 15 golfer in the world, but has yet to win an LPGA event. In addition to Cincinnati last year, Lin’s been a runner-up four times over the last two years.

This 15-year-old Monday qualifier made the cut in her first LPGA start

“I mean, it’s my first tournament, it’s the best experience, I’m just excited to be here.”

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On Monday, Mia Hammond was playing in a Monday qualifier, trying to get into her first LPGA event. By day’s end, she won that Monday qualifier and has plans for Thursday and Friday.

Come Friday afternoon, her weekend was booked: playing in the 2023 Dana Open.

Hammond shot consecutive rounds of 68 at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, to make the cut in her first LPGA start. The 15-year-old, who is not in the field at next week’s U.S. Girls’ Junior in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will play the weekend in a professional event instead.

“It’s so amazing, it’s honestly a dream come true,” Hammond said. “I’ve put in a lot of work over the winter and beginning of the season this year, and it’s so great to see it finally pay off. I had a few rough tournaments here and there so just so relieving.”

Not only will she make the cut, she walked off the course inside the top 20 on the leaderboard.

A reminder: Hammond is 15, Monday qualified and is making her first professional start. Not bad.

“I would say for now I’m going to set a goal as top 20,” she said of her goals this weekend. “If it happens to be better than that, then that’s great. I’m just here for the experience more than anything else. Playing on the LPGA Tour is a dream of mine in the future. So just getting a feel for what it’s actually like to be out here is more important to me.”

Hammond has hit 28-of-36 greens and also missed only six of the 28 fairways. She’s averaging 265 yards off the tee.

Now, it’s time to prepare for the weekend.

“I’m just going to take it all in,” Hammond said. “Spend time with the people that are here, make the best of it. I mean, it’s my first tournament, it’s the best experience, I’m just excited to be here.”

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