Amari Avery (-8) wins Low-AM and outright 2nd overall (Facebook)/The Cactus Tour)
By Leland Hardy
May 22, 2021 —”Trading Places” – no, not the 1983 Eddie Murphy, Dan Akroyd classic of the same name, stupid, but rather THE hottest event taking place in the world of golf right now, nay, the entire world of sports, and that’s not just because the event is taking place in the scorching hot Arizona desert today.
No disrespect to this weekend’s made for TV Coronavirus fundraiser – Tiger, Phil, Manning, and Brady dustin’ it up for charity – but I’m NOT talking about that event, nor the legends participating in it. I’m talking about a new legend in the making, the 16-year-old teen golf phenom and Southern California Native, Amari Avery, who has shattered nearly all of Tiger Woods’ age group records and who arguably has more in common with Tiger than Tiger has in common with himself (more on that later), going head up in a professional tournament this week against one of the LPGA’s fastest rising stars and world’s best golfers, LPGA Tour pro, Pamplona Spain’s Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings #15 ranked star, Carlota Ciganda.
While Ciganda may have grown up just a pitching wedge away for the bucket list annual Running of the Bulls, it’s certainly no bull that she is one of the world’s very best golfers. Just late last year she won a cool million dollar check for her victory in the LPGA Tour’s inaugural season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge. Think of it as women’s golf’s version of the Big Boy Tour’s FedEx Cup where the winner picks up a $10 million check for being the season-long playoff winner. Guys, we’ve gotta work on the equal pay for equal play issue, but I digress….
“Trading Places” was one heck of a film that served to launch a fresh-from-Saturday-Night-Live Eddie Murphy into international superstardom. Now, what with the indomitable and precocious Avery trading places on the leaderboard with one of the LPGA’s biggest stars, perhaps the Cactus Tour event in which Avery is showing that she’s got all the right stuff in her bag, and all the right stuff in her bag of tricks, will serve as her own launching pad to international superstardom, just like Murphy.
As per the Round 1 and Round 2 leaderboards shown immediately below, it was Avery who stormed out of the blocks to finish Round 1 with a blistering 6 under par 66 to lead the field by 2 and her rival, Ciganda, by 5 shots at Alta Mesa Country Club. Avery displayed every aspect of her game in the round, especially her prodigious drives, two of which bested 300 yards and were both “center cut,” which seems like such an appropriate metaphor on day #1 of the Memorial Day Weekend. Her putting was masterful, with her even dropping in a modern-day version of Tiger’s famous “better than most” tour de force putt to close out 18.
Ciganda, as steel nerved as ever, was hardly going to let her future Tour rival get off easy. After shooting a very respectable 1 under par 71 to sit at T4 after the conclusion of round 1, she was early to bed and early to rise in her effort to win at all costs. In true “Trading Places” fashion, Ciganda shouted “Take that!” to her young challenger and to the rest of the field with a tournament-low tying 6 under par 66 to finish atop the leaderboard after Round 2, while Amari stumbled a bit with an uncharacteristically high 2 over par 74 in Round 2 to sit in solo 4th.
Now, the finale of this ‘harbinger of things to come’ duel in the desert is all set after the collective Round 1 and Round 2 denoument. Will Amari come stormin’ back to seize the trophy and forego her winner’s purse as all amateur golfers must? Or will Ciganda dig even deeper to say emphatically, “Not yet, kid! I’ll see you at the next level.”
As we wait with bated breath for today’s Final Round Cactus Tour drama to unfold, and as we await our chance to see Tiger and Phil tee it up alongside their respective Hall of Fame protégés in this weekend’s charity event, a bit of background on the prodigy that some have dubbed “The Next Tiger” is warranted.
Tiger Woods and Amari Avery: The Similarities Are Astounding
Avery was born on the same day as Tiger Woods (December 30th) and in the same county as Tiger Woods (Orange County, CA). She shares his ethnicity in having an African American dad and an Asian mother. She had her first hole-in-one at the same course where Tiger had his first hole-in-one (almost 28 years apart almost to the day), and, believe it or not, her birth certificate shows that she was born in the exact same minute and exact same hour as Tiger! No wonder the moniker, “Tigress,” stuck to her like glue throughout her preteen years, until she recently decided, like so many 16-year-olds yearning to break free, that it was time to forge her own identity as just plain ol’ Amari Avery.
Sorry, Amari, I hate to break the news to you, but there’s nothing “just plain” about becoming the youngest ever and first-ever African American golfer to win the California Women’s Amateur Championship, which you did in 2019.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THIS VIDEO: Celebrating Black History Month and those making History Everyday: Amari “Tigress” Avery
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THIS VIDEO: There’s nothing “just plain” about your becoming the first-ever African American and youngest ever Southern California Golf Association “Women’s Golfer of the Year,” which you did in 2019.
There’s nothing “just plain” about you being selected by the Augusta National Master’s Committee to be the youngest ever African American, male or female, to compete against adults at Augusta National’s hallowed ground in the second annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur until your start there was postponed until April 2021 by the Coronavirus pandemic.
No, there’s nothing “just plain” about any of your historic achievements, and imagining what the future might hold will never get old.
ABOUT THE CACTUS TOUR
In 2005 the Cactus Tour was created for professional women golfers as a place to play outside of the LPGA and The Symetra Tour. The tour attracts women golf professionals from all major world tours. Wether you’re a veteran player, a first year professional or an amateurs that want to test their skills against the best — The Cactus Tour welcomes you!
