By Leland Hardy
August 7, 2020 | Woodmont Country Club (North Course), Rockville, MD: When reached by videophone last week at their Southern California home, as they were packing their bags for their historic sojourn to Rockville, MD to compete in the 120th playing of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, America’s new “First Family of Golf” was particularly upbeat about their prospects for doing well at the event. “I’m so excited!” Shouted an exuberant Amari Avery. “I just can’t wait to get there and to show how hard we have been working on our game,” she continued.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur is THE world’s preeminent showcase for nascent golf talent, and the Avery family, particularly superstar-to-be, Amari, is poised to make even more history at the 2020 installment of the event than her mere presence among the world’s very best golfers already will.
Avery, who was slated to play in the second annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur back in April 2020 until the Coronavirus pandemic postponed the event until 2021, is the reigning and defending 2019 California Women’s Amateur Champion. She is also the reigning Southern California Golf Association “Women’s Player of the Year.”
Avery is the youngest ever golfer, and the first-ever African American golfer to achieve either distinction. The historical significance of Amari’s inclusion in the U.S. Women’s Amateur field is amplified by the fact that she will be joined by another African American teen sensation on the course – another Avery, Amari’s 14-year-old younger sister, Alona Avery. Alona will not be competing against Amari; she is caddying for big sis, making the dynamic duo the first-ever pair of African American sisters to play and to be on the bag in the tournament’s history.
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No, the girls’ father/coach/factotum, Andre Avery, is not out of the caddy-Daddy business, but rather he had to come up with some creative way to let Alona who, herself, is a junior golf Champion, share in the spotlight that could be her appearing on TV alongside big sis, Amari, should they be fortunate enough to make it into the Top 64 and ties, and to get the concomitant TV coverage that comes with making it past the first two ultra-competitive days of stroke play in this most grueling of multi-format tests of both skill and endurance.
“I told Alona two months ago that if she got straight As on her spring term report card I would let her caddie for Amari in the U.S. Am,” stated Mr. Avery who normally caddies for both girls at their tournaments and was taken aback when he saw a B on Alona’s first report card of the school year.
As the first day of stroke play was upon the duo, their spirits could not have been more upbeat. Unfortunately, one’s spirits being upbeat does not a good showing in a golf tournament make.
Amari, perhaps due to a bit of jet lag, and perhaps due to just plain having one of those days all too familiar to us weekend hackers, just couldn’t get anything going on day one of stroke play. Alona would call for Amari to place the ball right. and Amari would go left. Alona would pull out their yardage book and call for a 92-yard pitch, and Amari would hit a 110 yard shot two clubs too strong. Needless to say, the day didn’t end well. Amari finished day 1 at T94, well outside of the Top 64 and ties in which pack one would need to be by the conclusion of day #2 in order to make it into the match play component of the tournament.
Well, well, well. You could hear a pin drop all night in the family’s hotel room for what seemed like an eternity. The silence was broken when Poppa Andre told the girls, just before putting them to bed, “We didn’t come all the way ‘cross country to turn right around and go back home. Amari, go get me your 7 iron and your 4 iron. Alona, go get your yardage book!” What followed was an impromptu in-room golf clinic for the ages. “What did Shigeki do down here?” he asked rhetorically, referring to PGA Tour standout, Shigeki Murayama, having shot a course record 58 on Woodmont Country Club’s South Course during a U.S. Open sectional qualifier back in in 2000.
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“How many times have we watched tapes of Tiger Woods winning the 2006 British Open at Hoylake without once touching his driver? Huh? How many times?!?!” After which, to keep the mood light, but also to show how conscious she is about the times in which we currently find ourselves, Amari broke out into song with her rendition of Trey Songz’s “How Many Times.” Amari – PLEASE keep your day job. 🙂
After waiting out day #2’s rain delay, only time and the second round of play would tell if Poppa Andre’s late-night clinic and love-fueled admonitions to his charges would be good enough to vault Amari, and the family’s ambitions, the seemingly impossible thirty spots from T94 into the Top 64, so as to get the TV time the girls so enthusiastically crave.
Almost as if to collectively say: “We gon’ show Pops!,” the dynamic duo put on a round of golf for the ages. Posting the only blemish-free card in the entire tournament field in round #2, Alona called the marks from her yardage book, and Amari hit each mark with the precision of a master surgeon and the finesse of a Misty Copeland.
“I need you to go 243 yards off the tee and I need the ball to come to rest with about an 18 to 20-yard roll, right before the start of that swale you see off in the distance, requested Alona —sounding like a Herman Mitchell or a Dolphus ‘Golf Ball’ Hull. Amari responded as if she was simply asked to take a sip of tea, pinkie extended, or some other such similar effortless activity. “I need a 93-yard pitch, but I need it to carom off of the side of the sloped green so we can roll back toward the stick.” requested Alona.
Channeling Batman with a “Biff!” “Bam!” “Boom!,” Amari complied again. And so went the rest of the round, leaving Amari with a 2 under par 70 at the conclusion of play, and safely into the Round of 64.
They would not be going home. At least not yet. By storming back from the brink of oblivion or, as Mike Tyson said after being stopped by Lennox Lewis, “bolivion,” she was now into the win-or-go-home match play component of the tournament that is identical in format to the all too familiar NCAA March Madness 64 team annual mega event.
As we wait with bated breath to see what Amari does in Round #2 of match play and, hopefully beyond, one need only look at the #1 highlight from the first round of match play in which Amari highlight reeled her way into the Round of 32 by holing out for eagle on the 428 yard par 4 14th.
I can get used to watching this. We all can in times like these.
The seemingly impending doom of Amari’s gloomy first round now seems like just another sunshiny day. Now y’all gon’ get ME to break out into song, and I REALLY don’t think you want that….Oh sunshiny day….
UPDATE: Avery was outsted in Round 32.
