Tag: U.S. Girls’ Junior 2021

Woodard: When golf’s bright future was highlighted in lopsided U.S. Girls’ Junior final

Why a 6-and-4 junior golf blowout stood out from many majors and million-dollar made-for-TV events.

The last year was chock-full of entertaining golf. What stood out the most from the Ryder and Solheim cups, many major championships and million-dollar made-for-TV events? How about a 6-and-4 junior match just outside the nation’s capital.

If you weren’t lucky enough to be in the gallery back in July at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, for the 72nd U.S. Girls’ Junior, then Rose Zhang’s big win might seem pretty pedestrian. No matter the outcome, history was going to be made in the 36-hole final. And just like books and their covers, you can’t judge a match purely by its score. Just ask Bailey Davis. The local Maryland talent was aiming to be the first Black American female to win a USGA championship, but her 6-and-4 defeat was more telling of her character than ability (not to mention Zhang’s talent).

An incoming Stanford freshman at the time, Zhang, who went on to win her first three college starts for the Cardinal this fall, opened the morning play with a bogey-free 6-under 64 (with match-play concessions) and went to the lunch break with a 4-up lead. Davis played well, carding an even-par 70 – a score that might be good enough to hold a lead in previous U.S. Girls’ Juniors – with just one real blemish, a double-bogey on the par-5 12th.

“Bailey was making almost every putt she looked at, and I just had to stay patient and keep up with her. said Zhang. “That’s what you have to do with your opponent, and I think that I did that pretty well.”

Davis cut the lead early in the afternoon and hung around for a few more holes before Zhang started doing what she does best: make birdies in abundance. Zhang rattled off three birdies over four holes to take a 6-up lead through 26 holes. Eventually up five with five to play, Zhang’s last opponent of the marathon week was Mother Nature, who stopped play for three hours before Zhang closed out the match on the 33rd hole with, you guessed it, a birdie after hitting the flagstick with her approach from the rough.

After she won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur at nearby Woodmont Country Club, Zhang had been feeling the good vibes in Maryland and had the gallery to prove it. The only player who came close all week was Davis.

“It was amazing having so many people out here. A lot of friends and family and family friends, teachers, coaches, so many people came out to watch me this week, and I am beyond blessed to have them out here,” said Davis of her final-match fans. “I was 6-down at one point and they were like, ‘You got this.’ I was 5-down, five holes to play and they were like, ‘You can do this, Bailey.’ So that meant a lot to me to know they were out here supporting me and they know I could have possibly won.”

“I played a great match today, but Rose just played better,” Davis continued. “We just take from this experience and learn for the next.”

The records will show Zhang as just the eighth player to win both the Women’s Amateur and Girls’ Junior, and the first to win the junior after the amateur. The records won’t show Davis as a winner, instead they’ll show her smiling with her chin up despite defeat and accepting the challenge to improve.

Neither player teed it up for guaranteed money or a large purse. Instead they did so for the purest of reasons, the love of the game, and that’s the kind of theater multi-million dollar appearance fees will never produce.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

A week before her 18th birthday, incoming USC freshman Cindy Kou takes early U.S. Girls’ Junior lead

Kou has 11 AJGA wins under her belt and is in prime position for her first USGA title.

CHEVY CHASE, Maryland — Cindy Kou, who also goes by her Chinese given name Xin, mentioned Sung Hyun Park and Lydia Ko as two of her favorite golfers. After a solid opening round at the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior, the rising freshman at USC is in prime position to put her name alongside her idols in U.S. Golf Association history.

The 17-year-old, who will celebrate her birthday next week, took the early lead in the morning wave at Columbia Country Club with a 4-under 66.

“I think I just stayed really patient,” Kou said of her first round that featured just one bogey after being short-sided on the par-3 13th. “I just stayed patient, left myself uphill putts and some dropped.”

Some as in seven. Kou birdied her first two holes and two of her final three, not bad for the hilly course located north of Washington, D.C. The Valencia, California, native by way of China has 11 AJGA wins under her belt, which has helped her confidence in tournaments like the U.S. Girls’ Junior.

2021 U.S. Girls' Junior
Xin “Cindy” Kou hits a bunker shot on the 14th hole during the first round of stroke play at the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on Monday, July 12, 2021. (Photo: Kathryn Riley/USGA)

“It just makes me feel really comfortable stepping into this field knowing that I’m one of the better players, I hope,” said Kou. “So I think confidence is like a really big thing and not being nervous when there’s big crowds and people watching, I think that’s important.”

More: Cindy Kou rises junior golf ranks by balancing the grind

Her father, an experienced amateur golfer, is back in China and visits occasionally. Her mother, however, is with her every step of the way.

“She talks to my ball,” said Kou with a laugh. “I don’t want it to listen. Today I crushed a putt way past the hole and she was like, ‘Sit, sit, sit!’ and I was like, ‘Mom, you’re too loud I can hear you all the way over here.’ But she doesn’t talk to me, obviously, that’s changed a lot. I think like a lot of the parents try to talk to the players but I think I’ve had a lot of freedom.”

“I find it almost embarrassing when I make like a short putt and she’ll scream out,” continued Kou with a chuckle. “I’m like, ‘Mom, you don’t have to be that excited,’ but I think it’s definitely really nice to have someone here that’s supportive.”