2. Erica Shepherd keeps her head up in gimme-gate Twitter storm
Erica Shepherd drew a mob of angry Twitter-fire after the semifinals of the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior when opponent Elizabeth Moon raked back a short par putt that Shepherd had not yet conceded. Moon incurred a penalty that ultimately delivered a win for Shepherd.
Shepherd told rules officials she would have given Moon the putt had there been more time, but that didn’t seem to resonate on social media as critics viciously tore into Shepherd’s character.
In the wake of that firestorm, Shepherd managed to collect herself and come back to defeat Jennifer Chang in the next day’s scheduled 36-hole final. It easily goes down as the comeback of the decade in junior golf.
Shepherd later said that the whole experience was one that made her learn to be tougher in this game. The Greenwood, Indiana, native played the U.S. Girls’ Junior five times in the span of her career, and started her freshman season at Duke in the fall of 2019.