May 6, 2021 | By Leland Hardy
Brentwood Country Club, Los Angeles, CA: It was pretty hard to tell from the shouts, fist pumps, and grins as wide as the nearby I-405 freeway who was more excited about qualifying for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open taking place at San Francisco’s Olympic Club one month from now, from June 3-6.
Yes, it was hard to tell who was most excited: the lady of the hour herself, Amari Avery, or her 14-year-old younger sister, Alona Avery–who is a budding golf superstar in her own right– or the girls’ proud parents, Andre and Maria.
Since the patent application for a golf excitement measurement tool has yet to be approved by the USPTO, we’ll have to assume that they were equally over the moon excited at Amari’s latest achievement.
At this past Monday’s U.S. Women’s Open qualifying tournament at Brentwood Country Club in Los Angeles Amari finished in a 3-way tie for first place alongside LPGA Tour player and former University of Colorado golf team MVP, Jenny Coleman, and 2018 NCAA National Champion and current LPGA Tour player, Haley Moore.
Amari won Low Amateur honors in the process, making history by shooting the lowest aggregate score ever shot by an African American amateur golfer in a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier.
Let me set the stage. Amari, who I’m guessing will soon join the ranks of those like Tiger, the late, great, Kobe, Jordan, Magic, Elvis, Pele, Venus, Serena, and a handful of others who need only be referenced with a single name, has been champing at the bit to play in the U.S. Women’s Open since, at the tender age of 10, she endeavored to break Lucy Li’s record as the youngest player ever to qualify for the tournament. That was not to be, as you’ll remember Lucy famously licking an ice cream cone during her first U.S. Open press conference in 2013.
When Amari was 13-years-old and had just come off of a record setting year as the 2016 Southern California Golf Association Toyota Tour Cup Champion, her U.S. Open qualification hopes were dashed yet again as she came up just a few strokes short of winning one of the two available qualifying slots at Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma, CA, not far from her Riverside, CA home base.
The following year, having broken or challenged even more age group and all-time records as a 14-year-old, including amassing the 2nd lowest aggregate score total in the 28 year history of the ANA Junior Inspiration en route to taking her celebratory Poppie’s Pond victory leap, Amari was locked, loaded, and ready to grab her ticket to the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open in Bedminster, NJ.
For the uninitiated, U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers are grueling tests of will, strength, and endurance consisting of back-to-back 18 hole rounds with scarcely a moment of respite for a bite to eat in between. With her father, Andre, on the bag doing his best Carl Jackson impersonation, Amari and he put on a veritable caddying and shotmaking clinic that was the stuff of legend.
The pair had a seldom seen rhythm in full effect as they barely had to utter a single word to one another, marking off distances to within mere inches with measured paces, glancing at their respective yardage books, nodding their heads, winking their eyes, and making hand signals that only two minds thinking exactly alike could possibly interpret or understand.
It worked. Amari was the outright leader after round one. But U.S. Open Qualifiers are two round events. The pair continued with iron play and golf course management that would be the envy of any pro on any tour. Notwithstanding Amari’s exemplary play, the Golf Gods had other ideas in mind.
Three of Amari’s putts in the final four holes came up literally a single ball revolution short of finding the bottom of the cup. Worse yet, the rival who had been nipping at Amari’s heels since the start of the tournament, Patty Tavatanakit, would sink the putts that angry blades of grass would not let Amari make. After waiting around the clubhouse for hours for the final scores to come in, hoping and praying that hers would hold up to earn her an invitation to New Jersey, Amari tasted the bitter pill of disappointment yet again by finishing just two shots out of the running, settling instead for “alternate” status. (the capital “A” in the legend below means “alternate.”
To give you a gauge of the quality of opposition Amari had to stare down as a 14 -year-old, Ms. Tavatanakit just won her first LPGA Tour event exactly one month and two days ago today, on April 4, 2021, and is the winner of the 2021 ANA Inspiration, a Major Championship.
Fast forward a bit. In 2019 Amari would become the youngest golfer ever and the first ever African American to win the California Women’s Amateur Championship. She would also become the youngest ever golfer and first ever African American to win the coveted Southern California Golf Association Women’s “Player of the Year” title.
It is said that we are the product of all that we have done and all that we have been. Fresh from her participation in the 2nd annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur last month, what Amari plans to do is play exceptionally well at The Olympic Club and be all that she can be for her sister, her family, and for the many young kids, especially kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, who look up to her and who want to emulate her by taking up the sport of golf.
When asked what she plans to do and what she wants to be, she was laser focused on the next tasks at hand. “I want to clean up the bogies on my score cards, I want to manage the Olympic Club course as best I can, I want to be the best I can be on and off the course, I want to thank Mr. Casey for his putting tips over the years, and I would love to hear that Tiger is on the mend so he can get back out there again,” she said with a steely resolve, referring to Brentwood Country Club Head Golf Professional, Patrick Casey.
Just under one more month left of waiting with bated breath…
